Coil were an English
experimental music
Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
group formed in 1982 in London and dissolved in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by musician
John Balance (of the band
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...
), Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of his partner and Psychic TV bandmate
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis.
He also ...
(formerly of pioneering
industrial music group
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of in ...
). Coil's work explored themes related to
the occult
''The Occult: A History'' is a 1971 nonfiction occult book by English writer, Colin Wilson. Topics covered include Aleister Crowley, George Gurdjieff, Helena Blavatsky, Kabbalah, primitive magic, Franz Mesmer, Grigori Rasputin, Daniel Dunglas H ...
,
sexuality
Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
,
alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
, and drugs while influencing genres such as
gothic rock
Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...
,
neofolk
Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrume ...
and
dark ambient
Dark ambient (referred to as ambient industrial especially in the 1980s) is a genre of post-industrial musicReed, Alexander: ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 190 that features an ominous, ...
.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
called the group "one of the most beloved, mythologized groups to emerge from the British
post-industrial
In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy.
The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related t ...
scene."
After the release of their 1984 debut EP ''
How to Destroy Angels'', Coil joined
Some Bizzare Records
Some Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, Neu Electrik ...
, through which they released two full-length albums, ''
Scatology
In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces.
Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases ...
'' (1985) and ''
Horse Rotorvator'' (1986). In 1985, the group began working on a series of soundtracks, among them the
rejected score for the first ''
Hellraiser
''Hellraiser'' is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella ''The Hellbound Heart'', the film's plot concerns a mystical puzzle box that summons the ...
'' film. After departing from Some Bizzare, Coil established their own record label,
Threshold House, through which they produced and released ''
Love's Secret Domain'' (1991). Financial difficulties slowed the group's work in the early 1990s before they returned to the project on releases such as ''
Astral Disaster'' (1999), and the ''Musick to Play in the Dark'' series composed of ''
Vol. 1'' (1999) and ''
Vol. 2'' (2000), as well as releasing several projects under aliases such as Black Light District, ELpH, and Time Machines.
Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other contributors throughout the band's career included
Stephen Thrower,
Danny Hyde,
Drew McDowall,
William Breeze,
Thighpaulsandra
Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...
and
Ossian Brown. With involvement from these members, the group also started several smaller independent vanity labels, including
Eskaton and
Chalice
A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...
. The group's first live performance in 16 years occurred in 1999, and began a series of mini-tours that would last until 2004.
Following the accidental death of John Balance on 13 November 2004, Christopherson formally announced that Coil as a creative entity had ceased to exist, ending the Coil discography with ''
The Ape of Naples'' (2005). Posthumous releases and compilations of unreleased material have since followed this. Christopherson died in 2010.
History
1982–1983: Formation and early years
In 1978, John Balance (born Geoff
eyBurton; also known as Rushton, his stepfather's surname) was a teenage zine journalist, writing—along with his schoolmate Tom Craig, a grandson of
Edward Carrick and great-grandson of
Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Henry Gordon CraigSome sources give "Henry Edward Gordon Craig". (born Edward Godwin; 16 January 1872 – 29 July 1966), sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director an ...
—under a moniker ''
Stabmental'', through which he published articles on UK underground artists, including seminal
industrial bands Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of in ...
and
Cabaret Voltaire. A Throbbing Gristle fan, Balance had contacted them via mail, and thus befriended the Throbbing Gristle frontperson
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...
. In February 1980, Balance had attended a Throbbing Gristle gig recorded and released as ''
Heathen Earth'', where he had first met P-Orridge's bandmate
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis.
He also ...
and befriended him as well.
Following the dissolution of Throbbing Gristle in 1981, P-Orridge, Christopherson, and
Alex Fergusson (formerly of
Alternative TV) went on to form the new project, titled
Psychic TV
Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...
, along with the accompanying fellowship titled
Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Balance, who had attended the
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
for a short time and participated in Brian Williams'
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a Welsh musician, sound designer and composer. He has released albums under the name Lustmord starting in the 1980s and through the present.
Williams began as a recording artist within the industrial genre, working with Ch ...
project,
returned in London to live with Christopherson—with whom a romantic partnership had begun. As a Psychic TV member, Balance participated in the recording of the single "Just Drifting" (from the album ''
Force the Hand of Chance'') and, the following year, of the album ''
Dreams Less Sweet
''Dreams Less Sweet'' is the second studio album by English experimental music, experimental band Psychic TV, released in 1983. It was the last Psychic TV album to feature co-founder Peter Christopherson, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson.
