7.08.2008

Transparent (1984...a) [Zos Kia/Coil...CD]























01 Sicktone [Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983]
02 Baptism Of Fire [Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983]
03 Rape [Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983]
04 Poisons [Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983]
05 Truth [Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983]
06 Sewn Open [Coil/Zos Kia][Rehersal 5.X.1983]
07 Silence & Secrecy (Section)[Coil/Zos Kia][Live At Magenta Club, London 5.VIII.1983]
08 Here To Here (Double Headed Secret)[Coil/Zos Kia]
09 Stealing The Words [Coil/Zos Kia][3.VIII.82]
10 On Balance [Coil/Zos Kia][5.V.82]

Notes...

The first five tracks ("Sicktone" to "Truth") form Side 1 of the cassette version, which is labelled "Zos Kia. Berlin Atonal. 3.XII.1983". The remainder of the tracks form Side 2, which is credited to "Coil/Zos Kia", and were recorded in 1982/83. The line-up of Coil and Zos Kia were basically identical at this time:

John Balance
Joan D'Arc [John Gosling]
Min
Peter Christopherson

CD version: "Rape" is the same as "Violation" from the cassette release. "Silence & Secrecy" is shorter than the version on the cassette.

The dates listed for "Sewn Open" and "Silence & Secrecy" are incorrect. They should be 5.X.1983 and 5.VIII.1983 respectively (corrected).

The disc is packaged in a mini LP style cardboard slipcase, and includes a booklet with photos from Coil/Zos Kia performances, text of a Coil Manifesto written by John Balance in 1983, and a transcript of a coversation between John Balance and Peter Christopherson regarding the Coil/Zos Kia performances and recordings.

Reviews...

This is a historical tome in the Coil discography that the pioneering U.K. industrial group released as a cassette-only album on Nekrophile Records. Performances of early Coil as a harsh industrial noise/performance art group are captured in various live settings during 1983, including Berlin and London concerts, as well as studio/rehearsal room sessions that predate the Coil of the legendary 1984 album Scatology, which subsequently became a massively influential recording in the post-industrial movement. Here are the earliest Coil recordings, exhibiting the band as it develops a fierce noise music that later became some of the most poetic and elegiac of the era. Whether reshaping electro, new wave, hyper-minimalism, or futuristic folk, Coil remained one of the most vital groups of the '80s post-punk movement. For fans of the group, this early archival material is essential listening. The disc is packaged in a mini-LP-style cardboard slipcase, and includes a booklet with photos from Coil/Zos Kia performances. A text of the Coil manifesto penned by John Balance and a transcription of a conversation between founders Balance and Peter Christopherson are included in the booklet. Newcomers to the group are advised to explore first the albums Scatology, Horse Rotorvator, and Love's Secret Domain, though Coil fans and collectors will not be disappointed by this obscurity. Transparent provides a much-needed insight into the very early work of the extraordinary industrial music institution. - Skip Jansen...From Allmusic

Discussion...

* DLK says:

My first impression was in the store before I even heard the CD. I don't like the cardboard CD single type packaging. The first thing I'll need to do is find a jewel case for it. I hope it's not an indication of things to come.

Upon listening: Since I prefer early (pre-LSD) Coil albums over the more recent ones, I like the noisy/rough nature of the tracks on this CD. There's lots of noise and screaming so it's probably not for everyone though. Also, the hiss level makes it sound like they may have used one of the original 1984 cassettes for the CD master.

There is a nice booklet inside which explains the pieces and has pictures of the events they were recorded at as well as the posters for those events. It also includes "The Coil Manefesto" circa 1983. It was interesting to see how much of the text of the manifesto eventually made it's way into the lyrics of later songs.

This disc is important for it's historical documentation of that period of Coil's history, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone except completionist/rabid/insatible fans. If there are any other Coil albums that you don't already have, you should probably get them first before this one.

* John Deek says:

WARNING : Do not listen to Rape on headphones with the volume turned up loud.....I was listening to this CD on headphones.. track 3 came along and I said "ooh a live version of 'here to here'...I wonder why they call it 'rape'?"...then Min came in with some spoken word and I said "ah that explains...still a pretty harsh name for such a mellow song...."just then the phone rang, and a split second after I took the headphones off a pierching shriek ripped from the headphones...they were nearly a foot away from my ears and I was still deafened...had I been wearing them my ears would probably be bleeding...deafened in the pursuit of ultimate sound.....how ironic..."

Images...

frontcover
bookletimage 1
bookletimage 2
bookletimage 3
bookletimage 4
bookletimage 5

How to Destroy Angels (1984...b) [Coil...12'']























01 How to Destroy Angels
02 Absolute Elsewhere

Notes...

This release is subtitled "ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy".

"How To Destroy Angels" was originally intended to be the b-side to the track "Silence & Secrecy" on a clear vinyl 12" released by Temple Records. This release was aborted, presumably due to Balance and Sleazy's departure from Psychic TV who ran the Temple label.

The b-side, "Absolute Elsewhere", is intended to be non-playable, and according to Coil:

* first pressing had unplayable noise-filled grooves
* second pressing had playable multi-layered music
* third pressing had a smooth, grooveless surface as originally intended.

However, there's also evidence of two other versions existing (perhaps the 1988 edition?):

* playable b-side with a constant tone for around 15 minutes.
* playable b-side with a series of "test tones" in unconnected locked grooves

A pink vinyl edition exists, although it's unclear how many copies of this edition were pressed. This may be a bootleg.

First pressing included an A3 black & white poster.

This track also appears on the Unnatural History anthology in mono form, and various reworkings of the track appear on the How to Destroy Angels (Remixes And Re-Recordings) CD.

Review...

Here we have the very first Coil oil change. The engine in question would be the pop culture of the early '80s and how performances such as this, basically an extended duet for percussion and electronics, were perceived as inspirational and cutting edge. The moody trance this piece immediately evokes and clings to like a life raft was, to the newly exposed, something of a real alternative to drowning in a wave of groovy rock bands with packaged presentations and looks. Removed from any such sociological discussion and placed in comparison with the entire history of electronic music, percussion music, avant-garde improvisation, or any other related field of activity, this EP retains a surprising charm. An obvious hurdle to leap would be the "duh" factor -- the title track is as much about banging on gongs as destroying angels, although these are actions that could be connected. Anyone who has ever spent time making noise on a gong will have done everything on this record. The contrasts arising instantly from the instrument's built-in dynamic range are the main motivating factor in how the music develops, rather than any creative invention of the performers. The performance requirements of bringing these dynamics into play on a gong also require very little skill of any kind, meaning that most of the praise that can be directed at this recording has to do with the concentration displayed, both intense and impressive. The B-side of the recording is blank, creating an instant and quick composition entitled "Absolute Elsewhere" that might just be the more successful conception of the two. At least the person who said "I don't have time to listen to this stuff anymore" about the first side wouldn't be able to make the same comment!. - Eugene Chadbourne...From Allmusic

Images...

front cover
close-up of cover text
labels: side 1, side 2

7.07.2008

Dolbied (The Melancholy Mad Tenant) [This Version Was Reissued & Expanded In 2005] (1984...c) [Coil/The New Blockaders/Vortex Campaign...CD]






















01 Coil / The New Blockaders / Vortex Campaign, "Dolbied 1"
02 Coil / The New Blockaders / Vortex Campaign, "Dolbied 2"
03 Vortex Campaign, "Untitled"
04 Vortex Campaign, "The Melancholy Mad Tenant Part 1"
05 Vortex Campaign, "The Melancholy Mad Tenant Part 2"

Notes...

Track 1 and 2 originally released on the "Dolbied" cassette (VC, Belgium 1984) in an edition of 50.
Track 3 originally released on the "Slaughter Of The Innocent" cassette (Private, UK 1983). Track 4 is previously unreleased.
Track 5 is listed as previously unreleased on the cover, but was previously released, in a slightly shorter version, on the "Slaughter Of The Innocent" cassette (Private, UK 1983).
Edition of 500, including a special cloth bag edition of 100.

Nightmare Culture (1984...d) [Sickness of Snakes/Current 93...12'']























01 Killy Kill Killy (A Fire Sermon)[Current 93]
02 Various Hands [Sickness Of Snakes]
03 The Swelling of Leeches [Sickness Of Snakes]
04 The Pope Held Upside Down [Sickness Of Snakes]

Notes...

Sickness Of Snakes Is John Balance & Peter Christopherson + Boyd Rice

Sickness Of Snakes's Songs appear also in Unnatural History (Compilation Tracks Compiled)

Scatology [This Version Was Reissued In 2001] (1984...e) [Coil...CD]























01 Ubu Noir
02 Panic
03 At The Heart Of It All
04 Tenderness Of Wolves
05 The Spoiler (Unreleased Alternative Version)
06 Clap
07 Restless Day
08 Aqua Regis
09 Solar Lodge
10 The S.W.B.P.
11 Godhead=Deathead
12 Cathedral In Flames
13 Tainted Love [Soft Cell]

Notes...

The working title for this album was Poisons, and John Balance originally intended to release it on his own Hearsay And Heresy label.

The track "The Sewage Worker's Birthday Party" was originally intended for release as a single-sided flexidisk to be included with an issue an Italian magazine called "Free". This release never took place.

"Restless Day" is taken from the compilation album Devastate to Liberate. "Aqua Regis" and "Tainted Love" are taken from the Panic/Tainted Love single.

"The S.W.B.P." is the same track as "The Sewage Worker's Birthday Party" from the LP release.

Remastered by Thighpaulsandra, and fully authorized by Coil.

It features a different cover from the Some Bizzare edition, with the text "Stevo, Pay Us What You Owe Us!" printed on the cover and spine, in reference to the fact that Stevo at Some Bizzare has not paid them for the many CD reissues he has released. The cover also states that this is Volume 1 in a series of remastered reissues, with Volume 2 being Horse Rotorvator and Volume 3 being Love's Secret Domain. The spine mistakenly has it printed as Volume 2.

Review...

Coil's first official full-length album, Scatology, is one of the essential landmarks in the group's discography and, moreover, one of the '80s industrial scene's more vital and influential recordings. This is the first part of the essential Coil trilogy that also includes Horse Rotorvator and Love's Secret Domain. The 1984 album exhibits the group at its early industrial stage, in transition to the undefined genre of astral noise psychedelia that Coil would inhabit for the following decades without peer or precedent. The core duo of Peter Christopherson and John Balance are joined by Clint Ruin (aka Jim Thirlwell), whose role in the production cannot be underestimated, as well as Stephen E. Thrower, Throbbing Gristle's Alex Ferguson, vocalist Gavin Friday of the Wolfgang Press, and one Raoul Revere (who is in fact British camp pop legend and Soft Cell vocalist Marc Almond). "Restless Day" is a haunting rumination that defies description, other than being an utterly essential self-defining moment in the Coil paradigm, with an atmosphere hanging in the tense space between harsh noise and harmony that apparently causes time to cease. "The Tenderness of Wolves" features the vocals of Friday in one of the more poetic moments of the '80s post-industrial sound. At the album's somber end, this outstanding work finishes with a rendition of "Tainted Love" featuring Almond, who had made the track a new wave hit with Soft Cell. Here, however, the tune is given a bleak slow-motion version that could be read as a tragically suggestive commentary on the AIDS epidemic of the era. The album was originally released on Force & Form/Some Bizzare, and was the subject of numerous bootlegs and illegitimate versions. For the record, the 2001 version on Threshold House/ World Serpent is the only version authorized by the group. Maybe the numerous LP and CD versions that have appeared since its original release are suggestive of just how vital the album is, not only in the Coil discography but to the industrial electronica scene as a whole. Scatology is nothing short of essential. - Skip Jansen...From Allmusic

Discussion...

* In his "Coil Album Guide", Dave Piniella writes:

Coil's first full-length album, Scatology is part of the backbone of Coil's great albums (along with Horse Rotorvator and Love's Secret Domain). This is Coil at their early, industrial stage. The album is about making good music from shitty sounds, hence the title. Most of the songs are harsher and less polished than more recent releases. "Restless Day" and it's description of a mundane life filled with ennui is accented by strange tickings and a throbbing bass. "The Tenderness of Wolves" features vocals by Gavin Friday and the album ends with a somber rendition of "Tainted Love", which was originally released as a single with two album cuts ("Aqua Regis" and "Panic") was later added to the CD reissue. Coil's cover and subsequent video of "Tainted Love" was their reaction to the AIDS epidemic of the era (mid-to-late 1980's). Originally released on Force & Form/Some Bizzare, (along with Horse Rotorvator), the illegitimate repressing of these albums has been the cause of much anger and frustration on Coil's part. The short version: Stevo (from their old label) kept on releasing the album(s) and screwing Coil out of their share of the profits.

Images...

front cover
back cover
tray card
disc

Panic/Tainted Love (1985) [Coil...CD EP]











































01 Aqua Regis
02 Panic (Remix)
03 Tainted Love [Soft Cell]

Notes...

"Panic" is different from the version on Scatology. This version also appears on the Unatural History III anthology release.

"Aqua Regis" and "Tainted Love" also appear on the CD editions of Scatology.

All profits from the sale of this release were donated to the Terrence Higgins Trust AIDS charity.

Review...

Coil had only been around a couple of years by the time the material on this EP was considered of interest for an American pressing courtesy of Wax Trax. A comparison between this and the previously released How to Destroy Angels EP is like the difference in view between a basement apartment with no windows and a balcony panorama of an entire neighborhood -- although in the latter case it might be located in a city such as Houston, TX, in which there is no such thing as zoning and people just do whatever they want. It is part of the appeal of this set of three tracks that such disparate elements come into the mix, some of them expected and some of them not. Dreary, depressed vocals and purloined drum and keyboard beats of noxious simplicity are associated with this musical style and era, but a player such as acoustic bassist Bill McGee adds something special. "Panic" is a performance that is full of the stimulating joy of collaboration, factors assuming varying relationships of importance as if someone had the courage to make a sandwich with his eyes closed. Several decades later a listener can pick out accomplishments that were imitated literally to death as well as details too idiosyncatic or original to pass into general useage. The much-heralded cover version of the Soft Cell hit "Tainted Love" is pretty boring, unfortunately. - Eugene Chadbourne...From Allmusic

7.04.2008

The Anal Staircase (1986...a) [Coil...12'']























01 The Anal Staircase (A Dionysian Remix)
02 Blood From The Air
03 Ravenous

Notes...

Some copies came with a card advertising the upcoming release of Horse Rotorvator. Some copies came with an insert advertising the Hang Loose With Coil fanzine published by R&D Group 28.

"The Anal Staircase (A Dionysian Remix)" also appears on the cassette edition of Horse Rotorvator.
"Blood From the Air" also appears on Horse Rotorvator.
"Ravenous" also appears on the cassette and CD editions of Horse Rotorvator.

Record Vox, the label which released Horse Rotorvator in Germany, distributed this release as well. The record is identical to the UK edition, they just imported copies and put a Record Vox address sticker on the back cover.

Images...

front cover
labels: side one, side two
Horse Rotorvator card insert
Hang Loose With Coil insert - art side
Hang Loose With Coil insert - text side

7.03.2008

Horse Rotorvator [This Version Was Reissued In 2001] (1986...b) [Coil...CD]























01 The Anal Staircase
02 Slur
03 Babylero
04 Ostia (The Death Of Pasolini)
05 Herald
06 Penetralia
07 Ravenous
08 Circles Of Mania
09 Blood From The Air
10 Who By Fire [Leonard Cohen]
11 The Golden Section
12 The First Five Minutes After Death

Notes...

Remastered by Thighpaulsandra in 2001, and fully authorized by Coil.

It features a different cover from the Some Bizzare edition, with the text "Stevo, Pay Us What You Owe Us!" printed on the cover and spine, in reference to the fact that Stevo at Some Bizzare has not paid them for the many CD reissues he has released. The cover also states that this is Volume 2 in a series of remastered reissues, with Volume 1 being Scatology and Volume 3 being Love's Secret Domain.

Review...

The title Horse Rotorvator is explained in the liner notes as a device large enough to "plough up the waiting world," created from the bones of the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Bay City Rollers this isn't. On the group's second full album, Coil continue the refinement of brute noise and creepily serene arrangements into a truly modern psychedelia, from tribal drumming and death march guitars to disturbing samples and marching band samples and back. Balance shares the same haggard, mystic vocal delivery common to fellow explorers of the edge like David Tibet and Edward Ka-Spel, but he has his own blasted and burnt touch to it all. His lyrical subjects range from emotional extremism of many kinds to blunt, often homoerotic imagery (matched at points in the artwork and packaging) and meditations on death. As a result the cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire" isn't as surprising as one might think. Past guest Marc Almond appears again on the track with backing vocals, as well as adding them to "Slur," which is composed of an unsettling mix of harmonica, bells, percussion and whatever else can be imagined. Other guests include Almond's then-musical partner Billy McGee, adding a haunting, sometimes grating, string arrangement to "Ostia," which is about the murder of radical Italian filmmaker Pasolini, and Clint Ruin, aka Foetus, adding his typically warped brass touches to "Circles of Mania." Paul Vaughan narrates the lyrics on "The Golden Section," creating a stunning piece that in its combination of demonic imagery and sweeping, cinematic arrangements holds a common ground with In the Nursery. All the guests help contribute to the album's overall effect, but this is Coil's own vision above all else, eschewing easy cliches on all fronts to create unnerving, never easily digested invocations of musical power. - Ned Raggett...From Allmusic

Discussion...

* In his "Coil Album Guide", Dave Pinella writes:

Coil’s second full-length continues in the industrial vein as evidenced by the opener "The Anal Staircase," which was originally released as a 12" in a different mix. The album is full of the excesses of Roman times, full of sex, horns, drugs and death. Aside from the military motif, the album also brings to the forefront the music’s homoeroticism, with tracks like "The Anal Staircase" "Slur" and "Penetralia" all stressing the point. "Ostia (The Death Of Pasolini)" is the album’s centerpiece, with soothing insect-like percussion and strings over a plaintive vocal by Balance. Like Scatology, the album features a cover (this time it’s a totally sick, drastically reworked version of Leonard Cohen’s "Who By Fire") as well as problems with Stevo over the money from the reissue(s) of it.

* Mark Coleman says:

The song "Ostia" is about the death of Pier Pasolini, an Italian filmmaker. The only Pasolini I have seen is "Salo: 120 Days in Sodom," his adaptation of Sade's libertine classic set in the days of the Italian Fascists. It is an excellent work, even though it features graphic coprophagia (shit eating) and child sex. Apparently (correct me if I err, I probably will) Pasolini had finished filming "120 Days" and picked up a boy prostitute and took him to his coastal villa in Ostia on the Italian Coast. The prostitute (an Italian government agent I've heard) ran Pasolini over in his own BMW and left him dead in a ditch. This is as much as I know, but the crickets at the beginning were recorded at the Aztec Ruins of Chichen Itza (sp?) where Aztec priests made human sacrifices. I could also be wrong about Aztec, it could have been Mayan.

* Nisus submits:

Aside from your general moral issues, he was rather straightforward in his political attacks against the system in essays and articles he wrote. But as I understand it, the thing that really brought up the possibility of there being more to his murder than it seemed was inconsistency in the story of the boy who supposedly committed it coupled with statements made by other "hustlers" regarding another car following them with four men in it. There is an interesting documentary about Pasolini's death called "Whoever Says The Truth Shall Die" if anyone wishes to pursue the matter, and it is also discussed a bit in Enzo Siciliano's biography of Pasolini.

* In reference to the lyrics of Ostia, Matt Bartels says:

This is from Judges chapter 14, vs. 14.: And he said unto them: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.

It is from the the story of Samson. He had killed this lion on his way to meeting his soon to be first wife, Timnath the Philistine. After hitting it off with her, passed the lion's carcass on the way home and found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass. Samson eats the honey and gives it to his family to eat without men-tioning its source....

Later his family is throwing a feast for Timnath and 30 of her Philistine friends and Samson poses the lines in question as a riddle, telling them if they figure it out he'll give them 30 sheets and 30 garments. and if not vice versa. Samson's wife begs the answer out of him and tells her 30 friends. Samson is pissed that he lost, and his response is first to say "If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle". Then 'the spirit of the Lord came upon him' and he went out and killed 30 people to take their sheets and garments to pay off his debt.

So, is the idea here the parallel of betrayal by their lovers suffered by both Pasolini and Samson, or is it elsewhere? The golden sticky trickles seem to also stand on their own with nice multiple meanings....

Lyrics...

The Anal Staircase

And the angels kiss
Our souls in bliss
Measure the extent of a dizzying descent
Down the Anal staircase.
Put just one foot on the staircase
And the next step you're down here
On this face.
And the rapids
Of my heart
Will tear your
ship of love apart
And we'll
End up wrecked
We'll end up
at the start
Of the Anal Staircase.

And the angels kiss
Our souls in bliss
Measure the extent of a dizzying descent
Down the
Anal staircase.
Take a hollowpoint revolver
Shoot down the rapids
Of your heart
Blow the fucking
Thing apart
Blow the fucking
Thing apart.
One step
Two step
Three step
Four Step.

Slur

Roman land
Of Roman sands
And Roman sons.
As I watch the sun sink down
On the bloodred edge
Of the bloodred town
There are shadows for sale
On the edge of town
At the edge of the night
Is a darkness seen
From the side of the light
(From the side of the night).
And the winds blow round
this sleeping town
This sleeping town
This Roman land
Of Roman sands
And Roman sons.
And it seems to me
That when I close my eyes
All the lights in the world
Go out
And the night passes by
And you whisper to me
A thousand lies
I stare in surprise
Towards the desert's warm black
And the desert stirs
And the desert stares back
With a thousand eyes
Piercing eyes
Ancient eyes
And I ask my lover
"Do you know
Where the desert roses bloom and grow?"

Ostia (the Death of Pasolini)

There 's honey in the hollows
And the contours
of the body
A sluggish golden river
A sickly golden trickle
A golden, sticky trickle
You can hear
the bones humming
And the car reverses over
The body in the basin
In the shallow sea-plane basin.
And the car reverses over
And his body rolls over
Crushed from the shoulder
You can hear the
Bones humming
Singing like a puncture
Killed to keep
the world turning
Throw his bones over
The White Cliffs
of Dover
Into the sea
The Sea of Rome
And the bloodstained
coast
Of Ostia
Leon like a lion
Sleeping in
the sunshine.
Lion lies down.
"Out of the strong
Came forth sweetness."
Throw his bones over
The White Cliffs
of Dover
And murder me
In Ostia.
The Sea of Rome.
You can hear his bones humming.
Throw his bones over
The White Cliffs
of Dover
And into the sea
The Sea of Rome
Then murder me,
In Ostia.

Circles of Mania

Nero's long hot tongue
Nero's long hot
tongue licks....
This is the sound
Of the world
turning round
The underground
sound
This is the sound of the w
orld turning round
The world
spinning round.
You get eaten alive
By the perfect lover.
I fell in
to a burning ring
A burning ring of
knives
And the knives
slide in
They slide deep
into my skin
And they open me
so wide
That you stick your
head inside
You get sewn
inside alive
You get eaten alive
By the perfect lover
When you've
swallowed one
You just
swallow another
To drive away
this hunger
You stay in
there forever
Caught in the centre
Of a circle of manias
Chemical Angel
Enters arena
Toro D'Or
falls to the floor
Fucking the ground
The hole in the ground
And hot wires sing
Deep in my skin
I'm writhing...
perspiring...
Like Dutch Schultz at
106 degrees...
And I wake up licking
I wake up licking the
bedsheets clean
Licking and
sucking........

Blood from the Air

A sleeping explorer
his wandering mind
crossed over the border
a mind like a cemetery
where the corpses
are turning
where the bodies
twist deep
in the frozen grip
of a dreamless sleep
then the lowest
comes up
like a wreck
from the depths.
He hears night calling
and has dreams
of waking
here in this brightness
that burns like
slow lightening
he sees words
burnt in ice
reads, "The World is
a Wound
In the Body of Christ".
Effects of the animal -
Animal sound effects
He says, "Death,
he is my friend
He promised me
a quick end".
Says, "The world is
in pain
and should be
put down
and God is a sadist
and that he knows it".
The depths of the
night sky
reflects in his eye
He says,
"Everything changes
And everyone dies".
And the night
slits her veins
and the
darkness drains
and the void
rumbles in
like an
underground train...
Forever comes closer
the world is in pain
we all must be shown
we must realise
that everyone changes
and everything dies.

Who By Fire by Leonard Cohen

And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?

Images...

front cover
back cover
traycard
disc

Gold Is The Metal (Returning To The Purity Of The Current) [This Version Was Reissued In 1996] (1987...a) [Coil...CD]























01 Last Rites Of Spring
02 Paradisiac
03 Thump
04 For Us They Will
05 The Broken Wheel
06 Boy In A Suitcase
07 Golden Hole
08 Cardinal Points
09 Red Slur
10 ...Of Free Enterprise
11 Aqua Regalia
12 Metal In The Head
13 Either His Or Yours
14 Chickenskin
15 Soundtrap
16 Hellraiser
17 The Wheal
18 The First Five Minutes After Violent Death

Notes...

From the liner notes: "This release is not the follow-up to Horse Rotorvator... but a completely seperate package - a stopgap and a breathing space - the space between two twins. Presented here are thoroughbreds that escaped the Horse Rotorvator - discarded shards, distortions, disappointments, scrambled and disassembled stages. Remnants of what once was. This record is a chance for us to release some otherwise placeless pieces of music."

Reissued in 1996 with all-new artwork, subtitled "Returning to the Purity of the Current."

Review...

This album is basically a collection of odds and sods that did not make it onto Horse Rotorvator, as well as some tracks from elsewhere (including stuff intended for The Dark Age of Love which became Love's Secret Domain). Despite the fact that it is a compilation, it manages to come together as a cohesive whole quite nicely.
The album opens with "The Last Rites of Spring" and ends with "The First Five Minutes of Violent Death". The former sounds like the dark forces are banging on the door, forcing it open to run manically around screaming and chanting. The later is about the most resigned sounding Coil track, the corpse being well and truly gutted. In between we have premium late 80's Coil, that combines a flair for esoteric melody with chaotic noise and seemingly random samples. As a link between Horse Rotorvator and Love's Secret Domain it is perfect.
Stand out tracks include: "For Us They Will", a Scatalogical digging, and one of the more intensely atmospheric tracks on the album. John Balance (I think) rambles on a bizarre rabid monologue concluding that "You have to burn to shine". Reminds me of "Tenderness of Wolves". "Boy in a Suitcase" is perhaps the best track on the album. It is a relic of early Coil sessions and features a rare performance by Peter Christopherson. It sounds quite reminiscent of Psychic TV, and features a nice quirky brass insert by Andrew Poppy. Unfortunately it is too short. "Cardinal Points" is a fantastic film score that evokes images of lakes, fog and towering Monoliths rising out of the gloom. Very filmic, sweet yet driving at the same time. This tracks points towards the Hellraiser score, as well as "Chaostrophy". "...Of free enterprise" and "Aqua Regalia" include the live takes of the Acapulco brass band heard on "Herald", mixed in with a minor key reversion of "Greensleeves". This works really well as ominous Orwellian theme music. "Either His or Yours" is an alternative mix to a John Giorno/Coil collaboration and becomes a rather groovey little tune as it slowly builds steam. "The Wheal", with a rather unCoil-like fuzz guitar improvisation courtesy of Alex Fergusson (PTV). It reminds me of a New Order outake and is quite sweet.
Overall, I'd say that, while it doesn't have the greatest tracks, it is perhaps the most cohesive sounding of the Compilation Coil stuff. Rather like a soundtrack to some piece of Inner Cinema, motifs and sounds revolve, disappear and return. Essential for the completists and a good intro to their soundtrack stuff as it is a little more abrasive than Hellraiser. 3 1/2 out of 5 - Jonathan Barrett

Discussion...

There is a song on Horse Rotorvator titled "Herald" and there is a song on Gold is the Metal titled "...of Free Enterprise." The Herald of Free Enterprise was a passenger ferry belonging to one of the various ferry lines that provide daily services across the English Channel. On March 6th, 1987 in the early evening just outside of Zeebrugge the ferry sank. 193 people died on that night. The accident was put down to the bow doors having not been totally closed (they were in the process of doing so) and an unusual current caused a relatively small amount of water to come on board. A capsize occurred - the crew didn't make a habit out of anything.... they were under unbearable pressure from the company (then Townsend Thoreson - now amalgamated into P&O Stena Line) over timetabling and this was how they were expected to shave off a couple of minutes in their turn around time - close doors as you set off. Inevitably, one man was found as the one who should have actually physically closed the door on that trippage - the captain is always ultimately responsible as the one in charge of the vessel - however the verdict was one of corporate manslaughter - i.e. practices encouraged by the company had caused the thing to turn over, not an individuals negligence. Associations were set up for the families to try to come to terms with things. The annual service that was held was discontinued after 10 years to try to help people get on with life.

Sometimes abbreviated as GITMWTBS (more often shortened to Gold Is The Metal), this is a "stop-gap and breathing space" between proper albums, which is noticeable as it doesn’t have the obvious unity that Scatology and Horse Rotorvator have. It features unreleased tracks from the Horse Rotorvator era, including alternate versions and unreleased tracks. GITM also continues HR’s "Herald" with it’s sister track, "...of Free Enterprise". "Cardinal Points" and "Hellraiser" are also otherwise unreleased demo versions of the main theme from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser film. Various versions of this album have been released on LP and CD: five different LP versions and two CD versions, all with different artwork. Several of the LPs editions include with deluxe packaging and bonus 7" single(s) (originally "The Wheel" b/w "The Wheal", then "Keelhauler" b/w "The Wheal" -- making this particular release a pain in the ass for collectors. The title comes from an early work of a favorite poet of Balance’s. The disc is also worthwhile for the liner notes, which include details and insights regarding some of the origins of the songs. Also of note is one of Sleazy's rare vocal turns on "Boy in a Suitcase". - Dave Piniella

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

7.02.2008

The Wheel (1987...b) [Coil...7'']









































01 The Wheel
02 The Wheal

Notes...

Came free with first 500 copies of Gold Is The Metal LP.

Lyrics...

When the storm clears and the sun shines
We'll see the country beyond the garden
I was dragged here by an angel
Against my weak will the stronger dictate.

Now I stand here, I've scaled the mountain
That led from function to forms of glory.
And when our hands touched like worlds colliding
A star exploding
Then I knew that the wheel is turning.

Rust transmuted to gold and silver
By strength of true will no more resistance
Just perfection
The wheel is turning.









































01 The Wheal
02 Keelhauler

Notes...

Came free initial copies of Gold Is The Metal LP.












































01 The Wheel
02 Keelhauler

Notes...

In 1996, 23 remaining copies of the 7" were found in a closet by John and Sleazy who made them available via the rec.music.industrial newsgroup.
Each copy came with a handmade sleeve that reads: "This so-called special edition of Coil's Keelhauler single is one of 23 copies found at the back of a wardrobe and offered for sale via rec.music.industrial at the outrageous price of $20." (This message is meant to poke fun at the fact that several r.m.i subscribers commented that they felt the price was too high, triggering a heated debate regarding the ethics of limited edition releases.)
The other side of the sleeve features John & Sleazy's photos, signatures and fingerprints (another poke at the supposed "criminal nature" of the release). Each copy also included several stickers as inserts.

7.01.2008

Hellraiser Themes [This Version Was Reissued In 1990] (1987...c) [Coil...CD EP]


















01 Hellraiser
02 The Hellbound Heart
03 Box Theme
04 No New World
05 Attack of the Sennapods
06 Main Title

Notes...

The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser (The Consequences of Raising Hell) is the original title.

The Consequences of Raising Hell... is printed on the spine of the record, and is generally considered to be an alternate title for this release.

The first 3 tracks (Side A) are taken from Coil's soundtrack to the Clive Barker film "Hellraiser" which was rejected by the film studio. (The following quote from Barker appears on the cover: "The only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn.")

The remainder of the tracks (side B) are a selection of short peices that were commissioned for use as music for advertisements on British television. They also appear on the anthology release Unnatural History III under the group title of "Music For Commercials". These tracks were originally planned to be released as a limited edition 7" EP on R+D Group 28.

side a: the Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser

1. Hellraiser
2. Box Theme
3. Main Title

side b: music for commercials

1. Airline 1
2. Liqueur
3. Perfume
4. Video Recorder
5. Airline 2
6. Natural Gas
7. Cosmetic 1
8. Cosmetic 2
9. Analgesic
10. Road Surface
11. Accident Insurance

Title changed to Hellraiser Themes for CD edition (1990).

The commercial tracks from the 10" and CS releases were dropped for the CD, and replaced with three more tracks from the Hellraiser sessions. All of these tracks, plus additional tracks from the same sessions, appear on the anthology release Unnatural History II.

The first pressing of the CD had black lettering on a blue background, while the next few pressings had black lettering on a silver background. After switching to a different manufacturer, the colours changed again to black lettering on a white background.

Discussion...

Clive Barker and Coil were friends during the early 1980s and it's been frequently noted that he was inspired to write "Hellraiser" from some of the literature and art Coil used to collect. Naturally he wanted Coil to do the score but while initial reports claim their music was "too scary" for the film, the reality is closer to that of the Hollywood studio wanting their own chums to do the work.

6.28.2008

Wrong Eye/Scope (1990...a) [Coil...7'']























01 Wrong Eye
02 Scope

Notes...

Both tracks appear on The Portable Altamont compilation CD and the anthology release Unnatural History III along with "Meaning What Exactly?", another track recorded around the same time.

Discussion...

"Wrong Eye" is described by Coil as being a "rough sketch" of the track "Windowpane" (from Love's Secret Domain).
Coil has also stated that speculation about "Scope" being an early version of "Her Friends The Wolves" (from Stolen and Contaminated Songs) is false, and that the track was actually a "studio jam" fueled by "experimenting with MDMA".

Images...

white cover
yellow cover
green cover

Unnatural History (Compilation Tracks Compiled) (1990...b) [Coil...CD]























01 Various Hands
02 The Swelling of Leeches
03 The Pope Held Upside Down
04 His Body Was a Playground for the Nazi Elite
05 Homage to Sewage
06 Here to Here (Double Headed Secret)
07 S is for Sleep
08 Dream Photography
09 Comfortable
10 Never
11 Penetralia II
12 Sicktone
13 How to Destroy Angels

Notes...

