Chances are you don’t. And chances are if you do, you probably own only a few of their releases and are unlikely to purchase more due to the astronomical prices involved. But maybe you’re someone who likes them and wants to know more. Unfortunately, Wikepedia, Discogs, Brainwashed, and Amazon can only tell you so much. Well, I’m a Coil newbie myself. And while that doesn’t make me an authority on anything, it certainly means I’ve already had some questions and gained some answers that might be of benefit to you. So here we go…
ArsNova. The scant references to this guy/company don’t say much other than that it’s a production house that released Coil albums of inferior quality without the permission of Coil and without paying them any proceeds from their sales. Several albums were remastered and re-released by Coil in response with the phrase “StevØ, Pay Us What You Owe Us!” on the cover (Scatology and Horse Rotorvator).
Now, I completely understand why anyone would be displeased with ArsNova and refuse to support them out of love for the artist who’s getting screwed over. However, I am also pissed that Coil has chosen to let virtually all its work fall into obscurity. Whoever did the marketing for Coil was certainly one of the most clueless people on earth if they didn’t realize that their own fans wanted their stuff and were willing to pay them for it, but simply couldn’t get it (either because it couldn’t be found or because the price was so freaking high due to it being so limited and hard to find). Sometimes, therefore, the Coil fan is faced with a dilemma: not purchase a CD because it’s too expensive or purchase the ArsNova version because it’s affordable and/or available. So the main questions I had were how bad are these ArsNova releases, how much better are the remasters compared to the original releases, and if there are originals, remasters, or ArsNovas available, what might be the better purchase?
Well, I ended up purchasing the ArsNova release of Astral Disaster because I wasn’t willing to pay the price of the official release. I could tell right away that this was an inferior product. The artwork looked like it was rudely scanned onto a computer and then run off their home printer. I half expected to see a CDR inside. But it was an actual stamped CD. I archived the songs to my computer using EAC. Later, I found an official release and archived it as well. Then I did a sound and visual comparison from within Audacity. The artwork and packaging may have been junk, but the audio was exactly the same. There was no visual difference between WAV files. No matter how long I closed my eyes and listened, back and forth, between ArsNova and Eschaton, they sounded exactly the same. So while I can agree that this is an inferior product, the music itself is exactly the same as what you get on an official release. And, really, the music is the thing we REALLY want. Sure, we’d like the artwork also. But music will always come before artwork. So I am happy to say that if you have an opportunity to get an ArsNova release at a decent price and you don’t want to pay the price of the normal release, go for it because you’ll still be hearing the same Coil you would hear otherwise. However, don’t be fooled into paying the price of an Eschaton for an ArsNova. Always make sure to check with the seller to see if it is ArsNova or not. Trust me, it is easy to tell.
But what about those Remasters? How do they compare to the originals? Well, usually, you’ll find they cost even more money than the original releases or reissues. But they’re remasters. So they must be worth the extra, right? Fortunately, I got my hands on both originals and remasters. I only did a superficial comparison of the two because that was all I needed. It wasn’t pretty. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the loudness wars at all, but this is a prime example. When I opened up the songs in Audacity, I instantly saw that whereas the original release had a lot of dynamic range and didn’t fill the entire sound field, the remaster did. In order to make the remaster the same volume as the original, I had to shrink the sound of the remaster down considerably. And when I did and compared the two at the same volume, the original has a lot more depth of sound. And we’re talking Coil–depth of sound is a necessity. Coil basically raped their own music with the remasters and I encourage you NOT to buy them. Even the ArsNovas are superior because bastardized artwork is better than bastardized sound.
Disc bronzing. Be aware that some early Coil CDs made by PDO have suffered a kind of disc rot over time. I purchased an Unnatural History that was virtually unplayable. EAC gave me infinite disc read errors. I could tell as soon as I looked at the surface that something was not quite right. I would advise anyone who purchased the Unnatural History CDs to make a CD-R copy or archive it to your computer in lossless format with EAC. Here is a good resource to find out more (and see visual examples of affected CDs).
The last two DVDs in Coil’s Colour Sound Oblivion set are public domain and can be downloaded at archive.org. They are a compilation of the imagery and backing tracks used by Coil in their later day performances. In most cases, the music is very bare-bones and should not be taken as representative of what a Coil song sounds like, but is quite interesting and hypnotic nevertheless. If you ever wanted to remix a Coil song, now you can.