Recordi ...
''.
Already having an experience of performing and recording previous to his tenure in Psychic TV, Balance went on to use the name Coil in 1982, originally envisioned for a solo project.
In 1983, Balance wrote a manifesto titled ''The Price of Existence Is Eternal Warfare'' and sent a tape of the song "On Balance", dated 5 May 1982,
to Gary Levermore's label
Third Mind Records for an inclusion on a compilation album ''Rising From The Red Sand''; Levermore, however, had rejected the track. Despite this, Balance had recorded three more new tracks—"S for Sleep", "Red Weather", and "Here to Here (Double-Headed Secret)"—on 11 May 1983.
On 4 August 1983, Coil—as the duo of Balance and Christopherson—had played its first gig in London at the Magenta Club, during a screening of films by
Cerith Wyn Evans
Cerith Wyn Evans (born 1958 in Llanelli) is a Welsh conceptual artist, sculptor and film-maker. In 2018 he won the £30,000 Hepworth Prize for Sculpture.
Early life and education
The son of Sulwyn and Myfanwy Evans, Evans was born in Llanelli. ...
and
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
Biography
Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...
.
Since Christopherson's commitments for Psychic TV—in which he had become disillusioned due to growing conflict with P-Orridge—still limited his participation in Coil, Balance approached
John Gosling John Gosling may refer to:
*John Gosling (The Kinks musician) (1948–2023), British keyboardist in The Kinks
*John Gosling (Psychic TV musician) (born 1963), British big beat and industrial musician
*John Gosling (cricketer, born 1833) (1833–188 ...
—also Psychic TV member who fronted his own project
Zos Kia—to work with. Balance's and Gosling's collaboration resulted in the next three gigs during 1983, with the last one being performed in December on Berlin Atonal festival, where Balance participated as both Psychic TV and Coil member. The recordings from aforementioned gigs, as well as "On Balance", were later included on Zos Kia/Coil split album ''
Transparent'', released in February 1984 by Austrian label Nekrophile Records.
Since January 1984, Balance and Christopherson had departed from Psychic TV and the Temple of Psychic Youth, in order to make Coil as a full-time concern.
1984–1986: ''How to Destroy Angels'' and Some Bizzare years
The band's official recording debut, an extended play titled ''
How to Destroy Angels'', was released on the
Good Friday
Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...
(20 April) of 1984 by a Belgian-based label L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecords.
Recorded on 19 February 1984 at Britannia Row Studios, the album was dedicated to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
as the god of spring and war, using predominantly iron and steel instruments.
Shortly after in May 1984, Coil went on to record their first full-length studio album, eventually titled ''
Scatology
In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces.
Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases ...
'', approaching
JG Thirlwell as a co-producer and co-composer;
several others contributors, including
Stephen Thrower, Alex Fergusson and
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.
Early life
Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin an ...
, took part in its recording. ''Scatologys themes echoed those of ''How to Destroy Angels'', while focusing mainly on alchemy as an idea of transforming matter.
''Scatology'' was released in early 1985 with a 1984 copyright date by the band's own label, Force & Form, and K.422 (a
Some Bizzare Records
Some Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, Neu Electrik ...
sublabel), to mainly positive feedback. Shortly after, a single featuring a remix of "
Panic
Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...
" and a cover of "
Tainted Love" was released, with the profits being donated to the
Terrence Higgins Trust; hailed since then as the first AIDS benefit music release, it was supported with the "Tainted Love" video directed by Christopherson, which was purchased by
The Museum of Modern Art in New York, U.S.
''Horse Rotorvator'' followed in 1986 as the next full-length release. Although songs such as "The Anal Staircase" and "Circles of Mania" sound like evolved versions of ''Scatology'' material, the album is characterized by slower tempos, and represented a new direction for the group. The album has a darker theme than previous releases, according to Balance:
Horse Rotorvator was this vision I'd had of this mechanical/flesh thing that ploughed up the earth and I really did have a vision of it—a real horrible, burning, dripping, jaw-like vision in the night ... The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse killed their horses and use their jawbones to make this huge earth-moving machine."
