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Coil (band)

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Coil <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Constant Shallowness promo.jpg
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Background information

<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">London, England</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Experimental</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1982 – 2005</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Threshold House, Eskaton, Chalice, Solar Lodge</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">John Balance
Peter Christopherson
Thighpaulsandra</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Former members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Stephen Thrower
William Breeze
Danny Hyde
Drew McDowall
Simon Norris</td></tr>

Coil (1982 - 13 November, 2004) were a cross-genre, experimental music group who worked in such forms as industrial, noise, ambient and dark ambient, neo-folk, spoken word, drone music, and minimalism.

Formed by John Balance (sometimes credited as Jhonn Balance) and Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records co-founder Peter Christopherson (aka 'Sleazy') when both left Psychic TV, Coil originally performed live as Zos Kia, and on another early recording as the Sickness of Snakes. Over time, Coil's line-up has included Stephen Thrower, Rose McDowall, Drew McDowall, Danny Hyde, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra, CoH and Simon Norris with live contributions from Cliff Stapleton, Tom Edwards, and Mike York. In 2005 Peter Christopherson announced on the groups' record-label website, Threshold House that Coil as an entity ended with the death of its founding member, Jhonn Balance.

Contents

[edit] Background

Image:EarlyCoilPolaroid.jpg

After leaving Psychic TV, John and Peter's first work together was with Zos Kia. It was while working on their first official release, How To Destroy Angels, that they settled on the name Coil. The two track LP was described on the album cover, as "ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy", and was said to have been produced under a variety of technological, spiritual, and meteorological conditions which the band felt to be magickally significant. There were several versions of this record released, on which the B-side was smooth unpressed vinyl, unplayable noise-filled grooves, layered music, test tones or other sounds and noise of a similar nature.

Even their distribution and marketing techniques were left-of-center, sometimes producing only as many as 99 copies of an album, making them collectors' items among devotees. Including things such as "art objects", blood stains and sigil-like autographs in the packaging of their albums, they claim this makes their work more personal for true fans, turning their records into something akin to occultish artifacts. This practice was markedly increased in the later half of Coil's career. Some critics have accused Coil and its record company of price gouging. In 2003, Coil began re-releasing many rare works, mostly remixed, into general circulation.

[edit] Scatology, Horse Rotorvator, and Love's Secret Domain Years

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After the underground hit How To Destroy Angels Coil produced their first studio album, Scatology, a work largely based around the ideals of industrial music as well as other British groups at the time. While some of the songs do not seem a world away from radio play, such as Restless Day, Panic and Tainted Love, other songs represented a foundation to a style unique to Coil's following releases.

Horse Rotorvator followed, retaining less elements of the classic industrial sound. Although many songs sound like evolved versions of Scatology material, such as "The Anal Staircase" and "Circles of Mania", the majority of the album is a unique sound, characterized by slower tempos. Gold Is The Metal With The Broadest Shoulders followed as a full length release, marking the beginning of the label Threshold House. However, the album is merely a collection of outtakes from earlier sessions.

Love's Secret Domain followed as the next 'proper' Coil album, although a few notable releases were produced between the time of Horse Rotorvator and LSD. LSD was clearly a sign of progression in the line of Coil's style. The album presented a template for what would be representative of newer waves of industrial music seemlessly blending with their own form of acid house. Stolen & Contaminated Songs followed as a full length release. However, in the spirit of Gold Is The Metal..., it is merely a collection of outtakes and demos from the LSD era.

[edit] Side Projects & Soundtracks

Image:ELpHAccordingToBrainwashed.jpg

Coil also separated their works into many side-projects, publishing music under different names when created using different styles. The pre-Coil aliases, Zos Kia and The Sickness of Snakes, formed the loose foundation of a style that would later mature and evolve to characterize their inital wave of releases.

Before embarking on their second wave of side projects, Coil contributed music to two of Derek Jarman's films, Blue and The Angelic Conversation. Coil also produced music to the documentary Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex, though the soundtrack remains unreleased.

Much like the early side projects, the later side projects represented a sort of primordial soup from which Coil would evolve a new wave of sound from. While Nasa Arab, credited to the project "The Eskaton", seemed to represent Coil's perfection of acid house, the following projects, ELpH, Black Light District, and Time Machines, were all based heavily on experimentation with drone, an ingredient which would define later Coil's later style of music. These releases also kicked off the start of Coil's new label, Eskaton.

[edit] Late Coil

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After the wave of experimental 'side projects' Coil's sound was completely redefined. Before releasing new material, Coil put out the compilations Unnatural History II, Windowpane & The Snow and Unnatural History III. In March of 1998 Coil released the first single which would become part of the Moons Milk (In Four Phases) series. Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 1 followed in September of 1999 and Coil performed their first concert in 16 a few months later. Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 2 followed the next year and Coil began to perform heavily, writing the music for Black Antlers in between a series of mini-tours. In December of 2005, the final Coil album, The Ape of Naples, was released.

Unlike many of the earlier releases Coil's music was characterized by a slower sound which relied more heavily on drone style than acid house. This change in sound was reflected in their live performances as songs like "Ostia" and "Slur" were slowed down from their original pace.

[edit] Coil Live

Image:2004July25CoilLivePic6.jpg
Main article: Coil Live

Coil's live incarnation has a distinct legacy of its own. The initial performances took place in 1983, however they stopped playing live for 16 years after a mere four performances.

On 1999 December 14 Coil performed Elph.zwölf at Volksbuehne in Berlin. Although the performance lasted just under 18 minutes, it marked the beginning of a new era of what would become a series of legendary performances. Coil would go on to perform nearly 50 more concerts, with varied setlists as well as performers.