If you’re like me, you can appreciate the fact that Coil was constantly redefining their sound, but you’ll probably also care more for one type of sound than another. Here is my own breakdown of Coil’s music. Maybe it will help you think about what you’d most like to buy, download, or hear. The way I see it, these are the only real “albums” by Coil: Scatology, Horse Rotorvator, Love’s Secret Domain, ELpH vs Coil, Black Light District, Astral Disaster, Musick To Play In The Dark I, Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil, Queens of the Circulating Library, Musick To Play In The Dark II, Moon’s Milk (In Four Phases), Black Antlers, The Ape of Naples, and The Remote Viewer. Everything else doesn’t seem to deserve the title.
There is a raw, low-tech, indie feel to Zos Kia’s Transparent that is lacking in the other releases and a stark contrast to the glittering perfection of production and sound on the last Coil releases like Black Antlers, Ape of Naples, and Remote Viewer. The later work almost feels too refined for the type of music Coil is making…and yet Transparent is almost too raw, low-tech, and aggressive. And yet both are pleasing in their own ways. I don’t think Transparent is worth more than $25. If you end up paying more than $35 for it, you’re probably going to regret it. And you’re probably not going to listen to it as much as the next two…
Scatology and Horse Rotorvator have the same sort of sound. They are more industrial and less ambient or noise than other releases. There is hardly any drone. To me, this is the pinnacle of Coil. As good as it gets—so long as you don’t get the remasters.
Things change quickly with Love’s Secret Domain. It is an album unto itself among the Coil releases–a lot more techno-oriented and about as close to pop as Coil can get. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with it. Production quality has risen dramatically between Horse and LSD.
Between Horse and LSD stands Gold Is The Metal and Unnatural History I—both compilations of other/discarded/reworked-album material—along with the Unreleased Themes To Hellraiser, which is basically just that. You see a lot more going on in the in-between with these. And you also get your hands on some material that is just as good as anything on Scatology or Horse or belongs perfectly next to Transparent.
Next comes How To Destroy Angels, which is a very creative, six-song reworking of the single of the same name (on Unnatural History I), along with Stolen And Contaminated Songs, which is a compilation of other/discarded/reworked-album material along the lines of LSD. For those who thought LSD was the best of Coil, they would probably be very interested in Stolen.
Then there’s Coil vs ELpH, which is basically one LSD-type song and three similar ambient pieces that showcase the direction Coil is now heading, and The Angelic Conversation, another movie soundtrack that, IMO, stands head and shoulders above the Hellraiser one—particularly with its use of ambience, poetry, and musique concrete.
If we were previously about to step straight into the world of Coil as something between ambient, minimalism, drone, and noise, ELpH vs Coil (not the same as Coil vs ELpH) brings us solidly within it. Unnatural History II comes along to fill in some more missing pieces ranging across the spectrum.
Black Light District carries us further into the perfection of ambient, minimalism, drone, and noise. Unnatural History III fills in a few more scattered pieces. Time Machines offers us the pinnacle of Coil’s drone. And just as quickly, we hit what I think is their perfection of ambient, minimalism, drone, and noise with Astral Disaster and Musick To Play In The Dark I.
Constant Shallowness presents us with noise and Queens with ambient drone. Then we’re back into ambient, minimalism, drone, and noise with Musick To Play In The Dark II and the four parts of Moon’s Milk (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter).
There are a bunch of live shows at this point—Live One, Two, Three, and Four, …And The Ambulance Died In His Arms, etc. All good. The music from the four Live CDs appear on the Colour Sound Oblivion DVDs along with a few other live CD releases (although I was bummed to find that the lengthy version of Last Rite of Spring on Live Four was cut from CSO).
Now we enter the final phase of Coil. With Black Antlers, we see Coil moving again… and Ape of Naples is the arrival. It is a movement not so much beyond the former ambient, minimalism, drone, and noise phase, but they seem to have added some of the pop and flavor of the entire Scatology/Horse/LSD phase back into it. The amount of singing on Ape comes as a bit of a surprise. It is surprisingly good, but does not IMO surpass the greatness of Scatology and Horse. A fine bookend to those two.