The artwork features a photograph of the location of a notorious
IRA bombing, in which a bomb was detonated on a military orchestra pavilion.
''Horse Rotorvator'' was in part influenced by the
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
-related deaths of some of their friends.
Furthermore, the song "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" is about the mysterious death of
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...
, as well as what Balance described as "the number one suicide spot in the world", the
white cliffs of Dover
The White Cliffs of Dover are the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face, which reaches a height of , owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint, depo ...
.
''Gold Is the Metal...'' and ''Unnatural History'' (1986–1990)
After the release of ''Horse Rotorvator'', Coil left Some Bizzare Records, since they fell out with its owner
Stevo Pearce. ''
Gold Is the Metal (With the Broadest Shoulders)'' followed as a full-length release in 1987, marking the beginning of the band's own label,
Threshold House—the album is described in the liner notes as "not the follow-up to ''Horse Rotorvator'', but a completely separate package – a stopgap and a breathing space – the space between two twins", which refers to ''Horse Rotorvator'' and ''Love's Secret Domain''.
The 13-track ''Unnatural History'' compilation was then released on Threshold House in 1990. The first three songs on the album were first released as one half of the ''Nightmare Culture'' mini-album.
''Love's Secret Domain'' (1991–1992)
''Love's Secret Domain'' (abbreviated ''LSD'') followed in 1991 as the next "proper" Coil album, although a few minor releases had been produced since ''Horse Rotorvator''. ''LSD'' represents a progression in Coil's style and became a template for what would be representative of
newer waves of post-industrial music, blended with their own style of
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
.
Although the album was more upbeat, it was not intended as a dance record, as Christopherson explained "I wouldn't say it's a party atmosphere, but it's more positive."
"
Windowpane" and a
Jack Dangers remix of "
The Snow" were released as singles, both of which had music videos directed by Christopherson. The video for "Windowpane" was shot in the
Golden Triangle, where, Balance claimed, "the original Thai and Burmese drug barons used to exchange opium for gold bars with the CIA."
Christopherson recalled "John
alancediscovered while he was performing that where he was standing was quicksand! In the video you can actually see him getting deeper and deeper."
Furthermore,
Thai friends of the group commented that they had known of several people that died where Coil had shot footage for the music video.
A music video for the song "Love's Secret Domain" was also shot, which was initially unreleased due to its nature: as Christopherson explained, "We shot 'Love's Secret Domain' in a go-go boy bar in Bangkok; with John
alanceperforming on stage with about 20 or 30 dancing boys, which probably won't get played on MTV, in fact!"
As of January 2015, the music video is viewable on more than one YouTube channel. ''
Stolen & Contaminated Songs'' followed as a full-length release in 1992. However, as with ''Gold Is the Metal...'', it is a collection of outtakes and demos from the ''LSD'' era.
Soundtracks and side projects (1993–1998)
Coil separated their works into many
side project
In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style.
Usually these projects emphasize ...
s, publishing music under different names and a variety of styles. The pre-Coil aliases, Zos Kia and Sickness of Snakes, formed the foundation of a style that would evolve to characterize their initial wave of releases.
Before embarking on their second wave of side projects and pseudonyms, Coil created a soundtrack for the movie ''
Hellraiser
''Hellraiser'' is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella ''The Hellbound Heart'', the film's plot concerns a mystical puzzle box that summons the ...
'', although they withdrew from the project when they suspected their music would not be used.
Furthermore, Coil claimed inspiration for
Pinhead was partly drawn from the piercing magazines that director Barker borrowed from the group.
Balance explained after the release of ''Stolen and Contaminated Songs'', in around 1992:
Yeah it would have been brilliant but we wouldn't have carried on, because they were changing everything and they weren't being very nice to us, the actual film people. They were keeping us in the dark a lot. We said we'd had enough just at the same time they decided they wanted to use Howard Shore. They just wanted normal film music. They didn't want anything too scary which is sad and ridiculous for a horror film.
Also in 1992, Threshold House released a "
Remixes And Re-Recordings" version of ''How to Destroy Angels''.
Nurse with Wound's
Steven Stapleton contributed a remix of the song, "How To Destroy Angels II".
