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 !

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