Jhonn Balance - In Memorandum

In memorium, 13th November 2004

We are a few days past the anniversary of the death of Coil founder and prime agitator John Balance. It's hard to believe it's been nine years since his passing. Johnns final years were a troubled time for him, but I sincerely hope he has found the peace he so richly deserved, and that his beliefs in life have come to fruition.

As artists, I miss them very much, and I've yet to find anyone to fill the musical and mystical void they left in their wake. The music and mythology they created has been a great help and solace to me this year, which has for many personal reasons been a very difficult year.

I met and spoke to both Jhonn and Peter on several occations. They couldn't have been more accomadating in conversation when asked daft, geeky questions by a slightly awkward fan, and Johnns quick wit and humour quickly made me feel at ease. For all the buff and bluster that surrounded them, they were very genuine and likeable people.

In view of the anniversary, I thought I'd post a few Coil related bits and bobs as a virtual remembrance of these two extraordinary individuals.

Great overview of band to 2001 from Fortean Times

Review of gig supporting Foetus - first time I witnessed them live.

Jhonn reading the1983 Coil manifesto on Dutch radio 4 show in 2001.



Dutch Radio Interview with music from Coil, broadcast 2001

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Perhaps my favourite performance of theCSO  Live Box series, Coil - Live Thessalonika, Grecce, 10-05-2002. This performance finds Jhonn in quiet form, but definately channeling something. Some blistering electronics and truly unsettling shrieking during this performance make it one Coil's most rewarding. Outstanding.

CSO9 Thessalonika Live (self edited version)

Coil - final concert - Dublin City Hall 23rd October 2004

Bout' Time I Got Back On The Hoss

Had a crappy year, hence not many post, but feeling better now, so lets get on with it.

Been some cracking music released this year, which I've buried myself in deeply, of which, more to come shortly.

Stumbled across this great band Death and Vanilla whilst perusing the in turns, vexing and fascinating 'out there' music club / collective that is The Outer Church.  (Website layout isn't all it could be, but it's worth a rummage, somegreat artist led mixes on their through mixcloud).

I'm guessing if you dig Broadcast , and you all know by the myriad of posts about them that I do muchly, then your sure to love this Swedish collective.

Felt obliged to download their entire output from Bandcamp, an EP, album and 7", all with great covers, especially the 7", which to these eyes looks like prime Julian House, or at least a great facsimilie.
Just put an order in for the beautiful red vinyl 7". Maaan, I 'm a sucker for coloured vinyl.

7"

EP

LP

Also a lush video to 'From Above' from the 7".

Another great one from the self titled LP called 'Rituals'

Yet another wonderful track - 'Cul-De-Sac'

Mentioned the Outer Church at the beginning of this post, they have released a wonderful psychotronic album of artists who've played at their club at various venues around the UK called simply, The Outer Church, a 2CD menagerie or out there esoterica (word of the day that!)

Can't recommend this release enough, some fascinating left field 'occult' electronica from some previously 'unknown' to me artists. To my ears, many have drunk deeply of the well of occult esoterica and also worshipped at the alter of COIL in relation to their sounds, atmospheres and visuals. I hate to use the word Hauntology, but it's a perfect description of what's contained within.

Tracklist Here.

Strictly limited release, so dig deep and bag a bargain. Sure to be a future collectable along the lines of such hard to get esoteric greats as The Elephant Table Album  and 'An Afflicted Mans Musica Box' to name but two.

Also came across a great duo whilst on the Outer Church site called Occult Hand whose spooky, atmospheric rumblings on Illutrious Pairing have been perfect for these Halloweenesque windblown evenings of late.

Great video Here. If you enjoy the slightly unsettling.

(The Original) Journey To Avebury

Have been off work for a few days after a short spell in hospital, and boredom has led me to trawl the web looking for nuggets to fill the time. I stumbled across this great little film by Derek Jarman 'A Journey To Avebury' that I hadn't seen in quite some time. Shot in 16mm film with a gorgeous yellow filter, which adds a beautiful, painterly and other-worldly feel to the pictures that sums up what is lacking in a visit to this special place today.

Take a 10 minute time travel into the past. You'll not see the daytime monument so empty these days.

Thighpaulsandra - Live Dublin, May 2005

Found this lurking on my hard drive and thought I'd post it up for your musical edification.
I'm a big fan of Thipe's crazy avant-prog, and this is one of the few occasions he's ventured out live on his own.
I found a review of his debut gig at the Arts Cafe in London, maaaan,I wish I'd witnessed that night.
Those flamboyant costumes have me sold, that's for sure.
Thipe's been quiet for the last few years, though I hear tell rumblings over on Head Heritage  that there may be a new release shortly.
Here's some patchy information about the man himself. from Wiki and his official website 

And here's some 'Synth Porn' from his home studio, Mmmmmm.

Apologies for the scratchy pic from the Dublin gig, and a couple from the Arts Cafe even too.

Thipe, Live Dublin, May 2005

Arts Cafe 1

Arts Cafe 2

Thighpaulsandra, May 2005

Coil - A Couple Of Outstanding Gigs.