In 1993, Coil contributed music to
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
Biography
Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...
's film ''
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
''. Their 1985 score for Jarman's ''
The Angelic Conversation'' was released on CD in 1994. In addition, they recorded soundtracks for the documentary ''
Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex'' as well as ''Sarah Dales Sensuous Massage''.
Much like the pre-Coil aliases, Coil's series of side projects represented a diverse basis from which the group evolved a different style of sound. While ''
Nasa Arab''—credited to the group's project "The Eskaton"—was Coil's farewell to the acid house genre, the following projects,
ELpH,
Black Light District, and
Time Machines, were all based heavily on experimentation with
drone, an ingredient that would define Coil's following work. These releases also launched the start of Coil's new label
Eskaton.
''Transparent'' was reissued in CD format in 1997 on Threshold House. A disc and booklet were packaged in a "thick" slipcase, which was released
in partnership with the World Serpent music company.
Late Coil (1998–2004)
After the wave of experimental side projects, Coil's sound was completely redefined. Before releasing new material, the group released the compilations ''
Unnatural History II'', ''
Windowpane & The Snow'' and ''
Unnatural History III''. In March 1998, Coil began to release a series of four singles which were timed to coincide with the
equinox
A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...
and
solstice
A solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly sun path, excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around 20–22 June and 20–22 December. In many countries ...
s of that year. The singles are characterized by slow, drone-like instrumental rhythms, and electronic or orchestral instrumentation.
The first single, ''
Spring Equinox: Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull'', featured two versions of the same song, the second version of which included an
electric viola contribution from a newly inducted member,
William Breeze. The second single, ''
Summer Solstice: Bee Stings'', also featured performances by Breeze, and also included the
industrial-
noise
Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...
song "A Warning from the Sun (For Fritz)", which was dedicated to a friend of Balance and Christopherson's who had committed suicide earlier that year.
The third single, ''
Autumn Equinox: Amethyst Deceivers'', includes the track "Rosa Decidua", which features vocals by
Rose McDowall. The single also features the song "Amethyst Deceivers", later reworked and performed throughout most of Coil's tour—it was eventually re-made into an alternate version on the LP ''
The Ape of Naples''. The fourth single, ''
Winter Solstice: North'', also includes a track sung by McDowall, and is partially credited to the side project
Rosa Mundi. The series would later be re-released as the double-CD set, ''
Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)''.
''
Astral Disaster'' was created with the assistance from new band member
Thighpaulsandra
Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...
, and was released in January 1999 via Sun Dial member
Gary Ramon's label, Prescription.
Although the album was initially limited to just 99 copies, it would later be re-released in a substantially different form. ''
Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 1'' followed in September 1999, and a few months later Coil performed their first concert in 16 years.
''
Queens Of The Circulating Library'' followed in April 2000, with production credit given to Thighpaulsandra. The single-track, full-length drone album is the only Coil release made without the assistance of Christopherson. ''
Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 2'' followed in September 2000, and Coil began to perform live more intensively, a period that also included writing the music for ''
Black Antlers'' in between a series of mini-tours.
Coil also released a series of live albums around this time. ''
Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil'', a
noise
Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...
-driven experimental album reminiscent of Christopherson's work with Throbbing Gristle, was first sold at a live performance in September 2000. Coil finally released ''Black Antlers'' in June 2004.
In contrast to many of their earlier releases, Coil's later material is characterized by a slower sound which relies more on drone 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, as well as re-recordings of "Teenage Lightning" and "Amethyst Deceivers" that were later released on ''The Ape Of Naples''.
Coil Live
Coil's live incarnation is associated with a distinct legacy. The first live shows took place in 1983, but after only four performances, 15 years would pass before they would play live again.
On 14 December 1999, 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 live performances. Coil would go on to perform close to 50 additional concerts, with varied
set lists as well as performers.
Coil performed twice at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000. The first concert was in April, as part of a weekend curated by Julian Cope, when they first performed as the full band line-up – and wearing the "fluffy suits" that would become a staple of live performances for the first time – performing ''Time Machines''. They performed again in September, sharing a bill with Jim Thirlwell (as
Foetus
A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a ...
) on that occasion. Both performances were full sets.
Coil's performances were surrealistic visually and audibly. The signature fluffy suits, an idea inspired by
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
, played a foremost role at the live shows.
