Coil


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Horse Rotorvator , 7/10
Gold Is The Metal With The Broadest Shoulders , 5/10
A Thousand Lights, 4/10
Hellraiser , 5/10
Love's Secret Domain , 6/10
Stolen And Contaminated Songs, 4/10
Angelic Conversation , 5/10
Blue , 5/10
Time Machines , 6.5/10
Musick to Play In The Dark , 6/10
Astral Disaster , 6/10
Queens Of The Circulating Library , 5/10
Musick to Play In The Dark Volume Two , 6/10
Constant Shallwness Leads To Evil , 5/10
Thighpaulsandra: I, Thighpaulsandra , 5/10
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Summary.
John Balance (real name Geoff Rushton) and Throbbing Gristle's Peter Christopherson were the brains behind Coil, yet another pretentious esoteric project that experimented with alternative sources of sound, best on Horse Rotorvator (1986).
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I Coil sono stati uno dei fenomeni piu` deleteri della musica industriale del decennio 1980. E` significativo il fatto che una buona meta` della loro discografia sia composta di musica "unreleased", ovvero "rari", "inediti", "a tiratura limitata",... Il fatto collezionistico e` stato prevalente sul fatto artistico. In pratica i Coil trasformarono l'invenzione dei Throbbing Gristle in una carriera. Cio` non toglie che alcuni dischi contenessero intuizioni anticipatrici (anche se ripetute in maniera estenuante) e che, nel bene e nel male, i Coil abbiano inventato la forma gotica della musica industriale (che era nata come act espressionista).

Allo scioglimento dei Throbbing Gristle, nel 1981, Peter Christopherson venne coinvolto in diversi progetti di musica industriale, dai quali emersero due gruppi: i Zos Kia, documentati da Transparent (Nekropolis, 1983 - Threshold House, 1997), e gli Psychic TV. A entrambe le formazioni apparteneva anche John Balance (all'anagrafe Geff Rushton). Alla fine del 1983 Balance e Christopherson lasciarono i due gruppi e diedero vita ai Coil. John Balance continuera` comunque a comparire anche su dischi di Death In June, Nurse With Wound e soprattutto Current 93 (dall'inizio fino al 1989).

Afflitti, come molti musicisti "industriali", da pretenziosita` esoteriche, i Coil vararono pero` un programma molto piu` originale di musica per lo piu` percussiva con l'EP How To Destroy Angels (Laylah, 1984) (Threshold House, 1992), intitolato al brano che rimarra` piu` celebre della sua produzione, e con l'album Scatology (Force & Form, 1984 - World Serpent, 2001), forte di Panic, seppur fra mille ridondanze e indulgenze.

L'album Horse Rotorvator (Force & Form, 1986), destinato a rimanere il loro capolavoro, sposto` l'attenzione su armonie piu` complesse, e atmosfere meno ossessive, piu` liriche e contemplative, assimilando anche generi musicali come il jazz e il folk mediorientale. L'album, forte di un uso scaltro del campionatore (un Fairlight Emulator), e` una meditazione anarchica ispirata alla filosofia di Jean Genet, alle orge psichedeliche degli anni '60, alla narrativa barocca del 1600 e al gotico inglese.

L'EP Anal Staircase (Force & Form, 1987), in particolare, costruito attorno alla prima traccia dell'album, mise ordine in quel caos di battiti e controbattiti, riuscendo a configurare la possibilita` di un ballo per poliritmi industriali ed effetti sonori assortiti che in certi punti lambisce toni apocalittici.

Dalle stesse sessioni venne ricavato anni dopo il materiale per l'album Gold Is The Metal With The Broadest Shoulders (Loci, 1987) (Threshold House, 1995) e per il singolo The Wheel (Threshold House, 1987).

A quella nuova ispirazione si devono le musiche registrate per il film Hellraiser (Solar Lodge, 1987).

I sintomi manifestati nelle registrazioni degli ultimi anni '80 portarono a un deciso rinnovamento nel decennio successivo, quando, di fatto, Coil indosso` una nuova pelle. Preceduto dall'EP Wrong Eye (Shock, 1990), l'album Love's Secret Domain (Torso, 1991 - Threshold House, 2001), con le sue concessioni all'"acid house" (in particolare i singoli Windowpane e Snow), segna invece la conversione alla dance music, come d'uopo per gli "sperimentatori" britannici di quella generazione. L'album e` comunque un piccolo capolavoro di techno demenziale, e annovera anche esperimenti come Disco Hospital e Things Happen, nonche' Teenage Lightning.

Dalle stesse sessioni verra` ricavato il materiale per l'album Stolen And Contaminated Songs (Threshold House, 1992) e i singoli Nasa-Arab (World Serpent, 1994) e Is Suicide A Solution (Clawfist, 1993).

Vedono anche la luce due colonne sonore per film di Derek Jarman, Angelic Conversation (World Serpent, 1985) (Threshold House, 1994) e Blue (Threshold House, 1993).

