01 Regel
02 Rosa Decidua
03 Switches
04 The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant
05 Amethyst Deceivers
Notes...
Rose McDowell - vocal on "Rosa Decidua"
Robert Lee - vocal on "Rosa Decidua"
Collected on Moon's Milk (In Four Phases).
Review...
Overall impression: good. Ahhh ... the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing that a new twenty-ish minutes of Coil is forthcoming every 3 months! Coil aren't ones to repeat themselves, but I do hope they do something similar to this solstice/equinox singles series in 1999, or at least manage to put out as much material as they did this year in future years. "Amethyst.." is, naturally, the third in the 1998 single series (see also: "Spring Equinox: Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" and "Summer Solstice: Bee Stings") and it is the most musically varied of the 3 so far. Track by track: "Regal" is a short Balance vocal mantra piece with a minimal background of animal-like howls and some sort of keyboard sound (difficult to explain ... the kind of sound you'd only hear on a Coil record). "Rosa.." is a spacy mixture of Balance's spoken words with the vocals of Rose McDowall and Robert Lee of Sorrow, synthesizer and William Breeze's heavenly electric viola. "Switches" is comprised of very minimal pressure changes as composed via a synthesizer, this one would fit right in on ELpH vs Coil "Worship the Glitch". "The Auto.." harkens back to mid-80's Coil due to it's distorted orchestral sound combined with whispered and effected male and female vocals. "Amethyst.." features utterly beautiful swirling sounds, plucked acoustic instrumentation, and synth bass accompanied by whispered and/or effected chants of "Amethyst Deceiver" throughout ... truly one of the finest tracks I've ever heard by Coil. Again, this single is very minimal and similar to the other two, but at the same time completely different. All the tracks have the "Coil sound" as I like to call it ... a comfortable, meaningful, warm and welcoming sound. A good single, but overall I prefer "Bee Stings" to "Amethyst..". Once again, very nice artwork ... this time warping an image similar of that of the previous singles. The 7" version of this single features slightly different versions of just "Amethyst Deceivers" and "Switches". I'm looking forward to the final chapter, the winter solstice single on Dec. 22. - Mark Weddle
Discussion...
The tracks are different in feel from the Summer Soltice EP. We started last year with a session of treated vocals and an ARP 2600 synthesiser. William Breeze came over and added mandolin and guitar and viola. There are Balance vocals and Louise Weasel vocals, and Galactic calls to Star Forms. Counter-point, Confessionals and Rose as an Elizabethan boy. - Coil
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