The suits would later be used as album covers for the release ''
Live One'', while other costumes appear on the covers of ''
Live Two'' and ''
Live Three''—straitjacket and mirror-chested hooded jumpsuit, respectively. Video screens projected footage and animations created by Christopherson, while fog machines created an eerie atmosphere. Balance would often screech and howl during performances, which would add to the effect.
The band's performance at the 2003
All Tomorrow's Parties
"All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released as the band's debut single in 1966. The song is from their 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''.
Inspiration for the so ...
festival was released as ''
...And the Ambulance Died in His Arms''. Released on Threshold House in 2005 as a digipak, a Thai version was released the following year. ''...And the Ambulance Died in His Arms'' was released under a name chosen by Balance before his death in November 2004.
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'', as well as several very limited editions, such as ''
Selvaggina, Go Back Into The Woods'' and ''
Megalithomania!''. Video recordings of several concerts were released on the DVD box set, ''Colour Sound Oblivion'', in 2010.
Coil's final performance was on 23 October 2004, at DEAF (Dublin Electronic Arts Festival), Dublin City Hall in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.
Deaths of Balance and Christopherson
Balance died on 13 November 2004, after he fell from a second-floor landing in his home. Christopherson announced Balance's death on the Threshold House website, and provided details of the circumstances of the death. Balance's memorial service was held near Bristol on 23 November 2004, and was attended by approximately 100 people.
The final studio album, ''The Ape of Naples'', was released on 2 December 2005. In August 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 16-DVD boxset, titled ''Colour Sound Oblivion'', was released in July 2010. A "Patron Edition" was pre-orderable in November 2009 and sold out in three hours. Christopherson also discussed the possibility of releasing Coil's entire back catalogue on a single
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
disc.
In November 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." A few days later ''
Duplais Balance'' and ''Moon's Milk in Six Phases'' were announced.
Furthermore, an expanded vinyl version of ''The Ape of Naples'', which includes the album ''
The New Backwards'', has been released, and a two-disc version of ''
Time Machines'' has been announced.
Six years after the death of Balance, Christopherson died in his sleep on 24 November 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Artistry
Style, instruments and creative methods
While their work became increasingly difficult to describe as their career progressed, Coil's musical style encompassed genres such as
industrial music,
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...
,
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
and
dark ambient
Dark ambient (referred to as ambient industrial especially in the 1980s) is a genre of post-industrial musicReed, Alexander: ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 190 that features an ominous, ...
,
neofolk
Neofolk, also known as apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrume ...
,
spoken word
Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...
,
drone music
Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre of music that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters called '' drones''. It is typically characterized by lengthy compositions featuring relativel ...
and
minimalism
In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
. They often considered their works more as magical rituals than as musical pieces; Balance explicitly referred to this approach as "magickal music".
Balance described the first half of the Coil discography as "solar" and their later work as "moon musick".
Coil incorporated many exotic and rare instruments into their recordings and performances. The group expressed particular interest in vintage electronic instruments including the
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...
, the
ANS synthesizer, the
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...
and the
Optigan.
During Coil's later period,
marimba
The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
player Tom Edwards joined the group, and performed on the live albums ''Live Two'' and ''Live Three'', as well as on the studio albums ''Black Antlers'' and ''The Ape of Naples''.
Often ensuing from improvisation and intuition, Coil utilized experimental techniques such as the
cut-up technique,
ritual drug use,
sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...
,
lucid dreaming,
tidal shifts,
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, ...
-like methods of
scrying
Scrying, also referred to as "seeing" or "peeping," is a practice rooted in divination and fortune-telling. It involves gazing into a medium, hoping to receive significant messages or visions that could offer personal guidance, prophecy, revel ...
,
technical glitches,
SETI
Seti or SETI may refer to:
Astrobiology
* SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
** SETI Institute, an astronomical research organization
*** SETIcon, a former convention organized by the SETI Institute
** Berkeley SETI Research Cent ...
synchronization and
chaos theory
Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of Scientific method, scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and Deterministic system, deterministic Scientific law, laws of dynamical systems that are highly sens ...
.
Releases
Coil's distribution sometimes included releasing
limited editions of albums, thereby making them collectors' items among fans.
