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Underground > Radio & Music >

Hunting the mythical coil

10:01 / 04.12.05

Over the last few months i've been trying to track down any material by Coil (partly due to things mentioned here and connections with TG, etc) and can't find anything apart from 'tribute' albums.

Can anyone help (i'm located in North-west england

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:30 / 04.12.05

A lot of their stuff's quite hard to get now, since World Serpent (who were handling all the new releases/rereleases) folded, though the new (last ever) Coil album is now available from the Threshold House website. Thread here.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:06 / 04.12.05

Oh, and thread on World Serpent collapsing here. (Bear in mind the thread dates from before Jhon died).

17:26 / 04.12.05

18:04 / 04.12.05

Well, there's always Threshold House that sells some stuff - mostly more recent entries. Some time ago they still had the live CDs from their last tour. Other than that yu can always try London's Music and Video Exchange (that's the exact name of the chain of stores - just google for them - they must have some web presence)but be prepared to pay some ridiculous prices. And, as the last resort, there are always P2P nets - in fact, quite a few Coil concerts that were never released otherwise have been floating around Soulseek and others.

19:17 / 04.12.05

Thanks for the info on threshold house, it looks like i'll be sending them a hefty order in the near future.

As you folks seem knowledgeable on the subject can you recommend any releases i should really try and track down (whats your Coil top 10)?

--

22:38 / 04.12.05

Well, here are some of my favorite Coil CDs:

"Horse Rotorvator": Their second major studio album and my personal favorite of theirs, this album could be one of my top 5 all-time favorites. The opening track, "Anal Staircase", is a total classic, as is the haunting "Ostia". Dark, dramatic, noisy, experimental as fuck.

"Unnatural History 1": The first Coil CD I ever purchased, it's one of my favorites by them. Basically a collection of some of their earliest appearences on other compilations, this one is very dark and well worth seeking out.

"Worship the Glitch": A very experimental work, took me forever to find though.

"Scatology": Coil's first major studio album, another classic.

"Stolen & Contaminated Songs": Perhaps the best of their "remix" albums.

"Love's Secret Domain": Coil's "dance" album.

Also: "Time Machines" and "Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil" are well worth finding. Ditto for "Transparent".

07:20 / 05.12.05

There's little doubt that the eminent coil releases worth tracking down are all from the moon musick period:

- Moon's Milk In Four Phases (collected solstice/equinox EPs)

- Musick To Play In The Dark

- Musick To Play In The Dark Vol 2

- The Ape Of Naples

additionally, most of the live gigs can be tracked down on mp3. of which, i'd especially recommend the New Forms III gig in 2002.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:09 / 06.12.05

If you can grab a copy of Queens Of The Circulating Library, then do so - it's an excellently chunky-synth one-track album that's very much along the Time Machines line - their sort of mystical drone side of things, as opposed to doomindie.

I've never found Coil's stuff that difficult to find. Record stores here (in Sydney) often have their stuff at reasonable prices, and there's always stuff on eBay. I've got a couple of searches set up and the site emails me whenever they turn up. (Same as I do for Soliloquy For Lilith... ONE DAY YOU WILL BE MINE!)

I'm still wanting to get copies of Black Antlers and ANS though...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:13 / 06.12.05

Ah, Queens of the Circulating Library fucking rules (you know that's Balance's mum doing the voice-over?).

Horse Rotorvator and Love's Secret Domain are my favourite "songy" Coil albums... the Moon's Milk double is also ace.

Hmm... favourite Coil albums? It's a tricky one, really, having never met one I didn't like.

The one I listen to most these days is probably Musick To Play In The Dark Volume 1... it's got Red Birds Will Fly Out Of The East And Destroy Paris In A Night on it, which is just ace- imagine Tangerine Dream and Goblin having a fight- and also Broccoli, which is one of the most beautiful and sad pieces of music I own.

The "Live" series are good too... Live Four has a gloriously heartbreaking cover of Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang on it, as well as the wonderfully scary An Unearthly Red.