Remote Viewer thrusts us out of nowhere into a pinnacle of Coil’s noise that was only hinted at in Constant Shallowness, and we emerge on the New Backwards with an odd assortment of old and new that doesn’t mix all that well together and is really a throwback to the other/discarded/reworked-album material CDs.
Maybe some day Threshold House will re-open and we will see something like the entire discography rereleased on CD or find all the albums in FLAC showering down upon us. Until then, most of this rare, out-of-print, hard-to-find, expensive material can be found at rutracker.org in lossless format. It’s a Russian site, but with a bit of Babelfish, you can find your way around. Otherwise, check Discogs, Amazon, and Ebay for the latest and cheapest offerings.
R.I.P. John Balance and Peter Christopherson.
Warning: Major spoilers. Do not read if you have any desire to ever watch the show.
After viewing the show I had been waiting for ever since theories began circulating about a remake of the classic Prisoner series, I scoured the web to gauge what sorts of impressions, thoughts, and perspectives it was creating among the viewing audience. Was this show communicating and interacting with others in much the same way it did with me? Apparently not. Like many others with an interest in the show, I am a die-hard fan of the original. However, I seem to have parted ways with most of its critical viewing audience. I find myself in a familiar situation where the one show I thought was so brilliant and incredible is the one show that gets panned, dismissed, or glossed over. For instance, it seems to me that The Matrix: Reloaded is ostensibly superior to either of the other films in the trilogy, followed by Revolutions. And I think the reason is the same as it was for Reloaded: people don’t understand or just don’t get it. In The Prisoner (2009), what people expected or wanted isn’t want they got. But that is very, very good indeed. This post will focus on just one aspect that has really delivered something that blows (or should have blown) the mind: subversion of American (U.S.) political and economic perspective.
Brian Wilson was a genius. He wanted to create the definitive American music. In the process, he became a prisoner of his own making. He went insane. But after confronting himself and destroying the Village, he escaped and found his way back to the real world where he was finally able to complete his creation. He called it Smile. And it was good. So what was the definitive AMERICAN music doing playing throughout many pivotal parts of the remake of a BRITISH television series (anyone notice the cover of a Pet Sounds vinyl in Michael’s apartment)? And why place the conscious reality in the heart of NEW YORK instead of LONDON? Perhaps you caught the subtle references to terrorism and suicide bombing, or maybe that symbol of American freedom, those twin towers, gleaming in their memorial to the happy
and content
life of its residents in the mental/subconscious realm whilst standing as bastions of protection
and healing
in the other? This is not the original Prisoner, no matter the atavisms. Though the theme is the same as it was before (tyranny), this show is making a political statement that speaks to us, now, in a way the original cannot. The original was making statements about Socialism, which was the major European threat of that era. Today, now, there is a new threat posed by the American front–Fascism–and the remake has engaged it with every bit of vigor as the original did its own. It seems people were expecting another kind of McGoohan to come along and Caviezel was certainly not that. But the kind of answer presented this time is not the same as the original. This is an American answer, spurred on by an American dilemma. A McGoohan would not have fit the coat, badge, and shoes.
In the first series, evil was wrought and sustained by subordinating personal freedom and liberty to the interests, decisions, and control of the state. In the end, Six’s resistance and will found its completion, and the answer to the tyrant and its evil, in the destruction of the absolute power and influence of the state and by restoring autonomy to all. In the second series, evil is wrought and sustained by subordinating personal freedom and liberty to the interests, decisions, and control of an autocratic corporation. In this case, the answer is the nobility
and high moral
vision of the one who controls, coerces, and subjugates the citizens through the power of the corporation. In the end, Six does not destroy the tyrant, but steps into its shoes to remake society, regardless of its will, without its choice or consent, and no matter the cost, according to his own high moral
and noble
vision. He has not, like McGoohan, destroyed the number. Has has merely replaced the old number with a different sort of number. In the first Prisoner, Six’s resignation was detrimental to the tyrant because it meant he was refusing to allow the state to make his decisions for him. In the second, Six’s resignation was detrimental to the tyrant because it meant he was refusing to allow a corporation to have autocratic power to decide and do for people what it believes is best for them. But this very different Six is able to become the head of the corporation (thus reversing his opposition and annulling his resignation) because he believes that right makes might—and he believes he is right. Like his former ambulatory companion, we can only shed a tear at the horror of what Six is about to become because we—not just Americans but even those outside America—are seeing and experiencing it vividly. We have watched as the rights, liberties, prosperity, and security of the people becomes destroyed by our government1 and by the whim of rich and powerful corporate gods like Wall Street and the Federal Reserve2. America is in pain and that pain will continue for a long, long time to come, destroying both people within and without the country as well as the companies that feed off them, until we reject Fascism and throw down the new #2, the creation of BOTH Republican and Democratic parties.
