Introducing the Band – Torturing Nurse

November 9, 2005 at 10:40 pm · Filed under China

YAN Jun (website, blog), WU Quan, FM3, these might be the most active stage names in the thriving Chinese new music scene. They play everywhere in China, and have considerably extensive exposure in western countries. However, speaking of releases, the champion of the scene is Shanghai-based noise act “Torturing Nurse” (profile, blog).

As of Nov. 9, 2005, Torturing Nurse already has 4 albums, 3 split albums and 2 three-inches out, with a lot more on the way (check their complete discography here, with all the artworks). They keep in touch with various noise labels abroad, cordially putting out split CDRs with them, they contributed to the Koji Tano Tribute compilation too, I don’t see too many groups or individuals as prolific in China.

TN started as a quartet but had been morphing all along, right now the regular members are CAO Junjun (æ“?俊军，Junky), ZHANG Qun（张群, better known as Miriam or Xiao Shen）and FAN Qiang（范强）, with XU Cheng（å¾?程）as a frequent collaborator. It’s very difficult to trace every move of this conglomerate – just take a look at the Japanese scene and you’ll know what I mean: you just have all of them stand in one line, and walk along them blind-folded, picking several people out randomly – all done! A new group is born! (For instance, XU Cheng and Miriam has this group called Two Noughts.)

Of course, being prolific is not very difficult for a noise group, that’s “noise” in the sense of Merzbow, Incapacitant, Masonna, etc.: real, harsh noise, or “noise wall”, “noise carpet” if you prefer. TN’s music is rough, loud and visceral, it might be physically but never aesthetically challenging.

As most of the noise groups, TN must be experienced live in order to be fully appreciated. Junky’s outfit is nothing special except for that ever-changing mask: usually it’s just a fox or sth, but I’ve witnessed one of the live performances in which he put on a cardboard mask on which there is a hand-painted face of SUN Mengjin（孙孟晋）, a veteran music critic in Shanghai. This sort of reference is always amusing for those who knows.

It’s exciting to see the masked Junky twisting, screaming and jumping around on stage, or simply crouching towards some who-knows-who-cares electronics, but wait till you see the charming and deliberately flirty Miriam in her nurse outfit! (hence the name of the group.) Sonically what she does is merely Ami Yoshida-ish voice acrobatics, but she’s a must-have member of a group with consistent “straightforward” sound like TN. And listen to what she said about how she got into this kind of group and her attitude towards it: “how awful it is to listen to noise music! But it’s better to be a first-hand smoker than a second-hand one, so, what the hell!” (Disclosure: FAN Qiang, the “silent” long-standing member of TN, is Miriam’s boyfriend.)

Availability: To purchase any of the TN releases, please contact Junky at Junkyyy at hotmail dot com.

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