Marking
a quarter century on the shelves, at 25 years old this month, is Coil's
Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1, which was released in September of
1999. The album represented a striking thematic shift for the group
and, despite its genesis within the womb of excessive drug use,
manifested as some of the most cohesive and intentional music from that
era of their existence.
Given
the group was primarily the purview of two gay men, their initial
conceptual focus was decidedly "solar", or masculine. Solar symbolism
was frequently in play, whether it was the Black Sun logo, or the
references to gold, an element distinctly connected to solar imagery,
though both are also decidedly scatological in nature as well. Their
1984 debut EP release, How To Destroy Angels, was specifically dedicated
to Mars and the "accumulation of males sexual energy", deliberately
excluding and avoiding female influence as a matter of process. Yet
with Musick to Play in the Dark, a realignment had occurred. Jhon
Balance specifically announces on the album that this is "Moon Musick",
aligning the group's focus with intentionally feminine energies, like
tides and cycles of nature. The result in the music is something
entirely more atmospheric and ephemeral than much of their prior work.
The
album was recorded at a sprawling Victorian manor that Peter
Christopherson had purchased in the coastal community of
Weston-super-Mare in the UK. He and Balance had set up a recording
studio in their new home, and the group, at this time, were augmented by
Thighpaulsandra and Drew McDowall.
Their
social scene was heavily involved with the consumption of large
quantities of MDMA (Ecstasy), the semi-psychedelic party pill
popularized by the rave scene of the preceding decade, so the process of
recording was done in something of a barely remembered blur of
intoxication. It's something rather perfectly captured in the album's
opener, Are You Shivering, a reference to the distinct teeth chattering
& grinding that occurs with sufficient indulgence in the
aforementioned substance. If you've ever taken enough, you will
recognize the sensations intimately.
Technically,
they were working with some of the latest digital tools that were
changing the shape of music making for electronic producers at the time,
with Christopherson always keen to work on the cutting edge of the
available tech, though there was some balance as well with the use of
older gear. Advanced recording software like ProTools and more
versatile and sophisticated samplers and synthesizers were combined with
vintage gear, like their collection of old rhythm boxes and an Optigan,
a keyboard from the 1970s which replaced their unwieldy and unreliable
Mellotron and it's tape loops with a much more stable optical flexidisc
sound library interface.
Given
the nature of the substance abuse involve in the production of the
album, one might expect them to have done the obvious thing and delved
into the electronic dance music genre, inspired by their late nights at
raucous rave-ups, but nothing could be further from the results that
came about for this album. The style of the music was predominantly in
the ambient vein, though with bizarre intersections through Krautrock
influences, similar to early Tangerine Dream, or elements of cocktail
jazz, spaced out and slowed down to capture the sense of deep, chill-out
late-night altered state listening.
The
Lunar conception for the album was intended to be pursued in a series
of recordings, with a "Vol. 2" of Musick to Play in the Dark issued the
following year, though these were both preceded by the Moon's Milk
series of EPs, released in 1998. Collectively, these recordings
represent Coil reaching a new peak of creative inspiration, and they
have gone on to be valued as some of the group's most accomplished and
effective works. They would also provide the momentum for them to take
their unique sound on stage in the early 2000s, where they performed
many of these pieces in concerts that have since become legendary. Most
were documented on video and issued on the limited edition DVD box set,
Colour Sound Oblivion.
Unfortunately,
this era would be sadly abbreviated by the tragic accidental death of
Jhon Balance in 2004, when he tumbled off a balcony in their
aforementioned Victorian home. His struggles with substance abuse had
taken their toll on both his physical and mental well-being, as well as
his relationship with Christopherson, who had recently relocated to
Thailand where he would remain based until his own tragic passing in
December of 2010.
With both of
the group's principal creatives now gone, there has been some confusion
in terms of the plethora of reissues that have appeared and who,
exactly, has the authority to manage their catalogue. Regardless, the
group has left an astonishing canon of work in their wake, with this
album sitting among the top of the heap in terms of its significance.
