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