A review of Coil's "The Ape of Naples"

Christ it feels good to be done with ANS...anyway, this is the second to last Coil album ever released, featuring several tracks recorded (in some form or another or not?) at Trent Reznor's Nothing Studios. I've held off listening to this because A.) it's some of the most recent Coil and B.) I'm expecting it to be pretty great.

The album begins with a welcoming hymn called "Fire of the Mind"; replete with an organ and a choir, this is a strong and beautiful opener*. Balance's voice (this was the last album released before his death at the end of 2004) sounds weak and creaking, an old priest who still believes in the words he speaks after all these years. "Angels are bestial / man is the animal" he intones, and there's real understanding in his voice. This is his version of blessing the space.
The second track, "The Last Amethyst Deceiver" is a studio version of the live version of a song from their Autumn Equinox EP, called "Amethyst Deceivers". Here, there are a few different elements and there's no effects on Balance's voice. It's softer and the instrumentation, while a bit dated, also feels comfortable. Leave it to Balance to ruin that feeling of comfort with his voice... While I don't really understand the need to remake this track, it feels right that they did so.
Next up is "Tattooed Man", a boozy, murderous romp with a retarded circus clown through an after hours French bistro/brothel. This should be in a Jeunet film, sunk in a scene where a serial killer drinks wine from the skull of the only woman he ever loved and who he had to kill because he's unable to express love in any other way. Sounding a bit like a rusty Marc Almond, we listen as Balance talks about how much he loves/hates a tattooed man in a grave/a man with "different sex aspects".
Vive l'amour!
"Triple Sun" is an excellent instrumental. There is tension and fear without it being overbearing. Synths, marimbas and horns play small fragments which are then woven together to form a sad and gorgeous tapestry. This sounds like it could be an updated track from the Hellraiser Themes album.
Speaking of creatures from Hell...you know what's been missing from Ape thus far? Terror.
Oh, hey, "It's In My Blood", thanks for dropping by!
This is classic, nightmare darkness Coil. It starts out sounding a bit like the opening to American Horror Story, until the horns come in; full, orchestra-style horns.
Then...the screaming.
At that point, we're just listening to an exorcism, Balance speaking in tongues...although I get the feeling that he's comfortable with his demons, this might just be him taking them for a walk. When he shrieks, "It's in my blooooood, screaming!" I completely fucking believe him...and pee a little.
The horns and other classic, orchestral instrumentation and arrangement would be odd and over the top if the whole thing weren't so terrifying. This is an excellent return to form.
Interesting side note: The opening of this sounds a whoooole lot like the sound used in the trailer for Marilyn Manson's cancelled/not cancelled/cancelled maybe/oh who seriously gives a fuck? "film", Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. Don't feel bad, Marilyn, if I were you, I'd probably steal something cool like this too.
Aaaand, speaking of terrifying, "I Don't Get It" makes "It's In My Blood" sound like "Zippity Doo Dah". At first, it sounds a lot like bits of "The Beauty Of Being Numb", and then the human/robot/pig monster screaming starts ("I don't get iiiiit! I don't get iiiiiiiiit!!"). This...is a new kind of nightmare.
Walking through a graveyard inhabited by agonized, cybernetic souls.
Then, some late night horns.
"Heaven's Blade" is a stand out track. This is turning into one of my favorite Coil songs. It's a perfect blend of everything I've come to love about them. Reznor's influence** is most strongly felt here. It sounds vaguely like something from the Black Antlers recording session. The lyrics are very alchemical. The bridge, I suppose you could call it, sounds like something Tweaker might create. Rather than keep describing it, I'd suggest you go listen to it; really, really great stuff.
Next is "Cold Cell". Originally, I thought the music was beautiful, sparse, but beautiful, but that the lyrics were a bit at odds with the feel of it.

O Lord, save my sinful soul

From local punishment

From the far-away zone

From being frisked

From the tall fence

From the sever prosecutor

From the Devil or from the Devil owner

From small rations

From dirty water

From steel handcuffs

From hidden obligations

A cold cell

And short haircuts

Save us from the death penalty

Amen

Amen

Amen

To me, it sounded like a convict's prayer to the patron saint of criminals...well, it turns out that it is. It's a translation of a Russian prayer used by convicts. So...yeah.
+5 to Perception I guess.
"Teenage Lightening 2005" is the second remake of this track, and it has never sounded better. After hearing versions of this on two different albums (four versions total, not including this one), I have come to love that swaggery, bossa nova*** bass line. On this final, definitive recording, you'd think you were listening to something on a Lite station in Miami until the distorted squelching sounds infiltrate the beat like rot.  Then all the familiar elements from the versions on Love's Secret Domain and  Black Antlers come in, one by one. May I be the first to call this "Pagan Lounge Music"? The keys at the end sound reminiscent of those found on "Eraser (Polite)". At the very end is the same evil Balance laugh we got from the last track of "Tunnel of Goats" from Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil...which is kind of weird.
The penultimate track, "Amber Rain" is not related to Prince's "Purple Rain", no matter how far you stretch the definition of "related". Rather, it's another musically simple piece; a detuned piano in one ear and a dusty hurdy-gurdy (?) in the other. There's a strong sense of distress, unease and regret here. Balance sounds exhausted on this as he croaks "a dull, warm, red water falls / floating down to the sea / where deeper, darker waters wait for me". At one point, a winding Middle Eastern horn comes in and things get very sepulchral, very fast.
It's like Balance has already died...
The final track, "Going Up" is Coil's cover of the theme song to the old British comedy, "Are You Being Served?".
Before you read on, listen to the original here.
Okay, good.
Now, the resemblance is...none. There is NO resemblance beyond the lyrics, which are sung in a hauntingly beautiful voice by a woman whose name is on Wiki, but which I do not care to look up. If you really do, though, please feel free.
The music sounds like a medieval ballad...for a knight whose family is dead...and who is also dead. Sad, noble and epic, the music makes the lyrics even more ridiculous.
How ridiculous? Think Dynamite Hack's cover of "Boys In The Hood" as far as the distance between the intention of the original and the cover goes. This might be the equivalent of Nine Inch Nails covering "Sex Dwarf" or "Get Down, Make Love"; this isn't a joke, exactly, both bands are fully committed to the covers and they both sound great, it's just that the source material is so...odd.
Whatever the motivation was, this is a beautiful (sounding) song to end a remarkably well-made record.

Like a few of their earlier albums, there is a lot of spirituality on Ape. Spirituality, reflection on life and its inevitable end...and also on what happens when you rub two teenagers together.
Also like some of their earlier works, the instrumentation can feel dated, sometimes working for the music and sometimes against.
Something I found very interesting was the sense of maturity: rather than just spraying painfully loud and dissonant noise across everything like a monkey with a hose, they chose to integrate the more unpleasant sonic aspects into the music, to use them constructively rather than as a weapon with which to attack and destroy the listener. They chose to not cover up the softer, more articulate instrumentation, but, instead, enhance it and spotlight it.
Almost at the end and Coil still has the ability to surprise me.
Because of the range and maturity and musicality here, Ape of Naples goes up there as one of my favorite Coil albums.





* Reminds me a bit of music from The Neverending Story...sorry.

** If, in fact, he actually had anything to do with this album...

*** Disclaimer: I do not actually know what bossa nova is.