Tre volumi di Unnatural History (Threshold House, 1990, 1995, 1997) raccolgono le composizioni storiche e diversi inediti, fra cui Music For Commercials in 11 parti.

Seguendo la moda, a partire dal 1994 i Coil hanno iniziato a pubblicare materiale con altri nomi: Eskaton, ELpH, Black Light District, Time Machines, Wormsine, Rosa Mundi, Trial By Music, 2012, e Lifestyle.

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Worship The Glitch (World Serpent, 1995), credited to ELpH, was an experiment of chaotic and dissonant "musique concrete".

A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room (World Serpent, 1996) is credited to The Black Light District. After a seven-year hiatus, during which the duo only released compilations, EPs and side projects, Balance and Christopherson found an improbable second life with the trio of late 1990s albums: Time Machines (Eskaton, 1998), a set of four lengthy droning tracks (for a total of 72 minutes); Musick to Play In The Dark Volume One (World Serpent, 1999), that augments the line-up with Drew McDowall and Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis) and serves the surreal electronic music of Red Birds Will Fly Out Of The East and The Dreamer Is Still Asleep; Astral Disaster (World Serpent, 1999), that contains the even longer (but a bit tedious) The Mothership And The Fatherland, MU-UR and 2nd Sun Syndrome; Queens Of The Circulating Library (Eskaton, 2000), basically a Balance-Thighpaulsandra duet; Musick to Play In The Dark Volume Two (World Serpent, 2000), with one of their most sensational tracks (Batwings), Thighpaulsandra's Red Birds Will Fly Out Of The East And Destroy Paris In A Night, and an ever more cosmic and ambient sound; Constant Shallwness Leads To Evil (Eskaton, 2000), a puzzle of 23 brief sketches that span all the styles of their career. These huge, hypnotic, subliminal suites mark a return to the origins of How To Destroy Angels, via kosmische musik and tape manipulation techniques.

The two volumes of Musick to Play In The Dark may constitute the most austere and important recording of Coil's career. They wed Coil's trademark exoteric and subliminal sound to a bacchanal of digital noises.

Moon's Milk (Eskaton, 2001) collects the Solstice And Equinox Singles released in 1998 (solemn ambient music that resembles Constance Demby's sacred new-age music given a "pagan" twist).

Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis), a former Julian Cope collaborator turned electronic musician, debuted solo with the EP Some Head (Eskaton, 2000), that contains two lengthy tracks: the 16-minute Black Nurse (a three-movement suite that runs the gamut from Brian Eno-esque organ-driven ambient music to tribal/ceremonial music to a piano-driven ambient/cosmic motif) and the 14-minute Tudor Fruits (mainly horn dissonance, percussion and noise).
Thighpaulsandra's double-CD album I, Thighpaulsandra (Eskaton, 2001), with guests Julian Cope and members of Spiritualized (the band he joined in 2000), is the electronic equivalent of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass: a cauldron of naive experimental ideas, a pastiche of different styles and different influences, that are held together only by the ideology of the artist.

The Plastic Spider Thing (Eskaton, 2002) is a remix album.

The Golden Hare With A Voice Of Silver (Eskaton, 2002) is a career retrospective.

In 2003, Coil also released four live albums (some of the worst live albums ever released, thanks to the low cost of manufacturing CDs). The 10" The Restitution Of Decayed Intelligence (Beta-lactam Ring, 2003) offers two suites that replay old ideas.

The triple-disc Ans (Threshold House, 2003) collects compositions by Johnn Balance, Ossian Brown, Peter Christopherson, Thighpaulsandra and Ivan Pavlov for a pioneering device, the ANS, that converted graphic designs into music.

John Balance died in december 2004, but, far from dismissing Coil, Christopherson increased its output.

Coil's three-LP set The Ape Of Naples (Threshold House, 2006) was Peter Christopherson's personal tribute to John Balance, obtained by remixing unreleased sessions that were originally meant for an album titled Backwards. It contains the third version of Teenage Lightning. The deluxe reissue of The Ape of Naples (2009) includes an album titled The New Backwards, which is material from Backwards remixed by Christopherson with help from Danny Hyde, notably the nine-minute lightweight industrial dance of Careful What You Wish For.

The double-CD Black Antlers (Threshold House, 2006) is a collection of funereal songs including Sex With Sun Ra and the fourth version of Teenage Lightning, among much disposable music.

The double-CD Remote Viewer (Threshold House, 2006) marked instead a return to the dance music of Love's Secret Domain.

When it finally surfaced, the lost album Backwards (2015) didn't offer anything better than what had already appeared here and there. The eight-minute Heaven's Blade is a more disco-oriented version of the demonic dances of the Sisters Of Mercy and the seven-minute Fire of the Mind is an expressionist piece wrapped in shrapnel noise. But much of the album sounds amateurish and sometimes even clownish.

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