Including quirks such as "art objects",
sigil-like autographs and even stains of blood in the packaging of their albums, Coil claimed that this made their work more personal for true fans, turning their records into something akin to
occult
The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...
artifacts.
This practice was markedly increased in the later half of Coil's career. Due to this, critics accused Coil and its record company of
price gouging
Price gouging is the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair by some. This commonly applies to price increases of basic necessities after natural disaste ...
.
However, Balance expressed interest in having regular Coil albums in every shop that wanted them.
In 2003, Coil began re-releasing many rare works, mostly remixed.
They also launched a download service, where a large amount of their out-of-print music was made available.
Religious views
Coil held
pagan
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...
and
alchemical beliefs, as well as a fixation on
chaos magic, but were sometimes labelled as
Satanic.
[Pilkington, Mark.]
Sounds Of Blakeness
". ''Fortean Times'', (2001). Retrieved 27 December 2006. Balance explicitly referred to himself as a "Born Again Pagan", and described his paganism as a "spirituality within nature."
Christopherson, however, described the beliefs of Coil as unassociated:
We don't follow any particular religious dogma. In fact, quite the reverse, we tend to discourage the following of dogmas, or false prophets, as it were. And we don't have a very sympathetic view of Christians up to this point. The thing we follow is our own noses; I don't mean in a chemical sense.
Members
*
John Balance was the founder of Coil and was the primary vocalist and composer of Coil's music.
*
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis.
He also ...
was the chief producer.
*
Stephen Thrower worked as a full-time member of Coil from 1987 to 1992.
*
Danny Hyde was periodically involved as co-author, collaborator, studio engineer, remixer, and producer. Peter Christopherson called him Coil's 3rd secret member.
*
Drew McDowall began collaborating with Coil in 1990 and was officially inducted in 1995. He left the group sometime between 1999 and 2000.
*
Rose McDowall, Drew's ex-wife, provided vocals for several Coil tracks including "Wrong Eye", "Rosa Decidua" and "Christmas Is Now Drawing Near". She also collaborated with Coil for the short-lived project
Rosa Mundi.
*
Ossian Brown had been a Coil collaborator since about 1992 and joined the group in 2000, touring extensively with them and working on several recordings up until the final Coil album ''The Ape of Naples''.
*
William Breeze was Coil's electric viola player between 1997 and 2000.
*
Thighpaulsandra
Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...
became an official member on 26 January 1999 and participated until the final album, ''The Ape of Naples''. Most notably, he created the entire instrumental for the album ''Queens of the Circulating Library''.
*
John Gosling John Gosling may refer to:
*John Gosling (The Kinks musician) (1948–2023), British keyboardist in The Kinks
*John Gosling (Psychic TV musician) (born 1963), British big beat and industrial musician
*John Gosling (cricketer, born 1833) (1833–188 ...
performed with the initial live incarnation of Coil, as featured on ''
Transparent''.
* Tom Edwards of
Spiritualized participated in Coil's live incarnation, and was Coil's
marimba
The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
player from 2000 on.
* Cliff Stapleton played
hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...
on several live performances, as well as in the studio for Coil at various points throughout the 2000s.
* Massimo & Pierce of Black Sun Productions were members of Coil Live in 2002. However, they were stage performers, never contributing musically other than reading the poetic introduction to "Ostia" during live performances.
* Mike York was part of the Coil Live collective for a limited time.
Influences and legacy
Although Coil expressed interest in many musical groups, they rarely, if ever, claimed to be influenced by them. Coil explicitly stated the influence of such non-musical sources as
William Burroughs,
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
,
Brion Gysin and
Austin Spare.
Furthermore, the group were friends with Burroughs and owned some of Spare's original artwork.
Balance encouraged fans to trade, discuss and discover new and different forms of music, stressing the importance of variety. Music that Coil expressed interest in is diverse and wide-ranging, from
musique concrète
Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...
to
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
to
hardcore punk
Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...
to
classical to
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
. Among the musicians Coil expressed interest in were early electronic, experimental and
minimalist artists:
Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...
,
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...
,
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
(once referred to by Balance as "an honorary member of Coil"),
Alvin Lucier, and
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...
.
Coil also expressed interest in
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...
groups including
Cluster,
Amon Düül II,
Can,
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...
and
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...
