Coil
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news 2004
November 25th, 2004
The following statement was posted earlier today to the Threshold House website.
For obvious reasons Coil cannot continue, and will NOT be appearing in any form on the dates scheduled for December or next year.
We will be making a number of new and archive recordings available here soon, including the latest release Jhonn had been planning which was ALREADY called And the Ambulance Died in his Arms... - a live recording of Coil's performance at ATP last year. We hope to make this a free download in Jhonn's honour - check back here for details.
Early the New Year we will be releasing a box set of DVDs containing the entire catalog of Coil on video in one fell swoop, as well as the last major audio work The Ape of Naples. This album will combine the planned and substancially revised Black Antlers proper, with other recordings currently in progress, as well as the best of unreleased past material including some from the now-legendary never-released Backwards album.
There are plans afoot to make available Jhonn's lyrics, written, drawn, and otherwise spat-out scrawled, carved in blood and inscribed works.- more news on this when it becomes available.
After a much needed break, Sleazy and Ian will be continuing to make personal art, music DVD and video projects, with the same ferocious intensity of their work to date with Jhonn, but it is too early to say what form these will take.
The thresholdhouse website will continue to offer the work of Jhonn Balance and Coil, plus news and links to Sleazy's and Ian's ongoing creative output.
It's worth noting that this site will remain active as well, both as an archive of Coil's/Jhonn's legacy, and as a source of information of post-Coil work from Sleazy, Ian, Thighpaulsandra and others. Jon & Greg hope to make many improvements to the site in the weeks and months to come.
November 24th, 2004
Dark ambient/experimental net.label Dark Winter is planning a tribute project to Jhonn Balance. Entitled Full Cold Moon, the MP3 compilation with be available for free download from December 26th (last full moon of the year) until the next full moon in January. Artists who are interested in contributing a track should contact the label.
November 21st, 2004
The funeral celebration for Jhonn Balance will take place at 1:30 PM GMT on Tuesday November 23rd. Though the ceremony is restricted to close friends and family, Remote Viewers are welcome.
Although Coil has previously appeared on stage without the presence of Balance, the Coil perfomance has been pulled from All Tomorrow's Parties.
As for the December 6th show at the MEM Festival in Spain, the festival website has a statement in Spanish that translates to: "After the tragic, unexpected and recent death of John Balance, (his) band renders a tribute to him in the concert anticipated for the MEM." This suggests that the surviving band members may go ahead with the show, but this has yet to be confirmed.
November 15th, 2004
It is with great sorrow that we announce the death of Jhonn Balance in a fall at his home on Saturday, November 13th, 2004.
A full announcement and a Book Of Condolence are available at Threshold House.
November 12th, 2004
It was announced this morning that this weekend's Seed Records event at Aldwych Disused Tube Station that Coil was scheduled to play has been cancelled. According to Sleazy's post to the Coil mailing list, "apparently someone high up in London Underground saw the word "rave" on some internet site and panicked".
November 10th, 2004
Coil have announced two live festival appearances for December. On the weekend of December 3-5, they'll be appearing alongside Throbbing Gristle, The Fall, Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, LFO and more at ATP's The Nightmare Before Christmas at Camber Sands Holiday Resort. They'll then be heading straight over to Bilbao, Spain for a performance at the MEM Festival on December 6.
Danny Hyde recently sent out an update regarding his upcoming "solo" album. As mentioned previously, the album will feature new versions of several Coil tracks that Danny was involved in writing & recording, including "An Unearthly Red" and "Nasa Arab" (retitled "Unhealthy Red" and "Nasahara Arab" accordingly). Jhon Balance has contributed new vocals for a track entitled "Fj Nettlefold", and appears on another track in the form of vocals from an unreleased studio session recorded several years ago. A release date of early 2005 is expected.
Coil's previously unreleased Black Sun Remix of Depeche Mode's "Rush", which was once available as a Song Of The Week MP3 download via this website, is now available as an official high-quality MP3 download as part of a digital album of rare mixes offered in conjunction with DM's "Remixes 81-04" album. Officially, it is available only those who own the limited edition 3xCD version of the album, as the third CD in the set is needed to access the download area from the Depeche Mode site. But people have reported success in accessing the download area using this direct link.
