Coil - Black Antlers (2004-6)

Jhonn Balance's tragic death amidst unfinished recordings meant that there was no clear-cut "last Coil album".  The original version of this one might've been the last Coil album released in Balance's lifetime, but even so it was presented as a work in progress; CDRs handed out on tour.  As far as I'm concerned, though, Black Antlers has always felt like just as fitting and satisfying an end to the Coil discography proper, as the more polished Ape Of Naples.

The Gimp (Sometimes) starts proceedings with a full five minutes of discomforting squiggles before settling down into a wearied lament, Sleazy & Thighpaulsandra's electronics reaching ever further into other dimensions.  The late-Coil collection of sardonic and surreal Balance narratives hits a high point with Sex With Sun Ra, and Wraiths And Strays captured how dynamic and exciting their live work had become.  In 2006, three more tracks were added by Sleazy to round off one of the most satisfying Coil releases, and most poignant in showing what they still had to give.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
Astral Disaster
Musick To Play In The Dark
...and the ambulance died in his arms

Coil - ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms (rec. 2003, rel. 2005)

Sixteen years ago today, Coil were recovering from one of their most remarkable live shows.  Intending to do "a quiet set today... we've had too much... shouting over the last year", the eerie, hushed ambience conjured up by John, Sleazy, Thighpaulsandra and vibraphonist Tom Edwards was highly improvisational and seemed to emanate from another plane of consciousness.  At its centre was a recounting of Balance's experience of being robbed of his notebook of lyrics on Marylebone Road whilst high on rohypnol.  Elsewhere, even familiar material like Triple Sun and The Dreamer Is Still Asleep was radically transformed, both musically and lyrically.  If I had a time machine that would take me to just one gig, this contribution to the Autechre-curated All Tomorrow's Parties would be the one.  It's certainly the greatest live album I've ever known.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Astral Disaster
Musick To Play In The Dark

Coil - Astral Disaster (1999)

The immediate predecessor to Musick To Play In The Dark (although this remixed & expanded version was released a few months after Musick came out), Astral Disaster was recorded over Halloween (reclaimed as "Samhain" here) 1998.  Gary Ramon of psychedelicists Sun Dial, then on hiatus, invited the new Coil to his London studio where their first proper album emerged after an six-year venture into alter-ego projects.

As mentioned above, Ramon issued the album in 1999 on his own label but in just 99 copies (until a reissue last year) - this is the Threshold House edition, resplendent in its Steven Stapleton collage cover.  Three short tracks intersperse with three epic, mind-warping journeys that showed that Coil was definitely back in business, having built on their experimental years and now fleshed out by new core member Thighpaulsandra.  The Crowleyan monologue of The Sea Priestess looks forward to the coming of Musick, and album closer MÜ-ÜR anticipates Queens Of The Circulating Library.  Late-era Coil had been born.

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Nurse With Wound - Lumb's Sister (2014 compi, rec. 1986-7)

Long overdue some NWW here, so here's one that I've been listening to a lot on the dark evenings.  Originally written as a film soundtrack - the director's eventual choice of alternate music gets a good-natured "aw shucks" from Stapleton in the brief liner note - Lumb's Sister is classic mid-80s Nurse With Wound.

All the expected ingredients are present: huge, formless chasms of ambient sound from which emerge creakings, groanings, occasional soft and ominous rhythms, and so forth.  A selection of Lumb recordings were released as part of a 3LP box set in 1989, shared with Current 93 and Sol Invictus; Stapleton then took an informal run at a reissue circa 2012, which appeared on a few CDRs, before this definitive collection was released in 2014. 

It can probably be taken as a given, knowing the artist's predilection for remixing himself, that at least some of the material was smartened up for final release, but it certainly all sounds fantastic and has an album-like consistency.  As a bonus, Coil appear on Stapleton's remix of How To Destroy Angels.

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Coil - Musick To Play In The Dark (1999)

Before the evenings start to get light again, let's have some prime music for the darkness, with the nocturnal majesty of Coil at their possible career-best.  This album was my entry-point to the alchemical, liquid world of Balance and Christopherson's sound shiftings, on the strength of rave reviews after its release which hailed it as a game-changer.  In hindsight, this was indeed where Coil's last great chapter began, with Julian Cope/Spiritualized collaborator Tim Lewis aka Thighpaulsandra on board.

Like a fair chunk of the Coil ouevre, we start with Jhonn and Sleazy pursuing a ritualistic altered state, in this case combining MDMA with sleep deprivation to create some shivery, watery 'moon musick' of the highest order.  Thighpaulsandra gets a chance to shine with the instrumental Red Birds Will Fly Out Of The East And Destroy Paris In A Night, channeling Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze with a much more unhinged finale. Subsequent illuminations concern media manipulation (Red Queen), childhood and family as ritual (Broccoli), until the gorgeous finale allows for some sleep at last.  There was a Volume 2 a few months later, which continued the musical and lyrical themes but with not quite as strong an end result as this stunning record.

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Psychic TV - Dreams Less Sweet (1983)

Should probably use this week for posting anything Christmassy that I have... no matter how tangential...  What's that song that goes 'Santa Claus is checking his list, going over it twice; to see who is naughty and who is nice'?  Oh yeah, it's Psychic TV.  Any excuse to post the greatest stone-cold (yup, bits of it were recorded in a cave) classic of the post-industrial 80s, Coil notwithstanding - and of course, the core Coil duo were still in the PTV fold at this point, making for an unbeatable supergroup.

I remember listening to White Nights for ages before finding out where that refrain quoted above comes from - it was taught to the children of Jonestown to instill paranoia by the Reverend Jim himself, and all the other lyrics were taken from his horrific final address.  Aside from a cherubic choral rendition of a Manson Family ditty, this was the darkest, and perversely most melodic depths that were plumbed on what was once brilliantly described as 'the Sgt. Pepper of icky music' - wish I could remember what magazine I read that in - and the rest is pretty listenable and accessible stuff considering the roll call of contributors. 

Based around oboe and Reichian marimba, The Orchids is simply gorgeous, one of my favourite songs of all time, and a good chunk of Dreams Less Sweet is the most musically ambitious stuff GPO ever put his mind to - aided in no small part by arranger Andrew Poppy.  19 tracks, many of them fascinating little fragments, zip by in a tight, coherent 43 minutes, and remain a huge high-watermark in the post-TG fallout and in dark, twisted 'England's Hidden Reverse' creepiness in general.  Essential alchemical musick.

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