Many Coil performances were released, including the widely available releases of Live Four, Live Three, Live Two, Live One and ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms. Several concerts are expected to be released on the upcoming Coil box set Colour Sound Oblivion.

[edit] Death of John Balance

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John Balance died on 13 November, 2004 after falling from a second floor landing in his home. Peter Christopherson made the official announcement on the Thresholdhouse.com website, accompanied by a thorough description of the events of that night. Balance's memorial service was held near Bristol on November 23rd and was attended by approximately 100 people[1].

Several tribute albums were released in memory of Balance including the compilations "...It Just Is" and "X-Rated: The Dark Files". The album "How He Loved The Moon" by Current 93, and the collective album of 17 french artists called Coilectif "In memory ov John Balance and homage to Coil" were also dedicated to Balance. On December 23, 2005, a memorial concert was held for Balance. Performers included Christopherson's new solo effort The Threshold HouseBoy's Choir, Alec Empire and CoH.

[edit] Coil after Balance

On 25 November, 2005 it was announced that Coil would be releasing a number of video, audio and other works that were in various states of completion at the time of John's death, and all other planned appearances and releases would be cancelled, ending the band's twenty-three year artistic career. In December 2004, it was decided by Peter and John's partner that any releases, either as Coil or solo work that John was working on at the time of his death, would be delayed until enough time had passed to mourn John's passing, recuperate from the loss, and be able to assess the quality of the work. It is very likely that only work under John's own name will be released, as Peter Christopherson has said that Coil as an entity has ceased to exist.

In April of 2005 ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms was released, followed by the final studio album, The Ape of Naples, on December 2nd. In August of 2006 the rare CD-R releases The Remote Viewer and Black Antlers were "sympathetically remastered" and expanded into two disc versions, which included new and recently remixed material. A comprehensive DVD boxset, titled Colour Sound Oblivion, is also in the works and is scheduled to be released by Christmas of 2006[2]. Peter Christopherson has also discussed the possiblity of releasing Coil's entire back catalogue on a single Blu-ray disc[3][4].

In November of 2006 the official Coil website posted the following announcement: "Following the success of Thai pressings of The Remote Viewer and Black Antlers, and after many requests, we are planning to expand the cd catalog still further."[5]

[edit] Coil members

Coil have had a seemingly endless list of member and collaborators over the years. Jhonn Balance was credited as the leader of Coil, although the project was originally conceived with Peter Christopherson's leaving Psychic TV along with Balance.

  • Otto Avery appears in the booklet for Love's Secret Domain, however never actually participated in Coil's music[6].
  • John Balance founder of Coil, is almost exclusively the vocalist.
  • William Breeze was Coil's electric viola player starting in 1997.
  • Peter Christopherson was the chief producer for Coil.
  • Danny Hyde has been a Coil collaborator since the beginning and throughout most of the group's career. His contributions include production and co-writing some material.
  • Massimo & Pierce of Black Sun Productions were members of Coil Live all through 2002 and they collaborated with Jhonn Balance and Peter Christopherson on a number of projects from 2002 to this day. Coil released Black Sun Productions' member and sound artist draZen's soundtrack for Massimo & Pierce's performance Plastic Spider Thing on their label Eskaton in 2002.
  • Drew McDowall began collaboration with Coil in 1990 and officially inducted in 1995. He left the group sometime in 1999 or 2000.
  • Rose McDowall provided vocals for several tracks including Things Happen, Rosa Decidua and Christmas Is Now Drawing Near. She also collaborated with Coil for the short lived project Rosa Mundi.
  • Simon Norris has been a Coil collaborator since about 1992 and toured extensively with them in the 2000's.
  • Thighpaulsandra contributed to a number of Coil releases as well, creating the entire instrumental for the album Queens Of The Circulating Library. He officially joined on January 26th, 1999[7] and participated until the final album, The Ape of Naples.
  • Stephen Thrower worked with Coil from 1987 to 1992.
  • Mike York was part of the Coil Live collective for a limited time.

[edit] Creative methods

Coil's level of detail and non-traditional approach to music is found in all aspects of their work. They've been known to utilise the following methods and exotic devices:

[edit] Influences

John was always encouraging fans to trade, talk about and discover new and different forms of music, stressing the importance of variety. Music that has influenced and informed Coil's sound is diverse and wide-ranging, from musique concrete to folk music to hardcore punk to classical. A sampling of this includes:

Image:2000June17CoilWithStockhausenAtSonar.jpg

[edit] Influence on others

  • The album Scatology by rap group The Great White Hype was a freestyle rap parody of Scatology based around its samples. See Record Label Records.
  • The track At The Heart Of It All (found on Scatology) later became the name of an Aphex Twin track on Further Down The Spiral. It is possible that Trent Reznor named the track as a reference to Coil, who provided remixes for the same album.
  • Some have wondered if Coil's dark cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love (1984, on Scatology) hasn't been the basis for the piano-and-bells background for the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd's hit High Hopes (1994, on The Division Bell).

[edit] Discography

Main article: Coil discography

Coil's rapid musical output over 23 years has resulted in a large amount of releases, side projects, remixes as well as collaborations.

Primary & notable releases:

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Interviews, reviews, articles:

Miscellaneous:

  • The ANS Photoelectronic Synthesizer : cf. album ANS, "An album of material recorded using the ANS Synthesizer, a one-of-a-kind photoelectronic instrument at Moscow State University."

More:

CAN-Drummer Jaki Liebezeit vs. Datenverarbeiter http://www.datenverarbeiter.com/de:Coil (Band) fr:Coil it:Coil nl:Coil ru:Coil fi:Coil

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