. Rock musicians and groups Coil have expressed interest in are:
Angus Maclise,
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born 'Don Glen Vliet'; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the M ...
,
Flipper,
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
,
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
,
Nico
Christa Päffgen (; 16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988), known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, actress, and model.
Nico had roles in several films, including Federico Fellini's '' La Dolce Vita'' (1960) and Andy Warhol's ...
,
Pere Ubu,
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has ...
,
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands, in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since ''Utopia Banished'' (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mi ...
,
The Birthday Party,
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...
and
The Virgin Prunes.
Coil expressed an interest in the Russian composer
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...
, and used a sample from his ballet ''
Rite of Spring'' on the ''
Horse Rotorvator'' song "The Anal Staircase". Furthermore, on the album ''
Black Antlers'' Coil dedicated a song to
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
and covered a song by
Bam Bam.
Coil's influence on electronic music has become more evident since the death of Balance, with electronic musicians from all over the world collaborating on a series of tribute albums. Some notable artists who appear on these albums are
Alec Empire
Alec Empire (born Alexander Wilke-Steinhof on 2 May 1972)https://www.alec-empire.com/ae Alec Empire official website biography is a German experimental electronic musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot, a ...
,
Chris Connelly and
KK Null
, known by his stage name KK Null, is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist active since the early 1980s. He began as a guitarist but learned how to compose, sing, play drums, and create electronic music. He also studied Butoh dance at M ...
(see ''
...It Just Is'').
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...
frontman
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...
also expressed the significant influence that the group had on his work in February 2014:
oil's'Tainted Love' video remains one of the greatest music videos of all time. I was always more attracted to Coil than Throbbing Gristle; the darkness and the scatology really chimed with me. If it's not immediately obvious: Horse Rotorvator was deeply influential on me. What they did to your senses. What they could do with sound. What Jhonn was doing lyrically. The exotic darkness of them permeated their work.
The track "At the Heart of It All" (found on ''Scatology'') later lent its name to an
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...
track on the Nine Inch Nails remix album ''
Further Down the Spiral''; Coil also provided remixes for ''Further Down the Spiral'' as well as "Gave Up" on the remix album ''
Fixed
Fixed may refer to:
* ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails
* ''Fixed'' (film), an upcoming animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
* Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System
* Fi ...
''. Furthermore, in 2010, Reznor,
Mariqueen Maandig and
Atticus Ross started a new band called
How to Destroy Angels—named after the Coil song—which received Christopherson's blessing after Reznor made contact with him.
Discography
Coil's rapid musical output over two decades resulted in a large number of releases, side projects and remixes as well as collaborations.
;Primary, full-length, Coil studio albums:
*''
Scatology
In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces.
Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases ...
'' (1984)
*''
Horse Rotorvator'' (1986)
*''
Gold Is the Metal (With the Broadest Shoulders)'' (1987)
*''
Love's Secret Domain'' (1991)
*''
Stolen & Contaminated Songs'' (1992)
*''
Worship the Glitch'' (1995, as "ELpH vs. Coil")
*''
A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room'' (1996, as "Black Light District")
*''
Time Machines'' (1998, as "Time Machines")
*''
Astral Disaster'' (1999)
*''
Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1'' (1999)
*''
Queens of the Circulating Library'' (2000)
*''
Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2'' (2000)
*''
Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil'' (2000)
*''
The Remote Viewer'' (2002)
*''
The Restitution of Decayed Intelligence'' (2003)
*''
Black Antlers'' (2004)
*''
The Ape of Naples'' (2005)
*''
The New Backwards'' (2008)
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Coilat
Brainwashed
Threshold Houseonline shop
; Interviews
Heathen Harvest Interview with Coil(1 April 2004)
Stylus interview with Peter Christopherson.(12 April 2004)
*
* COIL – Robert Jelinek (Ed.) DER KONTERFEI 017 / Paperback / (November 2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coil
English industrial music groups
English electronic music groups
English experimental musical groups
Musical groups established in 1982
Electronic music groups from London
Musical groups disestablished in 2004
LGBTQ-themed musical groups
British dark ambient music groups
1982 establishments in England
Wax Trax! Records artists
Some Bizzare Records artists
Soleilmoon artists