Haven't heard Ape Of Naples yet, but I can't fucking wait. Soon as that baby turns up, I'll be sat here, drink in hand, tear in eye, toasting the memory of Jhon Balance.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

12:16 / 06.12.05

I'm still wanting to get copies of Black Antlers and ANS though...

Try Threshold House's online store for ANS (it's lovely and droney, and the DVD is a masterpiece of minimalism): though I guess postage to Australia might be a factor for you.

Black Antlers is available there for download too.

22:17 / 06.12.05

ASTRAL DISASTER!

It's what I listened to as I got some wisdom teeth pulled. Wowsa!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:57 / 07.12.05

Ape of Naples is wonderful- it does ALL the things I like Coil to do. Tragic that it's their last, but it certainly makes a fitting epilogue. Fans of British sitcoms from the 70s may get an unexpected treat, as well.

Really. I'll add it unreservedly to my above list of recommendations. It feels like the first time I heard Love's Secret Domain. Yes. That good.

20:02 / 23.12.05

incidentally, twas thighpaulsandra's ma that sang on queens of the circulating libray.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:55 / 23.12.05

You're right there. My mistake!

Rollo Kim, on location

07:50 / 09.01.06

I always 'liked the idea' of Coil but it took me a while to really 'get' their music. Now it's like medicine.

Moon's Milk In Four Phases is superb. Fall asleep to it and it'll give you nightmares.

Red Birds is amazing. Must try and track down some live stuff.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

14:51 / 09.01.06

The bonus disc from Moon's Milk is good if you can find it anywhere still: three long hypnotic ruminations from Balance.

I've only heard two of the live albums, but they're all available to buy from Threshold House still. ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms has a few tracks on it which never made it to studio versions, and the title track is particularly worth hearing.

Rollo Kim, on location

19:08 / 12.01.06

They're definitely one band that I'll be 'actually paying money for physical copies of their work' as and when I have funds.

Does anyone know of a Coil track that apparently sounds like a harbour at night time? Ship-masts chiming etc. ?

Quite recently I worked out that I was stood behind Mr. Balance at the TG Astoria gig. It shames me to say it but once or twice I thought "who is that guy that has come dressed as a Comedy Edwardian Convict with his rubbish massive beard and bowler hat who keeps jumping up on the stage, he must be some kind of nutter."

Mon Oncle Ignatius

21:26 / 12.01.06

Yeah, I thought that about Balance at the Astoria too, and when I realised it was him, I was even more amused. I hope he appears in the DVD.

Hmmm, not sure about the ships in the harbours track. I know they were possibly going to work with LaBradford, whose "Phantom Channel Crossing" could fit the slipper; but that's probably not it.

Rollo Kim, on location

23:11 / 14.01.06

Hmmm.. thanks Tango. I feel inspired to look into it now. And I bet Prisoner Balance makes an appearance in their somewhere - we'll certainly be able to pick him out of the crowd anyway!

I just can't believe I was that close to him and I didn't even try to squeeze his bum. Or just smell his hair.

14:38 / 15.01.06

Just downloaded Musick to Play in the Dark from threshold house and found that it does exactly what it says on the tin - proper incantory moon music. Where would a fellow go on his hunt for the mythical coil from there?

Considering how hard it is to find their stuff now apart from on the download page of the site (and believe me MVE hardly get any in these days) what album would be a realistic place to go from?

10:40 / 02.02.06

Time Machines is one of my all time favourite albums - I think it's amazingly beautiful. I think it's the analogue sound that I like, as well as the slow evolution that each track has which gives the album its hypnotic quality. The naming of the tracks really puts the cherry on the cake.

uncle retrospective

07:21 / 09.03.06

I've just found out from here that Coil are releasing their Dublin gig on DVD. Now I'm not enough of a Coil fan to buy the box set so the question is, did anyone get this (if it's out yet) and can I get a copy of it?

13:11 / 15.03.06

Um, Uncle, the whole dvd thing has been on the cards for a while, but as you'll find at the bottom of the threshold house homepage Sleazy's still working on it...