Not 100%, but I think this album's title refers to the butt.
Here we go:
Disco Hospital - I actually remember this from that initial download of Coil stuff all those years ago. This song is so...FUN. The first thirty seconds are made up of a repeating sound collage; weird noises, but not nearly as frightening as what Coil usually comes up with. Then, a few seconds of silence before a sassy, jazzy hi-hat and a beat comprised of an echocardiogram kick in. Add to those the slinky, muted keyboard and you have an excellent opener...to an album by some other artist.
Teenage Lightning part 1 - The fun continues with a freaked out, staticy bossa nova beat. Like Rio after dark and after a chaff grenade went off.
Things Happen - This is some French cabaret shit. What the fuck is going on here?! Some drunken French woman keeps asking for a cigarette and rambling about things happening and what it's like in Ohio...Jesus...is this even Coil?
The Snow - Okay. Here we go. This, at least somewhat, resembles the Coil with which I've been spending the past few months. But, although it's more dark and implicit than anything else here thus far, it's still more accessible and structured than a lot of what I'm used to. There is some great free jazz (?) keyboards floating in and out of "Snow" as well some some great effects that lower the temperature nicely. This feels a lot more 1997 than 1991. Man, this is so different...there are beats and drum machines being used properly and elements that one might hear on the radio. What the hell happened between this and their last album?
Dark River - A very solid Coil track. Like "The Snow", more produced and polished than their usual work, which, some might say, is a drawback, the loss of that roughness, that chaos, but I'm liking everything about this. The mood here is excellent and the title reflects the sound perfectly. The high, plinking sounds work so well with the large, round bell tones. Great atmosphere on this.
Where Even The Darkness Is Something To See - Great title for a less than great track. I'm just not that impressed with didgeridoos. Most of the song is just didge, but there's some cool electronics and flickering, echoing vocals towards the end. Not enough to make the song memorable, but enough to make it listenable.
Teenage Lightning part 2 - More industrial spacescape bossa nova. Mamba on the MOOOOOON!!! This actually sounds more like Beck than Coil. And that's fine with me. After a minute or two, you get the point, but, just as it starts to drag, it ends with some trippy Gorillaz/Garbage shit. Very nice.
Windowpane - This is so...normal*. You can see Balance doing his creepy stuff here (panting and moaning about putting windows in your eyes, etc.) and there is some signature electronic dissonance, but it's more for texture and someone has paired it with some totally accessible and, dare I say, enjoyable grooves and beats. It's actually palatable...for a bit. Six minutes plus is pushing it though; you've heard everything there is to hear about three minutes in.
Further Back And Faster - More didgeridoo, but used in a more interesting fashion: set as background behind a pseudo-Reggae beat. This drags and doesn't do much to impress.
Titan Arch - Ah, here we go, some Coil. Sinister and creeping, this track has some nice fear in the background. The lyrics are blasphemous and prophetic ("Angels take poisons / In rotting pavilions / Under shivering stars / The sickness is gilding"). Why do I feel as if this track was fought over? "We need to be less scary! We can't put any more readings from the Black Texts on our albums!" "Fuck you! We're Coil! Ingest the darkness! Immanentize the eschaton!"
Chaostrophy - Yet another Coil track. This starts off with dark static, but soon that falls away to reveal a huge, demonic engine revving and powering up, but then the engine opens and we see there is a symphony inside this engine. It's mysterious and sorrowful and beautiful and perhaps what is powering this shuddering, broken machine.
Lorca Not Orca** - Spanish guitars, people. Goddamn Spanish guitars. This might as well be called "Teenage Lightning part 3" as it features the same distorted robot voice reciting the same lyrics from the first two Teenage Lightnings. It's an enjoyable oddity, much like the first two, although Spanish guitars will never beat out bossa nova for me.
Love's Secret Domain - I think the first time I heard this was during Nine Inch Nails' pre-show music. Balance rants and raves (sounding a bit like a really pissed off Gavin Friday) over some incongruous tropicalia music and some truly party-starting drum breaks. Although his menace is palpable, it really does get blunted a bit by the music: it's too Miami beach. An odd and puzzling end to an odd and puzzling Coil album.
I don't know what to say; half of this album sounds like...not Coil. Not bad, but not Coil. Which, I suppose, is yet another credit to how multifaceted these psychopaths really are. If you check out the LP they released before this, one really has to wonder what happened. Did they take on a new member or sit down and actively decide to be more things to more people? Judging by what they evolve into, I suspect the answer is a creaking and sepulchral "no", but, still, I remain curious.
* Comparatively.
** Full title "Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Garcia Lorca Not Orca"***
*** I'm kidding.
No comments:
Post a Comment