Coil - Scatology

Coil's first official full-length album, Scatology, originally released on LP in 1984 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 Virgin Prunes, and one Raoul Revere (who is in fact British 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 sombre 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. 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.

Coil - Panic / Tainted Love 12"

This is a probably bit out there, but I was reminded of this single and especially this version of Tainted Love at an 80’s themed birthday party last night. The song “Tainted Love” was originally written by Ed Cobb and recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965 (thanks Wikipedia). It became famous again with the 1981 synth-pop version by Soft Cell. Bet you can guess which version the DJ was playing…

Back then in 1985 though, Coil covered it. Slowed it right the fuck down. Then released it as a benefit for an AIDS Charity. The slow version brought out a new meaning in the lyrics:

    Once I ran to you, now I run from you

    This tainted love you’ve given

    I give you all a boy could give you

    Take my heart and that’s not nearly all

It captured something of the despair and panic of those early AIDS days in the gay and alternative world, where something terrifying was happening. Thirty plus years later and the emotion still comes through.

Loves Secret Domain

Coil (based around the two core members: John Balance, and Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson) have always been challenging, their first release was the one-sided 12" 'How To Destroy Angels' recorded in 1984. A 17-minute percussive improvisation subtitled "Ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy"; not really the kind of thing you'd pop on to kill a few idle minutes, or for a family sing-a-long for that matter. The first album 'Scatology' was equally challenging, but offers more in the way of aural-stimulation; and if you haven't heard the cover of 'Tainted Love' (ground down to half-speed) then it's worth hearing just for that. 'Horse Rotorvator' followed and seemed to benefit greatly from Balance and Christopherson gaining a little focus in their endeavours. While 'Horse Rotorvator' holds several unquestionable jewels (such as the haunting 'Ostia (the Death of Pasolini)', the nervy and unsettling single 'The Anal Staircase', and great instrumentals such as ‘Ravenous’), it was on this much later album (recorded at the close of the 80's, from 1988 to 1990) that the whole Coil-ethos seems to gel, pulsate and envelop. ‘L.S.D.’ (you mean you hadn't noticed?) is certainly less challenging than both 'Scatology' and 'Horse Rotorvator', but only insofar as it's easier to listen to (and since when has that been a crime?) and the reward it affords is most certainly equal to both.

'Out of Light Cometh Darkness', screams the cover. And out of both, screameth Coil.

Horse Rotorvator

The title Horse Rotorvator is explained in the liner notes as a device large enough to "plough up the waiting world," created from the jawbones of the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Bay City Rollers this isn't. On the group's second full album, Coil continue the refinement of brute noise and creepily serene arrangements into a truly modern psychedelia, from tribal drumming and death march guitars to disturbing samples and marching band samples and back. John Balance shares the same haggard, mystic vocal delivery common to fellow explorers of the edge like David Tibet and Edward Ka-Spel, but he has his own blasted and burnt touch to it all. His lyrical subjects range from emotional extremism of many kinds to blunt, often homoerotic imagery (matched at points in the artwork and packaging) and meditations on death. As a result the cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire" isn't as surprising as one might think. Previous guest Marc Almond appears again on the track with backing vocals, as well as adding them to "Slur," which is composed of an unsettling mix of harmonica, bells, percussion and whatever else can be imagined. Other guests include Almond's then-musical partner Billy McGee, adding a haunting, sometimes grating, string arrangement to "Ostia," which is about the murder of radical Italian filmmaker Pasolini, and Clint Ruin, aka Foetus, adding his typically warped brass touches to "Circles of Mania." Paul Vaughan narrates the lyrics on "The Golden Section," creating a stunning piece that in its combination of demonic imagery and sweeping, cinematic arrangements holds a common ground with In the Nursery. All the guests help contribute to the album's overall effect, but this is Coil's own vision above all else, eschewing easy clichés on all fronts to create unnerving, never easily digested invocations of musical power.

What surprises me, though, is how small the 80's era of Coil is, in terms of material. In spite of all this, my favourite Coil record might just be from their 80's era, before they'd turn to more ambient, abstract and experimental ventures. That would be Horse Rotorvator, a concept album that's apparently about a world-destroying device of the same name, made out of the jawbones of the Four Horsemen's horses.

