COIL

[Zeno Marx]

You can find "How to Destroy Angels" on the top shelf Unnatural History (Compilation Tracks Compiled) CD.  An essential collection and an essential experimental collection.  One of the all-time great collections of all genres.  If I want to listen to Coil, it's what I usually grab.  For those looking for a more focused industrialist Coil album.

https://www.discogs.com/release/3652115-Coil-Unnatural-History-Compilation-Tracks-Compiled

[BlackCavendish]

Reviving an old thread...
I picked up the reissue of "Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)" that collects the 4 EPs... one of the best things they ever did, at least for me. Reissued as a double CD in a slipcase, it's a pleasure to listen this stuff in proper form.

Since I've fallen back into a COIL trip, I also got the book Everything Keeps Dissolving... Nice matte cardboard cover with glossy details, good-quality paper, and a decent photo section (they could have done more, but oh well) for a nearly 600-page collection of possibly all their interviews.

The author's introduction is a bit pedantic (the long-winded explanation about how the author included Balance's interview with TYR Magazine even though he considers them kinda fascists was something we could have lived without), but overall, the book seems well put together.

[moozz]

Talking about Coil books, The Universe Is A Haunted House is a beautiful art book containing all things Coil. It is filled with photos, drawings, paintings, writings... It does not really have any printed text, all the text in the book is scanned letters, notes, postcards, etc. A great book to just browse through and enjoy visually.

[Balor/SS1535]

Reviving an old thread...
I picked up the reissue of "Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)" that collects the 4 EPs... one of the best things they ever did, at least for me. Reissued as a double CD in a slipcase, it's a pleasure to listen this stuff in proper form.

Since I've fallen back into a COIL trip, I also got the book Everything Keeps Dissolving... Nice matte cardboard cover with glossy details, good-quality paper, and a decent photo section (they could have done more, but oh well) for a nearly 600-page collection of interviews.

The author's introduction is a bit pedantic (the long-winded explanation about how the author included Balance's interview with TYR Magazine even though he considers them kinda fascists was something we could have lived without), but overall, the book seems well put together.

I bought that Moon's Milk comp as well, and I really think that it's their best work.  It's very diverse in terms of sound.

Relatedly, I also was gifted a copy of the art book that came out recently, compiling many of the hand-painted sleeves for the original Moon's Milk CDs and the Polaroids that came with them.  It's also an interesting collection.  My favorite part of the book, I think, is that it reminds that the original CDs came with very cool unique titles for each one---something that is lost in the reissue!

Supposedly, at least as is claimed in the Coil Facebook group, several of the scans in the art book are of bootleg copies?  A bunch of people claim to be able to authenticate John Balance's signature on sight as well as being able to pick out paintings that are forgeries.  Others, including the publisher, however, deny this.  The people in the group, moreover, didn't seem to provide too much in the way of proof besides claiming to know who made the bootlegs and that they should just be trusted.

Any additional perspectives on the book?

[burdizzo1]

Aye! I too have fallen back on a Coil 'trip' lately - partly due to finding a very nice copy of "Gold Is The Metal" at a record fair in my town (not sure the seller even knew what he had!), and partly because of an exhibition held in Dublin before Christmas celebrating the life of John Balance. Well, the last Coil gig was in Dublin, and JB died about three weeks after that, so they timed it to coincide with those 20th anniversaries. At the exhibition there a lot of photos from the gig, JB-related ephemera, paintings by ones that would have moved in Coil-esque circles, like Stephen Stapleton and Drew Mulholland, and a couple of talks on Coil and JB's "life and times". Also, the organisers put together a(nother!) book with a few essays, and - again - photos, ephemera, artwork, lyric sheets, etc. About 50 or 60 A4 pages, hardback; nice little item, but limited to... 93.

As for that Tyr interview - I have it in my head it was the last published one he ever did? Maybe not. Funny, he was quite upbeat and positive in it, but sadly he fell off the wagon as we all know.

Still think the first 'Music To Play In The Dark' is the stand-out of their later work.

[aububs]

Aye! I too have fallen back on a Coil 'trip' lately - partly due to finding a very nice copy of "Gold Is The Metal" at a record fair in my town (not sure the seller even knew what he had!), and partly because of an exhibition held in Dublin before Christmas celebrating the life of John Balance. Well, the last Coil gig was in Dublin, and JB died about three weeks after that, so they timed it to coincide with those 20th anniversaries. At the exhibition there a lot of photos from the gig, JB-related ephemera, paintings by ones that would have moved in Coil-esque circles, like Stephen Stapleton and Drew Mulholland, and a couple of talks on Coil and JB's "life and times". Also, the organisers put together a(nother!) book with a few essays, and - again - photos, ephemera, artwork, lyric sheets, etc. About 50 or 60 A4 pages, hardback; nice little item, but limited to... 93.

As for that Tyr interview - I have it in my head it was the last published one he ever did? Maybe not. Funny, he was quite upbeat and positive in it, but sadly he fell off the wagon as we all know.

Still think the first 'Music To Play In The Dark' is the stand-out of their later work.

i was at that final gig in dublin it was great, the city hall was an incredible venue for it. i missed that recent exhibition but a few friends told me it was only ok.

that everything keeps dissolving book mentioned above is probably the definitive book about the band. coil in their own words, which is just what you want. i find when music journalists or writers start talking about coil they disappear up thier own arses pretty quick.

[Penon]

As a huge fanboy of Coil, I am embarrased that I missed the release of Everything Keeps Dissolving. Got it straight away now. Thanks for brining it up, guys.

Last year, however, I got The Universe is a Haunted House. As moozz says, it is less for reading and more of a... well... coffee table book, I guess. It is massive, with very hard cover, thick glossy pages, two hundreds of them. Collage of photos, letters, news articles, handwritten notes (on all sorts of topics, including Coil chasing their European distributor for money, haha). Some scans can be found here: https://www.timelessedition.com/the-universe-is-a-haunted-house-coil-through-their-art-archives

[BlackCavendish]

As for that Tyr interview - I have it in my head it was the last published one he ever did? Maybe not. Funny, he was quite upbeat and positive in it, but sadly he fell off the wagon as we all know.

Yes, it was the last one, and in fact, it is placed at the end of the book.
The interviews are presented in chronological order and divided into "periods" (from PTV onwards)... I have read a few of them, and as a buyer on Amazon pointed out, there is some repetition of certain topics. However, it is an archival work, so I don't think it is meant to be read all in one go.