Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly RADII column that looks at Chinese songs spanning hip hop to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.
Blasting your hearing canals this fine Friday with some harsh noise from unparalleled Shanghai gear-abuser Torturing Nurse. WHERE’S MY FUCKING JESUS is a collection of old, rare, out-of-print and hard-to-find material, just re-issued on CD by Australian hardcore/punk/noise label Innercity Uprising as the latest dispatch in their “13 releases in 13 weeks” series.
It marks Torturing Nurse’s *checks notes* 418th release in 15 years.
In addition to the title track, this compendium features other rare cuts from across the prolific noiser’s long career, showcasing the diversity of inputs he’s mangled over the years.
Opener “FORGET VIAGRA SEX” hearkens back to TN’s long-abandoned rock’n’roll background (before forming Torturing Nurse, founding/sole member Junky was drummer of groundbreaking Shanghai rock band Junkyard); track 4, “JUNKY PLAYS VINYL“, uses the word “plays” very liberally and brings back to those in-the-know pleasant memories of Junky absolutely destroying turntables at defunct Shanghai venues like Basement6 and Factory 54; track 8, “METAL WORLD“, is pretty much as advertised; and the 23-minute closer “BROADCAST AGAIN” is closest to what a Torturing Nurse set sounds like today, though they rarely last more than 5.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more, er, nuanced, but still pretty out there: Torturing Nurse also features on this 2019 compilation arranged by Beijing-based artist Yan Jun, immediately following a recording by the night-and-day more restrained and minimal Zhu Wenbo, who’s been busy opening up his apartment to a series of livestreamed improvisations via his wife Zhao Cong‘s “Practice” series.
Follow Junky/Torturing Nurse on Facebook or Twitter and bug him to do a quarantine livestream while you’re at it!
More Torturing Nurse:
