01 Copal
02 The Coppice Meat
03 Ü pel (Insense Offering)
Notes...
Intended to be limited to 300 copies included with initial mail orders of Moon's Milk (In Four Phases), although some copies were made available seperately.
Each CD comes in a cardboard sleeve that is hand painted, signed and inscribed. Most are numbered, although some numbers were used more than once. Most include a signed Polaroid photo as an insert.
The inscriptions include the following:
7 - Urban Legends Discussed Over Higuids
13 - The Sound Of The Waves Lulled Him Into A Deep Blue Revery
13 - Witches Dance In Colours Through My Dreams
15 - Never Sits Down Nor Sleeps At Night
19 - Care Should Be Taken Not To Give A Second Dose
31 - Sleepiness And The Dazed State Combined (In The Dream Of The Flightless Turkey Bird)
33 - We Marvelled At The Moss Under The Pier
48 - My Demon Brother
53 - Dreams Before Bedtime
54 - When Everything Seems To Go Round
56 - 2 Telephone Calls
59 - Chinese Mountain Range
60 - Bright Lights And Cats With No Mouths
61 - Fantastic And Ants - Naturalistic
61 - Marakesh Mouthfulls
64 - Jealousy
65 - Careful What You Wish For (Black Sun Over Vesuvius)
66 - The Owl Service
67 - Is Nichola Bowery Pregnant Again?
70 - The Ghost Of A Carrier Pidgeon
75 - The King Is Dead
80 - It Just Is...
82 - Ploughed Fields Of Benzedrine
83 - My Bloodstream
85 - Hallucination Mass, Hallucination
86 - Standing Stone, Whirling Dervish
94 - You Can't Let Go
134 - Manoevering To Extract The Unique Mineral
135 - Spirits Of The Whispering Forests Or A Place To Bury Strangers
136 - It's In The Trees, It's Coming
151 - Falling Spirits (Descent From Hell)
156 - Scooby-Doo Skinned & Nailed To An Oak Tree
no number - Off The Coast Of Northern California, Kelp-Storms
Review...
After months of agonized waiting and much hand wringing, Coil has mailed out all 300 copies of the special edition of "Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)" double CD set with a bonus, exclusive CD-R of brand new material. This bonus disc was recorded last Winter Solstice - December 21, 2001 ev. The special sets were supposed to be burned over that weekend and shipped out before X-Mas, however, all of us that ordered have had to show the ultimate patience to wait until early March to see the package. One begins to feel a tad pathetic, looking forlornly at the mailbox every day waiting for the treasure to arrive. The sinking feeling sets in that perhaps the music will not have been worth all of the build-up and anticipation; what if it's totally worthless and anticlimactic? Can you justify having paid $85 for this stupid CD-R? Have you become obsessively insane?
Then, all at once, the package arrives, like an enormously belated X-Mas present. You hold your breath as you tear open the package with the trademark Threshold House stamp affixed to it. Inside: a plastic sleeve housing the white cardboard slipcase the CD-R is housed in. On the outside of the package, thick mottled paint forms abstract patterns. Bright colored splotches and dark, veiny paint traces cover its surface. Each sleeve is an original artwork created by Coil. Inside each sleeve is a poloroid taken during Coil's Winter Solstice musick ritual. Yours probably contains a sunrise, a plastic reindeer, a church steeple, electrical high-wires, or maybe even a UFO...who knows? Each copy has a different name; mine is called 'It Dries Up Everything It Comes Across." Maybe yours is called "Harry Potter's First Dose of LSD" or "Marrakech Mouthfuls." So far, so good...
The CD-R is completely blank, no art or track names printed; just translucent iridescent plastic. Track one begins: your fear and anguish immediately subside with the rise of warm, attenuated bell tones. This sixteen-minute ambient track sounds like wind chimes slowed down a modulated for maximum pleasurable drone. Then suddenly, Jhon Balance darkly intones: "You look on it with a sense of dread." His voice shifts positions and replies: "Gazing upon it with a sense of dread." Then the bell tones are drawn out for an eternity, it seems, while Balance weaves his beautiful and disarming monologue about edible birds. The second track begins with profoundly haunting orchestral synthesizer drones overlapping as Balance dramatically interprets a mystical/existential poem by Angus MacLise. Incredibly haunting. Track three is all instrumental, with some playfully cosmic vintage synth melodies, reminiscent of Kraftwerk's "Spacelab." This track develops in a complex, kaleidoscopic way towards its ghostly conclusion.
Bottom line: Coil has not disappointed in the slightest with this release. They continue to reward their devoted listeners with some of the most innovative and inspiring electronic experimental music being made today. This CD-R is worth the money and the wait. Coil is very aware that the total exclusivity of projects such as these adds an extra, "occult" esotericism to the experience that makes the musick that much more amazing. Bravo. - Jonathan Dean
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