Nurse With Wound
(Jnana)
The curse of any artist that is as prolific as Steve Stapleton, the brain trust behind the ever-evolving group Nurse With Wound, is the lack of both stylistic and artistic consistency. Throughout Stapleton's 30-year career as a musician, his albums and remix work have bounced from proto-industrial madness to pure noise to a rumored hip-hop due out this year, and the results, too, have fallen all over the map in terms of quality.
Huffin' Rag Blues finds Stapleton (here augmented by a variety of instrumentalists and singers) in a quite playful mood, paying tribute to the mid-'60s heyday of exotica artists like Les Baxter and Arthur Lyman. Considering the seriousness with which he seems to take his more strident compositions, it is nice to hear Stapleton cut loose here, with gently swinging tracks like "Groove Grease (Hot Catz)" and "Thrill of Romance...?" leading us on his merry way.
Like his discography, though, Stapleton refuses to let a consistent mood be the order of the day, infusing Huffin' Rag with a pair of overly lengthy tracks that slow the album down for 14 minutes at a stretch. If his intent was to capture the rising and falling spirit of the album's titular high, his gambit came off perfectly. Under a different name, though, this album would hardly smell as intoxicating.
Standout Tracks: "Ketamineophonia," "Cruisin' For A Brusin'" ROBERT HAM
