NWW

If Salvador Dali or Hans Bellmer, to name a few, wanted to achieve a surrealist sound painting, be certain they would kill for the talents of one and only Steven Stapleton.

Nurse With Wound's, err, 'music' works on equal terms in a strange cartoon-ish environment (where you'll very possibly find Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse on serious cocaine hook) or in an abstract bordello where fat women and ham win anorexic beauty contests. Of course, everything is covered in additional blood, milk, religion and honey - black and grey always included.

Albums' title-chosen phrases and cover art alone are worth possession of Nurse With Wound's material, but it's their incredibly absurd music that scores additionally to any listener. Stapleton's fascinations with surreal and esoteric provide a funny morbid canvas - it will either frustrate or fascinate. But there is one element that holds both parties in its grip; astonishing dark humour, hard to ignore, sometimes even harder to get.

Effective though, after giving it all, what we'd like to call - a 'proper listen'... or a proper laugh.