Black Sun Productions have launched a new website - anarcocks.com - to promote and sell their various projects. The newest available release is a CDR-EP entitled Toilet Chant which features vocals by Jhon Balance on the track "E2=Tree 3". The disc is limited to 99 copies, each marked with a unique shit-stained thumbprint.
Ochre Records - the label through which Thighpaulsandra released his latest album, Rape Scenes - are selling a small number of CDR copies of their Persistence Of Vision - Ten Years Of Ochre compilation which features an exclusive track from Thighpaulsandra & Siôn Orgon. This promotional CDR edition was prepared for the Ochre 10 Festival that took place in October, and the commercial edition will not be available until Spring, 2005. Contact ochre AT talbot.force9.co.uk for further information.
September 24th, 2004
Coil are pleased to announce that their long-planned MP3 download service has finally been launched. The two tour CDRs, The Remote Viewer and Black Antlers, can now be purchased and downloaded as high-quality variable bit rate MP3s, or as AAC files. The downloads also include printable artwork in JPEG format. Visit the Threshold House Download Store for more details.
Coil will be performing live at the Seed Records 4th Birthday event, taking place on November 12th & 13th at Aldwych Disused Tube Station in London. Coil will be appearing on the 12th, and will be presenting a short and low-key set amongst the many other artists who are appearing.
Beta-Lactam Ring Records are presenting a unique art show at Optic Nerve Arts, 1829 NE Alberta St. #11, Portland, Oregon. Entitled "See Beyond the Music", the show will feature visual art by a variety of experimental musicians including Coil's Jhonn Balance & Ian Johnstone, as well as Steven Stapleton, Edward Ka-Spel, Freek Kinkelaar, Frans de Waard, Felix Kubin and many more. The exhibit runs from Sept. 30th to Oct. 27th, with an opening reception on Sept. 30th from 6 to 10 PM.
B-LRR will also be releasing Thighpaulsandra's long awaited Double Vulgar 2 on CD and 3xLP. Release date and further info will be announced here when known.
September 7th, 2004
After numerous manufacturing and logistical delays, Coil have announced on Threshold House that the long-awaited 3xCD + DVD edition of ANS has finally arrived. The site states that they "have begun shipping, in sequence - Those who ordered way back in December will get theirs first, January next and so on... Hopefully all the orders will be filled this week."
The update also mentions that "the process of preparing for our move, as well as the sad demise of World Serpent has thrown up some unexpected and previously forgotten treasures." These items will be offered for sale via a newly launched Personal Vaults section on the Threshold House site, as well as on eBay.
Gay-themed electroclash/disco group Futon have released a CD single of their version of the Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that features a Coil remix. The group is based in Bangkok, and Coil associate Bee is a member. The record can be ordered via Rough Trade.
On the live front - Coil will be appearing at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival on October 23rd, andAll Tomorrow's Parties have announced that Throbbing Gristle will be performing at their Nightmare Before Christmas festival taking place at Camber Sands Holiday Centre, East Sussex, UK on December 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2004. The latter festival is being curated by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman and will also feature performances by Shellac, Peaches, The Fall, Violent Femmes, The Minutemen, Carl Craig, Wolf Eyes, Lightning Bolt and more. This means that the plans to have Throbbing Gristle curate next spring's edition of ATP to make up for the cancelled RE~TG event have been scrapped.
Coil's friends & collaborators at Black Sun Productions have released a new CD entitled Astral Walk via Italy's Final Musik label. The album features music used for the 22nd installment in their Plastic Spider Thing series of sex-ritual performances. Several copies are available for purchase directly from BSP via eBay, and wider distribution is being worked on.
BSP are also compiling a tribute album to the poetry of Bertolt Brecht. Coil have recorded a new track entitled "A List Of Wishes" for the project, and other artists involved include Lydia Lunch, HR Giger and Fabrizio Palumbo (of Larsen). The scheduled release date of the CD is January, 2005.
August 20th, 2004
While there has been no official annoucement from the company, various sources (including Coil) have revealed that World Serpent Distribution has collapsed. It's currently unclear what effect this will have on the availability of releases in Coil's back-catalogue that were manufactured and distributed by WSD. We'll pass along more info as it becomes available.
