Sprawling across more than 40 years of activity, few musical endeavours have been as influential and uncategorizable as Nurse With Wound. Founded as a trio in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, before becoming a solo vehicle for Stapleton’s maverick and creative mind during the the early 1980s, over the decades the project has produced well over a hundred full lengths and EPs, the vast majority of which, issued in relatively small editions, have remained long out of print, highly collectable, and difficult to find. While NWW has been remarkable in all of its many incarnations, few of their records have commanded the cult following of those made with the original line up of Stapleton, Fothergill, and Pathak, most notably the band’s 1979 debut, “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella”, originally self-issued on their own United Dairies, which, in addition to setting the world on end with its sounds, also included the first incarnation of their legendary Nurse With Wound list. Now, from Rotorelief, comes the long-awaited, fully-licensed and official vinyl reissue of this seminal artefact of the 1970 British underground. Truly incredible on every count, this newly edition remastered by Colin Potter is released in a deluxe metallic gatefold sleeve, containing the complete NWW list, is just about as essential as they come for any Nurse With Wound fan, or lovers of the historical industrial sound.

Nurse with Wound was, far and away, among the most singular projects to emerge during the late '70s in Britain; a moment that witnessed the ashes of punk’s first generation morph into radical new forms that often embraced the strategies of avant-garde and experimental music. Rooted in a surrealist ethos, while constantly pushing forward across a vast range of creative territory, the project utilised the approaches and attitudes of the avant-garde, in new forms of music that incorporates a countless number of influences that crossed their paths; cabaret, nursery rhymes, pop music, and krautrock, not to mention the wild and wonderful touchstones that made it onto the sprawling NWW list.

In its original incarnation of Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, Nurse with Wound only made two albums, 1979’s “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella”, and 1980’s “To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl”. These two records - incorporating radically experimental tactics - are generally regarded among the most important, foundational artefacts of the movement of industrial music that would spring from the British underground and spread like wildfire across the globe over the ensuing years. Despite the wide reaching influence of both, and particularly “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella” - making a full break with the past - nothing has ever sounded quite like them before or since.

“Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella”, now reissued in a beautiful, fully remastered deluxe vinyl edition by Rotorelief, is one of those visionary albums that might not have been. Prior to its inception, Steven Stapleton was working as a sign-writer at a independent recording studio in London. While completing the job, he fell into conversation with the studio’s engineer, Nick Rogers, who expressed frustration with the kinds of commercial work that studio focussed on, and that he would rather have been focusing his energies on more experimental projects. Seeing an opportunity, Stapleton fabricated a story about a band that he belonged to that fit the bill, lined up a recording session, and quickly had to call in his friends John Fothergill and Heman Pathak to make up the project, which would adopt the name Nurse With Wound, featuring Stapleton on percussion, Fothergill on guitar (with built-in ring modulator) and Pathak on organ (as well as the studio’s piano and synthesizer). Despite lacking a single rehearsal, the trio entered the studio and recorded the now legendary LP in six hours.

Comprising three long-form tracks “Two Mock Projections”, “The Six Buttons of Sex Appeal”, and  “Blank Capsules of Embroidered Cellophane” - that were edited into their final forms from real-time improvisations by the trio, with some overdubbing, “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella” is a wild ride from its first sounding to the last. While unquestionably rooted in the ethos and furious spirit of punk, in many ways the album has a greater connection to a countercultural music of the generation prior to them, notably the swirling dark jams of bands like Hawkwind, the weirdness of Comus, the radical experimental excursions of bands like The Cosmic Jokers, Amon Düül, and Guru Guru, and those many obscurities and less expected extension of the avant-garde that appeared on the accompanying NWW list, like Älgarnas Trädgård, AMM, Art Zoyd, Art Bears, and Red Crayola, among so many more. As such, the album stands as one of the most singular expressions of psychedelic experimental music of the era, and arguably has little to do with the larger body of industrial music to which it has historically been seen to belong.

At times feeling like it might come out of any number of European electronic music studios during the heady days of the 1960s - incorporating electronics, real-time processing, and musique concrète - while in others clearly belonging to the lineage of AMM, Musica Elettronica Viva, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, threaded writhing, druggy jams and the wild existential howls of punk, “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella” is easily among the most groundbreaking and important records to have ever emerged from the UK. Crafted with such clarity that it makes its brief period of creation seem completely impossible, no one should be without this gem. This brand new, deluxe and newly remastered edition by Colin Potter, released in a beautiful metallic gatefold sleeve, containing the complete NWW list - allowing new the newly indoctrinated and old to chase the breadcrumbs for themselves. It doesn’t get better than this. As with all things Nurse With Wound, it’s not going to sit around for long.