''Insect and Individual Silenced'' was the fourth album by Nurse With Wound. The album was recorded in 1981 with core member

Steven Stapleton Steven Peter Stapleton (born 3 February 1957) is an English musician who is best known as the only constant member of experimental improv outfit Nurse with Wound. He is often seen as one of the pioneers of the British industrial music scene, a ...

being joined by drummer Trevor Reidy and

J. G. Thirlwell James George Thirlwell (born 29 January 1960), also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus (band), Foetus, among other names, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for Juxtaposition, juxtaposing a variety o ...

of Foetus for the track "Absent Old Queen Underfoot". Reidy and Thirlwell worked in the same

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

store in London at the time and met Stapleton there. The album, however, is best known for Stapleton's long held disregard of its contents. He told

David Keenan David Keenan (born April 1971) is a Scottish writer and author of four novels. Career He used to run the Glasgow record shop, distribution company and record label Volcanic Tongue. Journalism His work for ''The Wire'' (who he wrote for from ...

that the album was ''"dreadful"'' and ''"a pile of shit"'', stating that ''"making that record was the worst mistake of my life"''. Keenan declares the record to be nowhere near as bad as Stapleton suggests but agrees that it is a less disciplined album than those immediately surrounding it. Stapleton also advised Keenan that he had burned the mastertapes. Stapleton initially pledged never to reissue the album and stated to Keenan that it would never be available on CD. However, he recanted this position in 2006 following two events detailed by Stapleton in the sleevenotes to the new edition. Matt Waldron (working under his usual moniker irr. app. (ext.)) created a reworked version of the album which he sent to Stapleton who, delighted by it, contacted Waldron. The two became good friends and Waldron has since collaborated with NWW both live and in the studio. Waldron's version was slated for release through World Serpent but this release was cancelled when World Serpent went out of business in 200

At present, only a small number of copies, handmade by Waldron, exist. Shortly after this, another friend of Stapleton,

Christoph Heemann Christoph Heemann (born 1964 in Aachen, West Germany) is a German musician. Heemann has recorded under his own name, with the tape music group H.N.A.S. (german: Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, meaning "No deer on the sofa" or "deer not on the sofa"), ...

, told him that Kevin Spencer of Robot Records (Heemann, Organum, The New Blockaders etc.) had created a digital remaster of the album from a vinyl copy for his own pleasure. When Stapelton heard this master, he found he was happy with the sound quality and that the album was not as bad as his memory had led him to believe. The album was therefore reissued in April 2007. The original LP release was pressed in an edition of 1000 with a small overrun of 10 copies coming in handmade sleeves. A cassette edition was issued at the same time. However, around 1987, the United Dairies catalogue began to describe this as a "remix"

Some sources declare that this edition is drastically reworke

If this is the case, then the exact date at which Stapleton destroyed the tapes may be moot. The cassette format is still available via U.S. label RRR under a licensing deal covering a number of early United Dairies cassette releases. A widely circulated "United Dairies" CD edition was a bootleg. The 2007 CD edition used the aforementioned remaster by Kevin Spencer and came as a standard CD in digipak covered with a plastic slipcase with Stapleton's sleevenote and a special edition with a framed and mounted insect in a box signed by Stapleto

When this went out of print, a new edition was prepared in 2010 that disposed of the plastic slipcase and added a newly prepared remix track, entitled "Tooth, Teeth, Milk, Teeth, Skin." In the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

, the album is dedicated to

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sulliva ...

. The dedication thus continues a tradition of Nurse With Wound releases being explicitly dedicated to, or otherwise inspired by earlier surreal or "weird" artists; the debut album '' Chance Meeting...'' had been dedicated to

Luigi Russolo Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an Italian Futurist painter, composer, builder of experimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifesto ''The Art of Noises'' (1913). He is often regarded as one of ...

, and the following album

Homotopy to Marie ''Homotopy to Marie'' is the fifth album by Nurse with Wound, released in 1982. Although Nurse with Wound had generated considerable interest across their preceding releases, Steven Stapleton has asserted to author David Keenan that ''Homotopy ...

was listed as being inspired by

Franz Kamin Franz Kamin (May 25, 1941 – April 11, 2010) was an American author, composer, poet, performance-installation artist, and pianist whose works explore structural principles derived from topology, general systems theory, Prosody (linguistics), pr ...

Track listing

Side one

# "Alvin's Funeral (The Milk Was Delivered in Black Bottles)" – 27:18

Side two

# "Absent Old Queen Underfoot" – 21:12 # "Mutilés de Guerre" – 6:53

References

*England's Hidden Reverse -

, SAF 2003 *Brainwashed.com - official NWW website - page for "Insect and Individual Silence

{{Authority control Nurse with Wound albums 1981 albums