I still greatly miss the esoteric outpourings of Balance, Christopherson, Thighpaulsandra and associates.
Since 1985 they have been my 'occult' eye, guiding me into hitherto unknown territories of music and magick or wild obsidian nightmares and obtuse teachings. I've met some great people along the way, and swapped and traded many a 'rare' disc or live show with wonderful and generous people from all walks of life, all sharing my obsession, living scattered lives across the globe.
There really has been nobody to step up and fill their boots, nobody gives me quite the thrill Coil gave me, whether it was a new recording, or the chance to catch them 'live'. There was always something very special about their approach. The efforts were often never less than astounding, they could like as not often be baffling and obtuse, often for it's own sake. Always keeping one step ahead of the pack, they seemed to take a perverse joy in wrong footing fans and critics alike, releasing almost unlistenable 'Power Electronics' after softly lulling us with beautific ambient Drones. Albums were wrapped up in their own occluded meanings forcing the listener to return time and again to unpick the coded ciphers and coda's of  the music or lyrics. They always kept you guessing, you could never be sure what they were up to. They saw no shame in being elitist, with some releases being either incredibly limited and therefore hard to come by, hence the 'swapsies', or unfeasibly expensive, often with artifacts or artworks done by band members themselves. As I said, I still miss them, and if you do to, here's a couple of great shows. The'Barbian - Play Festival is one I recorded myself, the other ended up as part of the 'Live' series, I think it was ''Live Four - Prague and Vienna' , but don't quote me on that.

Coil - Live  Palace Acropolis - Czech Republic Prague 27/10/2002

Coil - Live 'Only Connect - Play Festival/Game On/Only Connect Barbican 27/04/2002

John Dee Documentary with Coil Soundtrack & Thighpaulsandra.

As you've probably guessed, I'm a BIG fan of COIL. And as I'm Currently re-reading 'The Queens Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr Dee, a' fascinating account of the life Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer and 'occult skryer' John Dee.

I thought I'd post a link to this interesting documentary about his life and eventual fall from grace in the Elizabethan court, mainly due to a shady character called Edward Kelly. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the whole affair (Dee used Kelly for 'Skrying/channelling' spirits, allegedly angels) was the formation of a perfect 'working' language he named 'Enochian' the language of angels. Indeed, Coil released a wonderful album called The Angelic Conversation, featuring voice samples of Judi Dench alongside  a 'soundtrack' constructed to the Derek Jarman film of the same name.
There is a great overview of Dr Dee's life and achievements Here.

The 'film' was originally shown on Channel 4 in, i think, 2002, when Coil were still going strong, and indeed, were in the middle of a wonderful outpouring of creativity, mainly due to the addition of the never less than wonderful Thighpaulsandra as a member. Both Julian Cope and Spiritualized (whom I think Thipe' still plays with) have benefited from the idea's injection, energy and 'out-there-ness' of Thipe', an artist now sadly marginalised in his solo outpourings. I'd heartily recommend you pick up all his albums, though in particular , 'I Thighpaulsandra', ' Double Vulgar' & 'Double Vulgar II'  are exceptional. In 2006 the wonderful single track limited edition 'soundtrack' album The Lepore Extrusion is a true return to haunted kraut form.
Hear it Here.

I thighpaulsandra

Double Vulgar

Double Vulgar II

The Lepore Extrusion

Two Coil Gigs, St Johns Church, Gdansk & Megalithithomania, Conway Hall.

Ploughing through my CD archive, I turned up these two interesting shows I hadn't played in some time.
When Coil started touring again back in 2000, there was a real buzz and expectation about their shows, as many of us thought we'd never see them live in then current lineup. From then till the death of John Balance in 2004, they played around 45 shows all around the globe and a network of us grew sharing and recording various live events, as then, they were unavailable officially. The quality for most of the shows was surprisingly good for audience recordings, and a dozen or more shows came to light in that time, from places as far apart as Russia and the U.S.A. with a large swathe of  Europe taken in too. One 'official' CD/Video was produced at the time of a show in NYC dated 18 Aug 2001. The tracks for this show were the same 'Persistence Is All' set they played at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 Sept 2000. A full list of live show are listed Here.
You can pick up an official  DVD  box set release of most of these shows, but it is very limited, and tre expensive and may already be sold out. Full details at Threshold House.

 COIL - GDANSK

The first post is a great audience recording from Gdansk, Poland dated 25/10/2002. A friend from Belgium Hernando J kindly sent me this. The tracklist is the same for several other appearances from this period.
You can hear it Here.

MEGALITHOMANIA

This was a show I attended at Conway Hall dated 12 October 2002 as part of the 'Megalithomania' event.
Basically a day of talks about folklore, mythology and prehistory, it was a great day with the added buzz that Coil had recorded a special track for the event. You can hear it Here.
Drew Mullholland under the guise of 'Mount Vernon' Astral Temple' also played a wonderful show, with some amazing 'urban explorer' visuals of abandoned military sites and bunkers.
I picked up a great MVAL 'sigil' T-shirt at the time, with one of those great Cold War slogans on the back.
I particularly loved the sigil, as it looks like a simple graphical representation of 'Torquemada' from the comic 2000AD strip 'Nemesis'.