A collection of tracks that originally appeared on various compilations and limited edition releases along with some previously unreleased material.
"Penetralia II" is mistakenly listed as being taken from a limited 7" on the Shock label. This 7" was actually Wrong Eye / Scope, so "Penetralia II" is presumably unavailable elsewhere.
The version of "How To Destroy Angels" is in mono whereas the original 12" is in stereo.
Early pressings of this release are succeptable to the disc rot problem that has been striking many discs pressed by PDO in the early 1990s.

Discussion...

Subtitled "Compilation Tracks Compiled", this is the first of three UH volumes, this disc is made up of unreleased and otherwise unavailable tracks, including a pre-Christopherson Coil track. Early releases were susceptible to the infamous PDO Disc Rot, but this has been fixed with recent releases. UH also features four collaborations with Boyd Rice, three of which were originally released under the name A Sickness of Snakes as the split LP (with Current 93, with whom Coil have worked before), Nightmare Culture. Current 93’s half of the Nightmare Culture LP can be found on the CD edition of the C93 album In Menstural Night. - Dave Piniella

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

6.26.2008

Windowpane (1990...c) [Coil...CD EP]























01 Windowpane (Minimal)
02 Windowpane
03 Windowpane (Astral Paddington Mix)

Review...

The single of another of Coil's mid-tempo odes to LSD, "Windowpane" contains the original mix and a pair of instrumental remixes. Only one remix appears on the vinyl version. The LP version is the only vocal mix presented. Of the two remixes, the minimal mix is exactly what it claims to be -- a stripped-down version, utilizing an almost dub style in its reduction to drums and bassline. The Astral Paddington mix adds lots of swirly pads, but little else. Excellent music, but you're better off obtaining the Windowpane/The Snow re-release, which contains both the entirety of this single and the single for "The Snow. - Joshua Landau...From Allmusic

Discussion...

I have a mental picture that I get every time I listen to window pane and It's a ship moving over a turbulent sea----The backing vocals are the sky, the little percussion sounds and processing on J. Balances voice are the rigging creaking in the wind, and the bass line and bass drum & snare are the action of the ship moving over large rolling waves. - Arik Tillman

6.25.2008

Love's Secret Domain [This Version Was Reissued In 2001] (1991...a) [Coil...CD]























01 Disco Hospital
02 Teenage Lightning 1
03 Things Happen
04 The Snow
05 Dark River
06 Where Even The Darkness Is Something To See
07 Teenage Lightning 2
08 Windowpane
09 Further Back And Faster
10 Titan Arch
11 Chaostrophy
12 Lorca Not Orca
13 Love's Secret Domain

Notes...

Remastered by Thighpaulsandra in 2001.

Working titles for this release included:

* TO EAT HIS OWN (mentioned in a 1987 Coil newsletter)
* 120 DALMATIONS IN SODOM (from 1987 newsletter)
* THE DARK AGE OF LOVE (mentioned in the liner notes of GOLD IS THE METAL)
* THE SIDE EFFECTS OF LIFE (from notes on WRONG EYE single)
* STOLEN AND CONTAMINATED SONGS (from 1987 newsletter; later used for a "companion" release to this album)

Review...

1991's LSD is commonly referred to as Coil's House record. Other styles are featured, but the album as a whole leaves no doubt that Coil had left their industrial days a little further behind. LSD is consistently cited by fans as Coil's "best" album, and with good reason. It is very dancy with moments of trance, house, goth ("Titan Arch"), classical guitars, live drums, electronics and guest vocals by Marc Almond (ex-Soft Cell, on the aforementioned "Titan Arch"), and Annie Anxiety (the drunken "Things Happen"). Although it's a lighter effort than earlier albums, this is more a reflection of the previous albums' heavyness rather than LSD's character; it's still an amazingly heavy album. Regardless of personal opinions in the vinyl-vs.-CD debate, this is an album you'll want to own on CD, as it has four extra songs (including the magnificent digeridoo-drenched "Where Even Darkness Is Something To See") and longer versions of songs, shorter on the LP and cassette versions. This is a headphone record, and the one of the first to extensively feature "sidereal sound" (look up sidereal in a dictionary, for answers w/r/t sidereal objects.) The title track quotes from William Blake's "The Sick Rose"; Blake is another poet that Balance has made reference to in the past. At one point, LSD was released through Wax Trax! in the U.S., which may help explain it's popularity (compared to other Coil albums,) in the U.S. The cover features another fantastic Steven Stapleton painting. - Dave Piniella

"LSD" literally changed my life, I'd never heard anything quite like it prior and since. The diversity and care put into this album is remarkable. From the bizarre sample assault of "Disco Hospital" to the swirling sounds and vocoded vox of "Teenage Lightning" to the stream of conscious vocal of "Things Happen" to the gentle beat of "The Snow" to the beautiful ambience of "Dark River" and "Chaostrophy" to the driving bass line of "Windowpane" to the wonderful Marc Almond vocal of "Titan Arch" to the vocal groove of "Love's Secret Domain" ... you really must *hear* this album in order to understand, the sound just can't be put into words. Everything is perfect, the effects, the lyrics, the vocals, the programming, the instrumentation (includes orchestral arrangements, spanish guitars, live drums, etc). I consider this album an extension of Coil's previous albums ... sort of a "90's update" to the technique and sound, but quite unlike the recent "drone" work of "Time Machines" and "Moon's Milk". Also, the artwork (wood painting by Steven Stapleton) is brilliant ... a perfect compliment to the lyrics and music. Unfortunately, "Love's Secret Domain" is no longer in print and has become rather difficult to find ... but be sure to keep an eye out for it in the used bins (note - the cd has several bonus tracks that the cassette doesn't). It's a must have album. There were also 2 must have singles from the album, "The Snow" and "Windowpane" and the "Stolen & Contaminated Songs" compilation also has several alternate versions of songs found on "Love's Secret Domain". - Mark Weddle

You've either got it or you've heard about it. Maybe you downloaded all the tracks online, paid tons on an auction or found it kicking around used or some cut out bin. Any way you slice it, this album cannot be ignored. Now, ten years to the month after its original release, one of my favorite albums of all time is back in print. (With a few minor adjustments of course,...) The cover is the first difference I see: the front shows a little bit more of the legendary painting Steven Stapleton did on his outhouse, including his signature down at the bottom right corner, never before seen. The back is amazingly more legible than the original release - which simply blew up a bit of the cover and used gold text - black background, gold text and a previously unissued image. The back of the booklet is graced by the back photograph of the LP edition, but open the booklet up and sadly, there are no lyrics included this time around.
The most noticable musical difference is about four seconds missing from the opening chopped up sampling bit, but those sounds do get repeated over a few cycles however,... Enough of the nitpicking!
The recordings contained were completed in 1990, pulled from over two years of studio work, which is quite noticable. Back then, electronic musicians didn't have anywhere near as much software, Coil had to do much of this by hand. This is observed right from the opening seconds where a cut-up mishmosh of samples were tossed into a bucket and taped back together. Over the course of an hour, the group pummels the listener with whacked-out stereo separation, mind-bending low-end frequencies and ghostly voices which move in three dimensions around the room -without- the aid of a 5-point surround system! It's genre-defying, electronic based with dabbles of jazz, techno, with flamenco guitars and orchestral arrangements. Guests on this record include vocal contributions from Little Annie Anxiety Bandez, Marc Almond and Rose McDowell, as well as Charles Hayward on drums, and Mike McEvoy's trippy 'ecstatic keyboards' on "The Snow". While songs like "Windowpane" and "Love's Secret Domain" are instantaneously catchy favorites, tracks like "Further Back and Faster" are so amazingly ahead of their time in terms of sound and structure. The multiple layers, samples and sections must have taken many late nights in the studio, the result is a mindfuck which has taken many listens to truly get. People accuse this record of being a techno record, but in actuality, "The Snow" is really the only fast-paced techno dancefloor anthem, and not a bad one indeed with incredible playing, sampling and subliminal vocal manipulations. The record is multi-climactic, and builds a couple times before the end, with the calm and disturbing "Titan Arch" featuring Marc Almond's guest vocals over a chilly throb, "Chaostrophy" where an orchestra fights for center stage with a barrage of white noise, the explosive flamenco guitars of "Lorca Not Orca" into the finale, the title track, snaking lines from William Blake and Roy Orbison. - Jon Whitney

