The recent few years of activity from Coil has shown that not only is
their creative prowess uncompromised by the passing of time, but in fact
one could even make a strong argument that the music they are releasing
now is among the best in their catalog. The case in point would be the 4
Solstice/Equinox EP’s which started coming out in 1998. These 4 releases
showcased well the many talents of this group. Since then, half
a dozen long-players have ambushed an unsuspecting audience while
bandmates John & Peter along with new member Thighpaulsandra promise more
material out in the near future.
Certainly this is enough to keep even
the most rabid fan busy collecting and listening while waiting for the
mythical Backwards album which has been on hold now for a number of
years. A good album to pick up in the meantime is Queens of the
Circulating Library which was first distributed at Coil’s live show at
the Royal Festival Hall in London, and officially released to the public
on Mother’s Day. Technically this is an album from the Coil side-project
Time Machines, as was the live show, and as such is a bit of a different
animal from typical Coil releases (as if there were such a thing!). First
off, it’s one single track covering about an hour’s time, so be prepared
to embark on a very strange journey when placing this one in the CD
player. I might recommend taking it on a camping trip with you, and
listening to it over headphones while surrounded with trees, as I’ll never
forget that haunting experience.
Queens is made primarily of synthesized
drones which continually mutate over the course of the piece, weaving
within each other and cycling through various textures and forms. The
result then is this sort of eerie atmosphere which shifts around
but maintains it’s overall feel throughout the duration of the work. Time
to make that inner journey of self-reflection? Hard-panned layers of
sound snuggle up against your right ear while the left ear contends with
it’s own wild ride of sliding frequencies and sidereal processing for your
deep listening pleasure. Topping off this surrealist dronescape is the
voice of Thighpaulsandra’s mother Dorothy Lewis, a trained opera singer,
who recites lines written especially for her by John Balance. Let me just
say, as a Coil fan with a decade long history of loving their music, that
these lines are perhaps the strangest, strongest, and most enigmatic
verses they’ve ever included in their music. Phrases like, “Return the
books, don’t burn the books…” and “you cut down the trees to make paper
disease” for me make an almost ethical or environmental statement blending
some bizarre combination of druidic lore and a twisted Fahrenheit-451.
This is definitely an album I’ll be coming back to for years.