The first thing to go over is the music, since it's the hardest to describe: Coil may have not dabbled in industrial music for very long, but Horse Rotorvator isn't any less than that; in fact, it's the most industrial that the group ever got... well, its first half is. See, even if this era consists mostly of "Sex", there is still "Death", and that's what sticks out in tracks 7-12; the number are a lot more atmospheric and sombre, with "Circles of Mania" (fittingly the most manic number on the album, driven by a screwed up brass section and an absolutely insane vocal part).

Truth be told, those songs are all excellent. Even the bonus track "Ravenous", which was only added to the record on CD releases, fits perfectly thanks to its hellish mood, based on low synthesized voices and further punctuated by a screwed up, chaotic guitar line, a harmonica part, and sound effects ranging from elephant calls to the stomping of horses. There's also "Blood From The Air"; I consider it the weakest track on here, but it's still very cool thanks to the weird assortment of effects that appear throughout, along with the already strong melody that lays the foundation for the song.

The last three tracks are much more memorable, however: "Who By Fire" is, very interestingly, a cover of a song by folk musician Leonard Cohen. I have yet to listen to the original track, but I do see the folk elements stick out (especially in terms of structure), and the translation from that genre into industrial is very well done. "The Golden Section", in the meantime, justifies its 6-minute length thanks to the combination of a marching band drum line, string and brass arrangements, and synthesized voices (as in "Ravenous"), along with a spoken narration that talks about Azrael, the Angel of Death. It's definitely intriguing.

The album closes with "The First Five Minutes After Death", and much like "Ravenous", it wins out thanks to the amazing atmosphere it creates, even if the high brass(?) line seems more like it's noodling rather than making a coherent melody. Much like the previous five tracks, it's nothing I would recommend to everyone on the planet, including their 2-year old children and grandparents, but these 6 songs already make Horse Rotorvator a masterpiece of the industrial genre, recommended for any fan. So, in that case, why do I think it's Coil's best record?

Well, the first six songs are fucking amazing, and they make up the most visceral, hilarious and terrifying 22 minutes that the group has ever committed to a slab of vinyl or polycarbonate plastic. They're at their most provocative without resorting to drone or anything easy of the sort, and they handle their intentionally "comedic" approach in such a way that you totally believe what they're saying. If you don't count the short "Babylero" and "Herald", which simply serve as (effective) transitions, then all four of the songs are classics, and among Coil's best.

The album opens with "The Anal Staircase", a scary opening tune made especially incredible because the one semblance of a main melody (I believe it's a sample, but I'm not even sure) is located in the background of the song, with all of the percussion, effects and vocals in front. Add to that all of the voice clips, and the track perfectly depicts some kind of demonic staircase of torment, perversion and sexual catharsis, down to the strange sample that ends the song. It's followed by "Slur", which seems even more circular in nature, in that it sounds like it keeps spinning round and round; the most memorable part of it is the elephantine melody; everything else seems to be lost in the glorious chaos.

Guess what? Those aren't even the best tracks. No, I saved the best for last: Horse Rotorvator has the chance to host two huge centrepieces, both of which capture best most of the group's ideology. The first, "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)", is an irresistibly sombre tune, driven by a sharp strings arrangement and a keyboard line with the same type of coldness and precision as ancient Greek architecture, dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini, a highly controversial film director who was murdered on the beach at Ostia, a neighbourhood in Rome. I'd even dare say this is Coil's most striking exploration of the subject of death.

And yet, this is still not the best cut on here. Nope. That would be "Penetralia", my favourite Coil song, period. It's got no lyrics: the most we get are some unintelligible vocal samples. What you get is the most powerful and angry industrial song ever made. Nothing that Nine Inch Nails, Ministry or even fucking Swans have put out comes close to demonstrating such fury and crushing force as what the drum machines and the brass lines manage to create in this song. What shocks me the most is that Coil don't really aim for emotion or anger, and yet, "Penetralia" brings up a more powerful emotion in me than most of my music library, capturing both the pure, primal energy of sex and the absolute menace of death.

Whew.

Now, with that out of my system, you got no reason not to check out Horse Rotorvator if you want to get into either Coil or industrial music: by both the group and the genre's standards, it's pretty accessible, and even if you don't get into the first half, the second holds tons of goodies for those who pay attention and serves as an excellent introduction into the rest of Coil's very, very large discography.

You can't go wrong with this one