In the meantime, Coil has pressed more copies of the Black Antlers CDR that was being sold at recent tour dates, and have made them available via the Threshold House mail order website. They are also selling off a large number of items from their archives including test pressings, limited & signed editions, artwork and much more. The items are being sold via eBay by Coil's friends at Black Sun Productions - the full list of currently available items can be viewed here.
July 25th, 2004
A post on the Coil discussion list today from Sleazy announced that Coil is holding a private auction for the first three numbered & signed copies of Selvaggina Go Back into the Woods, a CDR release featuring a recording of thier recent live performance in Jesi, Italy. These copies come from an limited edition of 230, the remainder of which will be sold at their performance at Ocean in London this evening. Visit Threshold House for full details.
He also mentioned that the triple CD + DVD edition of ANS is finally being pressed after numerous delays, and should be available soon.
Beta-Lactam Ring Records have announced two upcoming releases from Coil - Black Antlers CD/2xLP and All the Pretty Little Horses 7". For those with money to burn, there will most likely be limited art editions of one or both of these releases.
Thighpaulsandra has redesigned and relaunched his personal website (www.thighpaulsandra.com), although much of the content is "coming soon". When you visit, be sure to check out the online shop where you can buy your very own Thighpaulsandra Cum Towel!
July 12th, 2004
Much to report from far and wide:
A new and excellent interview with Coil is available on website Heathen Harvest, "the Radical Faerie source for today's underground music". Click here for a direct link.
There is also a short interview in the recently published second volume of TYR: Myth, Culture, Tradition, a journal that "celebrates the traditional myths, culture, and social institutions of pre-Christian, pre-modern Europe". The book comes with a CD that includes the Coil track "Magnetic North" along with tracks by Allerseelen, Blood Axis, Fire + Ice, In Gowan Ring and others. The book can be ordered from various sources, including Amazon and Powells.
Drew McDowall writes to say: "I'm guesting (on guitar) with The Dream Lovers tomorrow (Tuesday, July 13th) at Sin-e in NYC. It's a benefit for markus millar from Tonic. On the bill: Secret Machines, Electro Putas, Aurelio Valle from Calla, Excepter & DJ Otefsu (Foetus) aka Jim Thirlwell. The Dream Lovers will do a short set between each band. Also I'm working on the next Captain Sons and Daughters 7'' for, hopefully, release in September."
Gerard Greenway of Cultural Amnesia has added several more MP3s to the growing archive of material on the group's website. This latest batch includes two tracks with lyrics written by John Balance - "Here To Go" (from the cassette Sinclair’s Luck released on Balance's Hearsay and Heresy label in 1983) and "Fetish For Today" (from the unreleased album Obscenity).
Thighpaulsandra
is soon to release a new CD entitled Rape Scene via the
Ochre Recordslabel. Copies
of the album can be ordered directly from Ochre:
Cost: £13 UK / £14 Rest Of World.
Pay by Credit Card: Phone 01242-571572 (Badlands)
Pay by Paypal to Ochre Paypal Account: sales AT talbot.force9.co.uk
Cheque / Postal order to: Ochre Records, PO Box 155, Cheltenham, Glos, GL51
0YS, UK.
Thighpaulsandra will also be appearing at the Ochre 10 Year Anniversary Festival on Saturday, October 30th at Gloucester Guildhall in Gloucester, UK. Also appearing will be Acid Mothers Temple & Melting Paradiso UFO, Glide (Will Sergeant of Echo and the Bunnymen), Applecraft (featuring Adrian Utley of Portishead and ex-members of Spiritualized) and more. Visit the Ochre website for full details.
Richard Rupenus of The New Blockaders has announced that he is planning a CD reissue of Dolbied, the collaborative release between The New Blockaders, Vortex Campaign and Coil that was released on cassette in 1984. Also in the works is a New Blockaders tribute project featuring tracks by Coil, V/Vm, Kapotte Muziek, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, The Haters, Emil Beaulieau, Z'ev, Merzbow, Incapacitants, Aube, MSBR and many more, to be released as two double-CD sets on the Hypnagogia label.
