COH "Love Uncut" Eskaton 33 2001 (21:19)
My
Angel [Director's Cut] (5:13)
Fffetish
(4:54)
Prayer For Russell (5:44)
Health
& Deficiency: Love's Septic Domain (5:28)
Four deviant love songs make up the latest EP by COH (Ivan
Pavlov) with collaborators Peter Christopherson and John Balance of Coil,
Steve Thrower of Cyclobe,
Frankie Gothard and Louise Weasel. The disc comes lovingly packaged
in a clear slip case with amusing cardstock inserts, color illustrated
and Spanish captioned, for each song. As with some of the previous
EP "Vox Tinnitus",
"Uncut" pairs the guests' vocals with Pavlov's precisely programmed, laptop
generated chaos. "My Angel [Director's Cut]" and "Fffetish" are reinterpretations
of mid '80s pop tunes, Soft Cell's "Meet Murder My Angel" and Vicious Pink's
"Fetish", respectively. On "Angel" Christopherson's (and possibly
Gothard's) vocalized hums, sighs, moans, movements, watery slaps and thumps
could be construed as sexual overtures more overt than anything suggested
in the few lines of softly spoken/sung lyrics. "Fffetish" is as danceable
as the original with driving electronic pops and hi-hat as Gothard vehemently
insists "when you're near me my whole body aches" and "you are my fetish!"
Thrower's "Prayer For Russell" (Moore, a gay porn actor) is more restrained
and tone/drone based. His effected voice recites a barely decipherable,
possibly double entendre series of lines such as "come into the waves of
time" and "come beneath the waves of time". But it's Balance, unsurprisingly,
who delivers the most vibrant and vigorous vocal of all. In "Health
& Deficiency: Love's Septic Domain" he passionately decries the
humiliation and horrors of "dirty hospitals" and daily medical methodologies:
"I take 27 pills before 9 a.m. in the morning / another 35 by 9 in the
evening / I have 3 intravenous injections a day / one in the thigh, two
in the eye". Meanwhile, Weasel deadpans
spoken lines here and there, perhaps summing it all up
best with "I'm confused between sexual, murder, magick and medical ...
is the difference metric or imperial? septic? fertile?
furtive? or sterile?" The song reminds me of the themes explored
in Coil's rendition of "Tainted Love" and the soundtrack to Derek Jarman's
"Blue" and proves to be the most powerful of these cuatro canciones.
Out next for COH will be a collaboration with visual artist D42 entitled
"Netmörk" for Source
Research Recordings ...
Where did I get this cd? - mail order via Forced Exposure.