A review of Electric Sewer Age's "Moon's Milk In Final Phase"

While The New Backwards might be the final album released by Coil, Electric Sewer Age's Final Phase is the last music ever recorded by Peter Christopherson. Danny Hyde, the unofficial third member of Coil, has completed the final phase of the Moon's Milk opus.

moons waxing
Robot temples on the moon.
Straight up robot temples on the moon.
Doesn't sound anything like the other Moon's Milk releases.
Programmed or automated vibraphones.
The strings start of chaotic and unfocused and rockets zoom by overhead.
The whole thing feels very "the year 2000 as viewed from the year 1954".
Eventually, a melody, compelling and intricate, emerges from the plucked, once-chaotic strings and those vibes.
Once this is established, things don't change much.

moons waning
This instantly feels more spacey, more lunar. The bed of strings provides a nice, rich depth, a dark beauty that is also cold, much like space itself.
The voices add a sense of awe and devotion, but also a sense of fear and menace or maybe just unease.
Would saying this sounds like a satellite observing a moon temple be too much? The string stings that come in towards the end are actively uncomfortable, not because of their volume, just their dissonance. It's an excellent texture, perhaps representing getting a little too close to a meteor shower?

moons in final phase
Deep thudding bass set against some signature skittering Coil squeaks. You can almost hear a negative melody in the cracks... This sounds old and worn, like a block of sandstone that was to be used in the construction of a pyramid but was left out in the wind for centuries. Elements begin to trickle away until nothing is left but the piping flutes, broken then taped back together. This is an incredibly visual piece.

There be aliens out there
This is very unlike the rest of Final Phase. Almost Aphex Twin-y. There's an odd vocal sample which questions whether or not the listener obtained this recording legally, but then thanks them either way. This clattery, factory setting makes me want to see this sunk behind Modern Times, as it has a very "technology out of control" feel...but not new technology, old technology. There is something very Fixed about some of this. The organic drums add a touch of humanity; it almost sounds like something from the Blue Man Group. Things breakdown suddenly and some fantastic guitar comes in, adding some skin to the machine...which then devours said skin while we listen.

While this doesn't continue the works from the four Moons' Milk EPs, I could see it fitting in as a fifth and final chapter...the first three tracks anyway, that last one seems completely unrelated, sonically, in any case.

Next week: the Coil Review Project wraps up.