May 31st, 2004
A few assorted tidbits of news for today:
Threshold House was recently updated to include information about the July performances in Jesi, Italy and London, UK. The update also mentions that the Black Antlers CDR being sold at dates on their current tour (and later via their mail order service) is a work-in-progress, and the finished version will be released via Eskaton and Beta-Lactam Ring in LP, CD and limited art editions. A 12" single of the title track is planned as well.
Speaking of BLR - the latest update to their website includes the following bit of information:
"Coil - SEVERAL RELEASES in the works and music is currently being completed at Coil studios. Art sub editions are in the works with a very elaborate wood boxed edition plus several Coil surprises including record release party here in Portland. More details to follow."
For those in London, the prestigious Tate Modern has recently opened an installation featuring a restored version of an old Super 8 film by Derek Jarman with a new soundtrack by Coil. More archival Jarman films are due to be catalogued and restored in the future, and Coil will be contributing soundtracks and scores to many of them. Coil has also mentioned that "The Angelic Conversation has just come out on DVD in Italy, without crediting COIL properly, much to our extreme annoyance and straining at the legal leash."
Frequent Coil collaborator Danny Hyde has sent out some news regarding his upcoming solo album which is tentatively titled Aural Rage: A Nature of Nonsense. 5 tracks are completed, with 9 others in the final stages. Jhonn Balance will be contributing vocals to 2 tracks, and the album will include versions of the Coil tracks "Nasa Arab", "First Dark Ride" and "An Unearthly Red". Danny hopes to have it ready for release in late summer/early autumn, and those who would like to be kept informed of the pending release should email dannyhyde AT hotmail DOT com with Subject="Album".
Finally, ex-Coil member Drew McDowall will be performing as part of his newest project Captain Sons & Daughters (also featuring Kara Bohnenstiel) at Tonic in New York City on June 11th. Drew & Kara released the first in a planned series of five 7" singles last year - for more information, contact captainsandd AT hotmail DOT com.
May 25th, 2004
From all accounts, Coil's performance in Paris this past weekend was quite spectacular. The setlist was as follows:
The Gimp (Sometimes)
Sex with Sun Ra
Broccoli
All the Pretty Little Horses (traditional Appalachian folk song, previously
recorded by Current 93)
Tattooed Man (The Dark Age of Love)
Teenage Lightning (10th birthday version)
Wraiths and Strays
Black Antlers (Where's Your Child?)
A limited edition CDR release entitled Black Antlers was being sold at the show, and will also be made available via Threshold House at some point soon.
Here are the remaining dates on the EVEN AN EVIL FATIGUE Mini
Micro-Tour:
May 31 - Leipzig, Germany at
Wave Gotik
Treffen festival
June 3 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands at
Melkweg
July 11 - Jesi, Italy at
Il
Violino e la Selce festival
July 25 - London, UK at Ocean
The previously annouced show at
Gagarin 205 in Athens,
Greece on May 29th appears to have been cancelled.
May 18th, 2004
A date in London, UK has been added to Coil's string of European spring/summer tour dates. Here is the official announcement:
Ocean Music present
COIL
LIVE AT OCEAN
270 Mare Street, London, E8
Plus GITHEAD
(Members of Wire, Scanner, Minimal Compact & Swim)
SUNDAY 25 JULY
7pm-midnight
£16.50 adv Box Office - 0845 070 1571
Also on sale at Ticketmaster, Stargreen, Ticketweb, Wayahead, Resurrection
Records Camden
May 1st, 2004
Due to a technical glitch, the subscription list to the Coil discussion list hosted by hollyfeld.org was recently wiped out. Those who wish to resubscribe (or newcomers who would like to subscribe for the first time) should visit the list subscription page and re-enter their email address and other info.
April 26th, 2004
Foundation and ATP, the producers/promoters behind the RE-TG Festival, announced today that the event has been cancelled.
This festival had been scheduled to take place at Pontin's Camber Sands Holiday Resort in Camber, East Sussex, England on the weekend of May 14th-16th, 2004, and was to have featured a one-off reunion performance by Throbbing Gristle as well as performances by the current groups of the former TG members (Coil, Carter-Tutti and Thee Majesty) and many other artists.
