RECORD TURNOVER 80s HITS #103
From Nursery to Misery was on obscure trio of the UK’s 80s DIY scene. Often referred to as ‘mail art’ – these bands and musicians shared tapes via mail and also had a lot of correspondence with like-minded people. As twins Gina and Tina Fear explain in Matthew Reed’s heartfelt documentary from 2016, they used to get letters daily from fans and peers. Apart from the twins the group also included musician Lee Stevens who recorded almost all of their output in his home in Essex, where he lived with his parents.
From Nursery to Misery put out two self-released tapes at the end of the 80s after getting together in 1987. In way their music is a mirror image of él Records’ lush, maximalist sound in its equally dark minimalism. Just listen to “The Daily Raper” on the brand new compilation Tree Spirits that came out on Dark Entries a week ago.
The 11-track LP is a follow-up to the first From Nursery to Misery LP that the label created in 2017. Just like Pixies In the Woods, this one is a mixture of tracks from their cassette albums and the many compilation tapes they contributed to. There’s also a video for “Spawning Beds” – a track taken from a 1990 split-tape with Nostalgie Eternelle. Two of the tracks are actually unreleased: the beautiful “My Life In Shatters” and eerie “Aeroplanes”. The latter sounds like it could have been recorded in 2021.