Discussion...

Steven Stapleton was responsible for the cover painting. The alleged story is that it's painted directly onto an old wooden outhouse door Stephen somehow appropriated. He created the image by sanding down several layers of accumulated paint, painting the coat of arms, then sanding again. That he could achieve such a psychedelic effect from organic materials is to me a perfect compliment to the nature of the recordings it graced.
Something of a litmus test for the psyche, the cover imagery itself is multilayered in such a way that if you interpret the sheild as a broad, flat nose and the curling banners as lips and mouth, you realise that the entire coat of arms is also quite deliberately the head of a lion! - John G. Dennett

Whenever i listen to "Dark River", it reminds of this time my friends and i went out to this bridge over a river. the moon was out, and the sky was totally clear. we were all pretty high, and we put these candles on boats made of newspaper and set them adrift in the river. the "boats" all blew off to one bank of the river and sat there in the grass on the bank. it looked like the bridge was several hundred miles above the water, and the boats were little houses, with light coming from fires in their fireplaces. it was quite beautiful, but also very sad for some reason...that song is inexorably tied to that memory for me. - "The Black Sun"

Lyrics...

Teenage Lightning

Don't be alarmed
It will not harm you
It's only lightning
Teenage lightning.

It's real
Unbelievably real
Teenage lightning
Don't be frightened.

This is the way we do it
This is the way we do it.

Don't be alarmed
It will not harm you
Its only me pursuing
Something I'm not sure of
It's only lightning
Teenage lightning
Don't be alarmed
You can't be harmed
Teenage lightning
It's real?
Can you steal
Teenage lightning?
It is the lightning's
Deep, dark love.

Things Happen
Lyrics by Annie Anxiety-Bandez.

Sssssst ! Ssssssst !
(Kill the creator.
I send them the bomb)

Daddie, do you have a
Cigarette for me, I think
Maybe is getting late
Maybe time is running out
You know, I knew somebody once
Rifled through his drawers
I wasn't that suspicious, but...
You know these things
They happen
But... munyeca
Do you have a towel?
See those people gather round
Baby, do you have a light?
What's it like in Ohio?

What d'you want to call me,
Munyeca?
Honey, do you like my dress?
You know, I think the colour pink
Suits my complexion
Or is it a reflection
Of the sky outside, you know
Why those people
Crowding round?
You know I think your time
Is running out
What was your name anyway?

No lipstick on his collar but
Maybe it was blood
I don't know to this day, Dear
Do you have another, uh.
Did you light
That cigarette for me? Oh!
Did you leave that on the side?
Do you have another
Cigarette for me. You know?
Well I had somebody once
You know we used to cook a lot
It was a...
Do you like chillies in Ohio?

Munyeca. Yo te ciaro.
Yo te ciaro Ohio. Muy bonito.
Where did I leave my matches?
I thought they were on
The table there
By the way did you...?
Do you have some cash for me
Because you know I have to get a
Cab somewhere after here.
You know, I don't want to push you.
But.. uh
You know I've got to go somewhere
There's something burning
In the kitchen
Did I put the peppers in?
I don't... uh... uh... Oh dear...
Why are these people crowding
Round me in the street
You know you have to watch
Yourself, don't you?
Just a bit.
It's a bit of commotion
It must be like that for you
A little bit
Nice meeting you...
I have no regrets...but
I did feel a little bit bad
You know
It's kind of like.....
You know what it's like.

Titan Arch

Crown the dark animal
Black Jackal crawling
Eternal returning
An end to the waiting.

There are thrones underground
And monarchs upon them
They walk serene
In spaces between.

At the head of the storm
Darkness is rising
In the Garden Of Jaws
His wounds are shining.

Angels are poisons
In rotting pavilions
Under shivering stars
The sickness is gilding.

Love's Secret Domain

Oh rose, thou art sick
Seduce... let loose
The vision and the void
Blood sickle... honey suck

In little children's heavy heads
My dreams erupt while in my bed
Innocence is dripping red.

In dreams I walk with you
In dreams I talk with you
In dreams...
You're mine
All of the time.

Heads on fire and drunken lights
Days devoured by hungry nights
In love's secret domain
This is mad love
This is mad love
In love's secret domain.

Sweet tortures fly on mystery wings
Pure evil is when flowers sing
My heart,
My heart is a rose
This is mad love, Oh
This is mad love
In love's secret domain...

Give sanity a longer leash, but
Some of us have sharper teeth
In love's secret domain...

In dreams I walk with you...
In dreams I talk with you...
In dreams...
You're mine
All of the time.

Oh rose, Thou art sick
The invisible worm
The vision and the void
The blood sickle cuts.
And the honey sucks.

Oh rose, thou art sick !

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

The Snow (1991...b) [Coil...CD EP]























01 Driftmix
02 Answers Come in Dreams I
03 Out in the Cold
04 As Pure As?
05 Answers Come in Dreams II
06 The Snow

Notes...

Jack Dangers - Remixes named "Answers Come In Dreams"

Stolen And Contaminated Songs (1992...a) [Coil...CD]












































01 Further
02 Original Chaostrophy
03 Who'll Tell?
04 Omlagus Garfungiloops
05 Inkling
06 Love's Secret Domain (original mix)
07 Nasa Arab
08 Who'll Fall?
09 The Original Wild Garlic Memory
10 Wrim Wram Wrom
11 Corybantic Ennui
12 Her Friends the Wolves...
13 Light Shining Darkly

Notes...

This CD is a collection of outtakes and unreleased songs from the Love's Secret Domain sessions.
The original mail-order (1992) version was limited to 2000 numbered copies and came without any tracklist, only a slip of paper with the number and a Coil sticker.
The retail version of the 1992 edition came with a sticker on the back for song titles, originally name the first song "As It Really Is."
The 1993 edition had a back cover with song titles printed, track one being misspelled as "Futher," however.
The 1992 version has been known to rot.

Review...