TG are now scheduled to curate the All Tomorrow's Parties festival set to take place at the same venue on April 15th-17th, 2005. They will be performing and plan to invite many of the artists scheduled for RE~TG to take part.
A full statement on this issue has been posted to the official Throbbing Gristle website. In addition, Coil posted the following statement to their Threshold House website earlier today:
"DRAT and DOUBLE DRAT!!!!
The whole summer seems to be coming unstuck! Very recent events have conspired to depress and sicken us. Due to a motorway-sized pile-up of ridiculously complicated and annoying circumstances, politicks and shadey machinations beyond our wildest comprehensions the RE~TG 3 day Industrial Festival at Pontin's Camber Sands holiday camp, has been postponed until April 2005ev!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Needless to say COIL are extremely disappointed, disgruntled and dismayed at this dismal set of badly handled possibilities. We are extremely sorry that Coil fans will be affected by this....... er...... postponement, and we would personally like to apologise to you all right here and right now. The whole situation is entirely out of our hands and beyond our control. We have been working hard on new musick, new material, new ideas, stage design, costumes, merchandise etc. for the last two months, and are continuing to rehearse and plan for the remaining European dates.
It continues to be an exhilerating and exciting process to work on this new material, and we are looking forward to debuting our current line up and presenting fresh meat to the carniverous audience, and we remain undaunted by the fact that our first and major UK date of the tour has disintegrated before our disbelieving eyes.
Never ones to let the grass grow under our feet we are taking the opportunity to enjoy the Space and Time that this circumstance has opened up for us we intend to rehearse and record an album length CDR - tentatitively titled Telesmatic Tree in the King Scale. This new work will be for sale at the European shows and from our regular store on this site. We are also well into beginning to record material for a new "proper" studio album The Ape Of Naples."
The "remaining European dates" mentioned above are as follows (with the possibility of more to be added):
May 23 - Paris, France at
La Locomotive
May 29 - Athens, Greece at
Gagarin 205
May 31 - Leipzig, Germany at
Wave Gotik
Treffen festival
June 3 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands at
Melkweg
Coil is also in the process of selling off rare items from their archives via the mail order section of their Threshold House website. Items are selling fast, so check back often for your chance to own some long-lost goodies from the vaults.
Last but not least, an informative interview with Sleazy was posted to the online magazine Stylus earlier this month. It can be found here.
March 3rd, 2004
No major news to report at the moment, but here are a couple of tidbits:
The archive website of the group Cultural Amnesia has been updated to include MP3s of selected tracks, including "Scars For E" which features lyrics written by John Balance. It can be found on the discography page for their cassette release The Uncle Of The Boot.
Rumours abound of a Coil concert occuring in Paris on May 23rd, and it seems likely given their appearance the following week at the Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Germany, but no concrete information is available yet. As always, we will report all confirmed info as soon as it is made available to us.
January 19th, 2004
Coil will be performing at the Wave Gotik Treffenfestival which takes place in Leipzig, Germany on May 28th to 31st, 2004. Other bands confirmed to appear include Clan of Xymox, Covenant and Suicide Commando, with many more to be announced.
The website of Coil's European touring agency, IBD Booking, says that they are currently booking Coil dates for May through August, 2004, so expect more live dates to be announced soon.
January 8th, 2004
A new year's message from Cyclobe:
"We're very pleased to say that the new Cyclobe website is now up and running. Our special thanks and gratitude go to James Mannox for his invaluable help with the design. Thanks to him, we now have a wonderful new space to play with...
"The main aim of the site is to make available all Cyclobe/Phantomcode releases directly from us, including limited website-only CDs and Artworks plus other related projects of interest to us. We are offering a very limited number of copies of our new vinyl 7" single Pathfinder, recently released by Klanggalerie, plus we've also decided to include a Limited Edition CDR of the title music we composed for the film DEATH BED. This piece is only available to accompany the signed DVD from our website.
"The Gallery section is still a work-in-progress but as soon as it takes form we'll post out a new mailer to let you know. We intend to add to to the site as we go along, expanding it with new information and visuals, secret labyrinths and hidden chambers.
"The NEW Cyclobe website address is http://www.cyclobe.com. Our Brainwashed site is still active too: http://www.brainwashed.com/cyclobe."
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