Electronic/ambient/experimental music from Coil’s third album, Love’s Secret Domain.
As industrial and electronic dance music converged in the early ’90s, Coil found themselves partnered with Wax Trax! Records for their third full-length LP, a dramatic shift away from the eerie occult industrial of Horse Rotorvator. Instead, Balance and Christopherson embraced a heavier influence from house and techno, as well as lots and lots of drugs. (The acronym for the album is L.S.D., after all.) It’s not a dance album exactly—it does feature dance-oriented tracks like the hypnotic beats of “The Snow”—but the group’s embrace of electronics feels ahead of its time, even if some of the acid house influences seem connected to a particular time and place. The vocoder effects on “Teenage Lightning 1” act as a disorienting introduction to the album, and eight tracks go by without the presence of Balance’s human vocals at all (though a few guest vocalists lend theirs)—it’s not until the druggy club jam “Windowpane” that he finally steps out from behind the processors. But by this point Coil weren’t so much a “band” as a studio project, showcasing a journey through disorienting and hypnotic pieces like the darkly atmospheric “Dark River” and the deeply unsettling “Titan Arch,” featuring previous collaborator Marc Almond of Soft Cell. Throughout the album, the “Teenage Lightning” melody provides a kind of recurrent theme, anchoring the psychedelic experiments that happen throughout. But the peak moment is saved for the end—the incredible title track, as much a bridge to Coil’s terrifying early industrial material as it is a window into their increasingly experimental future. — treblezine
.
The Snow [1991]
.
Great longform read:
Sex, Drugs and No Genres: How Industrial Visionaries Coil Invented the Future Three Decades Ago
Coil's 1991 release ‘Love's Secret Domain’ gets a well-deserved reissue and endearing appraisals from friends and fans alike. Welcome to the future, you're late...
.
Dark River [1991]
.
"It's obviously Coil's masterpiece," says Ryan Martin, co-founder of Dais Records, the label which has several Coil reissues in its catalog of assorted electronic and post-punk releases. "No one in their circle was doing something that ambitious. Looking back on LSD, it's an ambitious cinematic record that acts like a movie, where I don't think the other albums certainly do. It's well over 30 years and I still have no idea how they made that record. Out of all the Coil albums, I'm definitely the most fascinated by it. And it's a pretty polished record—as crazy and psychotic as it is."
[...]
Wax Trax! label manager Mark Skillicorn thinks that while Coil's nuances were truly unique, they had that inevitable burden that goes along with it. The old adage of "The settlers get the land, the pioneers get the arrows" rings loud and clear.
"I think it's that way with anything," he says. "You have people that are way ahead of the curve. It just takes time for people to catch up. And then it does become an issue. Look at punk rock or anything that's any kind of real art form to begin with. Coil were doing something that was so ahead of the time and so experimental, it was inevitable that the fringes would come into the center at some point." — Spin
.
Teenage Lightning 2 [1991]
.
Full album on YouTube if you have an hour and a half to spare. It’s a pretty deep (and at times intense) listen.
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Charlize Theron, Elvis Costello, Juanes
Jimmy Fallon: Jeff Daniels, Chloe Fineman, the Flaming Lips
Stephen Colbert: John Lithgow, Theo Croker, Wyclef Jean
Seth Meyers: Colin Jost, Michael Gandolfini, Nick Baglio
James Corden: Andy Serkis, Beth Behrs
Trevor Noah: Jake Gyllenhaal
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
Annie Anxiety video needs a flash warning for RRG3DAV
.
Annie Anxiety Bandez :: As I Lie In Your Arms [1987]
.
Next one includes a nice sample from The Outer Limits TV pilot episode: "It sounds like a million mad clocks." Doubting Thomas was a Skinny Puppy side project.
.
Doubting Thomas :: Clocks [1991]
.
LAST WEEK’S POLL: FAVORITE MONOPOLY GAME PIECE
Cannon 7% 1 vote
Horse & Rider 7% 1 vote
Iron 0% 0 votes
Racecar 33% 5 votes
Scottie Dog 33% 5 votes
Shoe 0% 0 votes
Thimble 7% 1 vote
Top Hat 7% 1 vote
Wheelbarrow 7% 1 vote
PICKS
NCAA: E Dub, Mizzou, Penn Stank, Oregon, Kent State
NFL: WFT, CLE, KC, LAR, SF
.
.
Put — A — Bird — On — It!