The Date of the Tower of Babel and Some Theological Implications by Paul Seely.
Overall, it was a fun and stimulating read, especially since it veered off into areas that while outside my familiarity or expertise, are nevertheless interesting subject matters (such as Creationism and the Natural Sciences). I could have done without Seely’s repeated tendentious impulse to remain faithful to the historical interpretation of the church,
which is nothing more than an appeal to authority—a logical fallacy that should not appear in a critical, scientific analysis. But I did very much appreciate both the archaeological examination of the Tower of Babel according to narrative evidence as well as the discussion of accommodation of scriptural texts to the concepts, world-views, and thought-forms of their days. Apparently, Creationists are want to approach biblical texts as if they were trying to teach astronomy or some such anachronism and I appreciate Seely setting the matter straight.
Unfortunately, the end was about as ironic and question-begging as it could get. Consider his own analysis of the situation:
One cannot date the tower of Babel early enough to fit all of the archaeological and anthropological data without implicitly espousing a methodology which favors bare possibility over probability; and such a methodology is antithetical to serious scholarship.
ibid, p. 28
And yet Seely’s way of dealing with the contradiction between the archaeological evidence and the biblical narrative is to propose a philosophy that could possibly explain the situation without giving us any historical or archaeological evidence to think there is a probability of his conclusion. Behold his summary statement:
In summary, in order to avoid obstacles to communication which might become stumbling blocks, and to respect the divine decision to delegate to humankind the responsibility for the discovery of natural knowledge, Scripture is accommodated in Gen 11:1-9 [the Babel narrative]…to the limited geographical and anthropological knowledge available at the time.
ibid, p. 38
Exactly what time
is Seely referring to? To what context is the tower of babel narrative being accommodated? Exactly what is the anthropological conception of the original hearers
of the Tower of Babel narrative and exactly who are they? Seely makes no mention of any of this in the entire essay. We are given no evidence and no reason whatsoever to believe that the original authors or hearers in whatever unmentioned historical period and geographical location believed all languages originated from a mother tongue in Babylon. The bare possibility of accommodation to such a context is all we are given. His essay is thus self-refuting, claiming to represent serious scholarship while utilizing the very method he says is antithetical to it.
Last year, I purchased an absolutely incredible audio book, The Bible Experience: Old Testament. And I say this as one who abhors audio bibles generally and the NIV specifically (The Bible Experience is based on the TNIV). That is not to say there aren’t problems. But I was able to listen through 1 and 2 Samuel, Genesis, and Exodus without any serious hiccups. In Leviticus, however, I couldn’t help laughing at a ridiculously anachronistic absurdity…
The book starts out cool enough. As YHWH speaks to Moses in the Tabernacle about Levitical rites and regulations, we are greeted with the sound of knives being drawn, animals slaughtered, blood splashed, fat and flesh burning… You can almost smell the aroma of sizzling meat. The commands come alive viscerally. But as we move away from sacrificial regulations, an ambience of meditative monastic chant echoes across the backdrop. It was so obviously out of place that I almost wonder if such juxtaposition was intended to convey something. And if so, what? Moses was the first monk? Latin preceded Hebrew? Catholics hide in holy places? Goat-hair curtains and animal hide have cathedral-like acoustics? The Pope is Jewish?
Although I’ve downloaded every available book in its electronic, pre-publication form, the NETS is one book that I won’t leave SBL/AAR 2007 without! For far too long, those interested in an English translation of the LXX have depended either on ancient and out-of-date translations from over a century ago or non-scholastic, extremely dynamic/paraphrased versions released by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church (and shaded by those organizations and their agendas). But no more! There is a new English translation in the mix and I can attest through use of the electronic version that this thing is not only fun to read, but brilliant!
