Torturing Nurse - AB Reviews

Torturing Nurse - AB (Stentorian Tapes #21)

Sparkle Girl picked up this lucky find at Electric Heavyland on Tuesday before the crowd picked up for the Dead Machines in-store.

Four only four dollars I had to take a chance. Being a former Nursing Staff Coordinator I'm sure I read and enjoy the title for more than a few reasons.

Titled simply AB. I must confess on the red tape with only the catalog number as ST initials I'm not sure which side is which but frankly at roughly ten minutes a side it didn't matter a lot to me.

One side contains a single track of blasting hard noise that seems to explode and shiver in a distinctive Japanese way. I'm not sure if TN are indeed Japanese but the this side is as good as any introduction to the magical alchemy Japanese noise artists seem to accomplish with some of the simplest of noise tools, distortion, overdriven mics and a sense of dynamics that I can't help but associate with some other Nipponese artists from Osaka and the Bears club scene.

The second side (I choose to call B) is another happy surprise. Starting again with traditional noise elements the piece slowly morphs and presents the listener with spoken tape snippets and collages, happy voices and and upbeat Japanese pop tune rounding things off at the end. What I enjoyed most about this side of Torturing Nurse is while dubbing the tape onto my PC I noticed enjoying the start of the piece and by the end thought I was listening to a new Sublime Frequencies release. Truly a fun and wierd track that keeps you on your toes for the duration.

This is the first Stentorian Tapes cassette I have bought and on the basis of the quality of the Torturing Nurse I will be searching out for more. Having been a member of the cassette underground for over half my 36 yrs it is always a treat to find new music such as this to take a chance on. Packaged in a red cassette shell with handwritten catalog info the tape boasts wonderful, colorful art on the Jcard and provides just enough info to inform and confuse in turn.

Check out Electric Heavyland in Wallingford sometime and see if they have a copy or look to the Stentorian Tapes site on myspace.com.
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As Sparkle Girl we strive for accuracy in our documentation in all its forms. After posting the Torturing Nurse review I recived a polite email from Stentorian Tapes thanking us for the review but mentioned that far from being Japanese, Torturing Nurse actually hail from Shangahi, China.

At first I was just going to make a few adjustments to the review but that then thought that would be a disservice to both TN and Stentorian Tapes.

Most hardcore music fans know that true mordern music from China is just now becoming available to Western audiences. To be honest I haven't been able to hear much of it but I do thing Torturing Nurse are the first example of contemporary Chinese Noise music I have heard. It is only fair to commend them for opening a new area to the noise scene in general and Stentorian Tapes for making this new music available here.

The elements that reminded me of Japanese noise music make more sense seeing as how Shanghai has always been an entrepot for world influences entering China. I'm not suggesting that Torturing Nurse are simply copyists of the Osaka type sound, infact far from it. Musician/writer Chris DeLaurenti once said, "I don't care what people say I consider this all music." What I am trying to get at is that noise music like any other genre has its distinctive sounds from a multitude of countries around the world and listening opens up the differences that exist from say, noise music from Japan and that of the Scandinavian countries.I would not say that TN are not mere imitators in any way. I would only think that in China probably the first noise they might have been exposed to was Japanese in style. I can only hope to hear more experimental noise music from China and see how it evolves from the short bursts Torturing Nurse have exposed me to.
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