Album of the day: Sunn O))) Meets Nurse With Wound – The Iron Soul Of Nothing (LP)

Praise for Sunn O))) meets Nurse With Wound‘s The Iron Soul Of Nothing from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Back in 2007, Stephen O’Malley approached Nurse With Wound about reworking Sunn O)))’s 00Void, urging that Steven Stapleton push the sound of Sunn O))) towards the classic NWW sound of Soliloquy For Lilith.

The resulting ‘remix’ found its way onto the Daymare 2xCD version of that same record and stands as a fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of Sunn O))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is. While we had a handful of that Japanese release it’s hardly surprisingly that it went out print rather quickly.

Fortunately, O’Malley found another outlet for these recordings through his Ideologic Organ imprint of Editions Mego. Side A here features ‘Dysnystaxis’ – one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))).

Side C’s ‘Ash On The Trees’ is even more abstract, isolating vocals which had been previously obscured from the original recordings, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline; the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.

Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool, Goatsnake) was responsible for those vocals which occasionally drive the piece at points as a nasally croon entangled in the track’s gauzy gurgle then dipping into an effected, almost demonic howl. Side two of both lps split the 25 minute track ‘Ra At Dawn’ into two parts, with additional material thrown in for good measure.

Expect more of that gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of Sunn O))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir.

Pretty dang cool, even if it’s fairly far removed from the sound of the original; but then again, that’s sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we’re concerned.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, greg anderson, Ideologic Organ, nurse with wound, Stephen O'Malley, Steven Stapleton, sunn o))), Sunn O))) Meets Nurse With Wound, The Iron Soul Of Nothing

This entry was posted on Monday, December 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.