Overall impression: excellent! This CD is essentially a compilation of "Love's Secret Domain" era outtakes and alternate versions. Bizarre, beautiful and experimental in nature, this cd is as varied as "LSD", if not more. From the cool jazz of "Omlagus .." to the bass and drum groove of "Nasa Arab" to the classy orchestral arrangements of "The Original ..", "Who'll Tell?" and "Corybantic .." to the drones of "Wrim .." to the slow sample buildup of "Her Friends .." ... you definitely know you're listening to Coil. "Who'll Fall?" may be one of the most beautifully sad pieces ever committed to tape. The track features the telephone recording of a friend of Coil's explaining that a mutual friend had recently committed suicide ... very eerie. Unfortunately, this cd is a pretty expensive import ... but well worth the cost. Another must have release from Coil. - Mark Weddle

Discussion...

The sample ("Now John! You must never, never tell / Who's to tell") is from "Night of the Hunter", but not the movie. Rather, its from an old album where Charles Laughton (who directed the movie) narrates the story, possibly reading passages right out of the Davis Grubb novel.
A different sample from the same source ("See his hands - look at the fingers / Tattooed fingers / The fingers of the left hand spell - love, those of the right spell - hate") is used on "Further Back and Faster".

The original idea was to do S&CS as a limited edition available by advance mail-order only. This turned into something of a fiasco, with John & Sleazy's inevitable delays in finishing the project, exacerbated by poor record keeping of orders. A lot of people didn't end up getting their copy (though it was usually cleared up if people got in touch directly and complained) and Coil ended up distributing it to stores in spite of their original intention not to. (Coil have since given up direct mail order, except for the occasional rare single that turns up behind a bookshelf.
The combination of Coil's doing some of their strongest work ever on a limited edition and the above fiasco made bootlegging almost inevitable. In response to this, they ended up doing a unlimited edition of S&CS with different cover art and actual song titles, etc.
The first edition was like what you described; I have no idea if the bootlegs were made to look like the original or if they had a different design. - Pete Werner

Some copies had stickers on the back with a tracklisting, others had a small numbered card in it with the title of the CD as well as some some stickers. Although the artwork & songtitles are different from the later (commercial) re-release, the music is identical (and as far as I can tell from the matrix numbers, they were pressed off the same master). There are bootlegs that look more or less identical, and the only way to identify an original copy is by checking the inner ring on the CD, which should read "LOCICD4 10204341 01 &" and "MADE IN THE U.K. BY PDO". - Maarten D. Schemer

Images...

Coil sticker

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

6.23.2008

How to Destroy Angels [Remixed and Re-Recordings] (1992...b) [Coil...CD]























01 The Sleeper
02 Remotely
03 The Sleeper II
04 Tectonic Plates
05 Dismal Orb
06 How to Destroy Angels II
07 Absolute Elsewhere

Notes...

As on the original vinyl 12" singles release, the track "Absolute Elsewhere" is blank - in this case, it is a one second track of silence.
1,3 and 4 were mixed by John Balance
2 and 5 were mixed by Peter Christopherson
6 was mixed by Steven Stapleton and forms part of the soundtrack of the film "Lumb's Sister"

Discussion...

"Dismal Orb" reminds me of southwestern swamp, virginia in winter...dead trees standing in blackish cold water..." - The Black Sun

I was listening to the CD and relaxing while in bed. All I can remember then is a period of total blackness, and then suddenly coming to consciousness some time later, probably an hour or so, and listening to a steady soft scraping sound, very rhythmic, and far louder than anything my meagre computer speakers could have produced. It continued for about 10 or 20 seconds, and then ceased. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. - Tzu-Jan Spontaneous

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

Airborne Bells/Is Suicide A Solution? (1993...a) [Coil...7"]












































01 Airborne Bells
02 Is Suicide a Solution?

Notes...

Number 22 (Nov/93) in the "Clawfist Singles Club" series.
"Airborne Bells" is spelled "Airbourne Bells" on the label.
"Is Suicide A Solution?" is a reworking of "Who'll Fall" from Stolen and Contaminated Songs, but is slightly remixed and features an opening which speaks "I am the loneliest link in a very strange chain," and an ending which, when spun backwards plays "When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers..."

6.17.2008

The Angelic Conversation (1994...a) [Coil...CD]























01 Ascension
02 Enochian Calling
03 Angelic Stations
04 Finite Bees
05 Cave of Roses
06 Sun Ascension
07 Madriiax
08 Escalation
09 Never
10 Enochian Calling II
11 Montecute

Notes...

Music for the Derek Jarman film of the same name from 1985.
"Ascension / Enochian Calling" is another mix of How To Destroy Angels.
"Montecute" is a version of the track "At The Heart of it All" from Scatology.
First pressing has disc printed black with a clear blackground on gold CD, limited to 1000 copies. All subsequent discs are printed black with a white background.

Review...

This album is an extraordinary chapter in the Coil discography, a soundtrack to the 1985 film by Derek Jarman, The Angelic Conversation. Coil took the approach of remixing and reconfiguring orchestral samples; the sound of an orchestra tuning up is used frequently, expanding on the bleak and desolate sound as a perfect accompaniment to Jarman's film. Incidentally, Coil's Peter Christopherson worked as a leading sound designer in the film and created its incidental music -- much of which is included here to fill out the CD. Given that the film's sound was made with the Coil touch throughout, the album stands as an entirely cohesive work. The Angelic Conversation features the gorgeous Coil anthem "How to Destroy Angels," a song that becomes a central theme and diverts the largely ambient atmospheres. - Skip Jansen...From Allmusic

Lyrics...

Dame Judith Olivia Dench reads Shakespeare's sonnets...

I. Ascension - (Sonnet LVII)
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

III. Instrumental

II. Enochian Calling - (Sonnet XC)
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scoped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune's might,
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.

IV. Finite Bees - (Sonnet XLIII)
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

V. Cave of Roses - (Sonnet LIII)
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Speak of the spring and foison of the year;
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear;
And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.

VI. Sun Ascension a - (Sonnet CXLVIII)
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's 'No.'
How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vex'd with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

VI. Sun Ascension b - (Sonnet CXXVI)
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.

VII. Madriiax - a - (Sonnet XXIX)
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

VII. Madriiax - b - (Sonnet XCIV)
They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

VIII. Escalation - a - (Sonnet XXX)
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

VIII. Escalation - b - (Sonnet LV)
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes.

VIII. Escalation - c - (Sonnet XXVII)
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.

IX. Instrumental

X. Enochian Calling II - a (Sonnet LXI)
Is it thy will thy image should keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenor of thy jealousy?
O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great:
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake;
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake:
For thee watch I whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
From me far off, with others all too near.

X. Enochian Calling II - b (Sonnet LVI)
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd,
To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might:
So, love, be thou; although to-day thou fill
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness,
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness.
Let this sad interim like the ocean be
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
Come daily to the banks, that, when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
Else call it winter, which being full of care
Makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.

XI. Montecute (CIV)
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred;
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

Buy Here [Digital Format + Images]

we miss you Jhonn...