Compiled from every UK album (with the exception of Abbey Road, which I have not yet heard), both Past Masters volumes, and including the reunion EPs. In terms of sheer number of favorites, Help! ranks above them all. However, if I had to pick, I think Revolver might be my all-time favorite Beatles record. Except for a few songs, The White Album is The Beatles’ biggest disappointment IMHO.
- I Saw Her Standing There – Please Please Me
- All My Loving – With The Beatles
- A Hard Day’s Night – A Hard Day’s Night
- I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party – Beatles For Sale
- Help! – Help!
- The Night Before – Help!
- You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away – Help!
- Ticket To Ride – Help!
- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) – Rubber Soul
- Girl – Rubber Soul
- Eleanor Rigby – Revolver
- Tomorrow Never Knows – Revolver
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Magical Mystery Tour – Magical Mystery Tour
- All You Need Is Love – Magical Mystery Tour
- Back In The U.S.S.R. – White Album
- Hey Bulldog – Yellow Submarine
- Across the Universe – Let It Be
- She Loves You – Past Masters Vol 1
- She’s A Woman – Past Masters Vol 1
- Paperback Writer – Past Masters Vol 2
- Hey Jude – Past Masters Vol 2
- Free As A Bird – Free As A Bird EP
- Real Love – Real Love EP
A “fantasia” is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form. Fantasia is the name of Walt Disney’s third full-length feature film and the first color motion picture to combine live-action with animation. It is also the first movie ever heard in stereophonic sound rather than the usual mono, and when Fantasia premiered on November 13, 1940, it left many audiences baffled and confused. Today, Fantasia still stands utterly alone, an entire genre solely unto itself known as the “Concert Feature” or “Cine-symphony.” It is both visualized music and pictorial sound, auditory picture and aural imagery. It has no opening titles or closing credits; its content is often surreal and abstract.
In short, Fantasia is the only movie of its kind. It won two Honorary Academy Awards, one for the “outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures” and another for its “unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form.” Fantasia was ahead of that time, and since it seldom approximated the textbook rules of any musical or any cinematic form, its title is most appropriate.
Although an exhibition tour was available (Tuesdays through Sunday’s at 3 p.m.), I chose to avoid the mass of sheep and go solo. This usually provided me an unspoilt view of each and every artifact.
The exhibit began with an introduction to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai. Then, suddenly, I was staring a 1500-year-old, hot wax icon of Saint Peter in the face. From there, I wandered back and forth, learning about the Greek word behind “icon” and the 8th Century persecution called the Iconoclasm.
Hopefully, you enjoy gold… The icons used a background of gold not only to illuminate and give the subjects or scenes an aura of holiness, but to create a kind of negative space that seemed to separate the images from their canvas and bring them into the worshiper’s reality. Many employed an illusion of light in the gold backdrop so that golden halos and golden shafts of light (usually impregnating Mariam) stood out as you moved around in front of the icon. Some icons featured portraits of saints and angels. Others featured scenes in sequence to create a visual narrative of biblical events. There were even quite a few whose purpose was calendrical. They came in single panes, diptych, triptych, some were encapsulated in elaborate forms like a cathedral, others were painted on the doors leading from the “holy place” to the “most holy place” in the Orthodox sanctuary. There were several icons so stunning, I was suspended in front of them and could easily understand how they drew people into worship as a kind of mediator, linking the viewer with the divine.
There was a brief documentary on St. Catherine’s Monastery and its icons, which I had already seen. Interested parties—until recently—had the opportunity to request a free DVD which presented the documentary and a video on the exhibition accompanied by Greek Orthodox chant.
When it ended, I couldn’t leave without purchasing a few Orthodox chant CDs and two postcards with some of my favorite icons on them. Although it was difficult, I gave the books a pass. They were quite pricey.
Although I rushed myself through the last part, the entire exhibit took about an hour and a half. Speedier observers could get through in an hour or less. Don’t forget to swing by the Illuminated Gospel Manuscripts.
Overall, it was a great experience and I highly recommend it to both iconoclasts and iconophiles.
Those who love ambient, dark ambient, or neofolk can say who Caul is, but can they say who God is without putting him in a box? How can a time-bound man with his limited reason understand or describe Him Whom is timeless and infinite? Caul’s latest offering, free to download from Dark Winter, is a musical expression of this apophatic theology. Here in the spiritual-sonicscape of Apophasis is no doctrinal statement, but mystery, question, awe, and worship.
