[2009] Nurse With Wound - Space Music

Latest proper NWW release (aside from some compilations made during last year), this one was commisioned by an observatory, the Melbourne Planetarium, for an anual series called Science in The Dark (more info about it here). Apparently, 2009 was a year for drone/dark ambient music (here's the pdf file of that year's edition, check it out), and Nurse With Wound delivered what I can only consider as a frigtening void from deep space. It has violent parts, in which you can almost imagine asteroids crashing against a spaceship, while it drifts away further from the galaxy. It's really unnerving at some points, it's a way to experience the cold void of the space at home. Seriously recommended.
(Also, supposedly it has "subliminal effects". Beware.)

Download it here: [V0]

[2005] Nurse With Wound - Shipwreck Radio Volume Two: Eight Enigmatic Episodes From Utvær

This is the second session of radio transmissions from the Lofoten Islands (as referenced in here), 8 out of 24, the third one of those is Lofoten Deadhead, finishing the whole set of transmissions. This one is more dark ambient than Seven Sonic Structures, focused more on the textures than anything else; if anything it's less offputting for a casual listener, although it retains the 2xCD format and the lenghty tracks that often characterize this group.

Download it here: [256: Part 01 Part 02][V0]

[1986] Nurse With Wound - Spiral Insana

My favorite NWW release of all times, Spiral Insana is also one of their most well-known releases, along with Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella and Homotopy To Marie, both trademarks of this particular sound. Spiral Insana, like its name implies, is a trip inside the human psyche, cycling and exploring motifs within the same album and other recordings from the past (some are featured later in A Sucked Orange). It's best described as "the soundtrack of a Lynch movie", it goes from pure dark ambient sections to ragtime to pure industrial sounds, all in a whim, in fact the very beginning sounds like some of the dark ambient sections Lynch would perform for his project Rabbits, hopefully some of you may hear it. It also features one of the most frightening transitions between track and track, creating a feeling of tension every time it switches. It's one of the reasons why I ended up enjoying brass sounds so much, the powerful, epic sound it evokes can be uplifting and utterly depressing at the same time.

Download it here: [V0]

[2004] Nurse With Wound - Shipwreck Radio Volume One: Seven Sonic Structures From Utvær

This is the first post of the whole Nurse With Wound discography (or at least selected works) that I'm going to share in this blog. I'll group them on a single post in the future, most likely.

Here we have it, the album from which the blog takes its name, Shipwreck Radio Volume One: Seven Sonic Structures From Utvær. This album according to the linear notes, was part of a series of broadcasts made from the Artic Lofoten Islands (7 out of 24) which are located on the northern side of Norway. It sort of makes sense why it references Utvær seeing as the latter is located to the northwestern side of the country, so it was basically a pole-to-pole transmission. Now regarding the music, we have here one of the most interesting NWW works to date. Most of the songs, in the same way Spiral Insana closed every segment with a certain sound in crescendo, every segment of this 2xCD album begins with a short, distorted radio advertising which welcomes the listener to the lands of Utvær, in the most bizarre way Stapleton could craft. You can hear most of the sound collage that made the project popular, arranged in a very interesting way (some transitions are just incredible), and it all makes for a great, compelling listen. It's not what I'd recommend to a first listener, but it's certainly something that needs more attention.

Download it here: [320: Part 01 Part 02][V0]

[2008] DeathCrawl - The End Is Not Near Enough

A relatively new band coming from the Ohio underground, part of the same lineage that made possible bands and projects such as King Travolta, Fistula and Son of Jor-El, this band definitely delivers an angry dose of gritty sludge, same as its predecessors. This 11-song debut, The End Is Not Near Enough, is already a solid release well-rooted into the sludge we're used to from the previously mentioned bands, with a slower, more melodic take, which is further expanded on their recently released EP, This Is The Way The World Ends....
Download it here: [V2][320]

You can purchase their LP and their new EP directly on their official Myspace:
Official Myspace

[2009] Aluk Todolo - Finsternis

Formed by members of Diamatregon, Aluk Todolo is a strange beast. Mixing some of the occult, dark aesthetics of black metal with the krautrock present in Faust and This Heat to create a chaotic dense atmosphere  in which the only grounding element is the syncopated drumming and whirling feedback coming and going. Aside from that, it's hard to describe; this is one of these bands capable of creating a timeless sonic experience, making it easy to completely forget about how long (or short) it actually is. In some circles it's considered as "black metal" but in reality I see this more as an alternative for fans of bands like This Heat or Camberwell Now, constantly craving for similar sounding music, inspiring the best post-punk/krautrock ever created.
Play it loud!
Download it here: [V0] Updated!

Buy it directly from Utech Records here.

Welcome to Utvær!

Finally, after many, many months of not using blogs nor writing any new stuff, I've finally decided to start over, I was kind of missing the old habit. So anyway, welcome, future readers. I might run this blog by myself, but I don't discard the possibility of having one or two collaborators. I don't like having to take care of a lot of people at once, and seeing as the subjects being dealt with in this blog are more of a personal choice than anything else, I'm not expecting a big crew. I'll try to post at least twice a week, a good bulk of updates along with upcoming shows and reviews, if I ever get lazy, drop me a message via last.fm.
Also, if you noticed the small blurb to the right, I'll be taking requests on the genres I've loosely specified, mostly rare stuff you can't find anywhere easily. I started doing it to fight boredom years ago, but I realized I'm good at it and people looked forward to my findings, I'll focus on that.

So that's it, a short introductory post, hope you like the content. Oh, and I apologize beforehand for the lengthy posts you might see around here, I can't help myself sometimes.