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Coil, "The Ape of Naples"
I can't think of any experience in the world more emotionally painfulthan a parent losing a child. No matter the circumstances (accident,disease, etc,... ), one experience is common to all survivors: the need to seek somekind of closure, which nothing can bring. A gaping emotional voidremains. Fans and friends looking for closure with the final studioalbum from Coil are not going to find it here.Threshold House
Only recently have I realized how appropriate the name John Balancereally was. Geff/John undeniably brought an equal (and extreme) amountof joy and pain all those he touched. He was extreme, and although hisdeath was blamed on his alcoholism, if it wasn't that it would havebeen the drugs, and if it wasn't that it would have been something else: he wasan extreme person who with manifested extremes of personality.
The Ape of Naples is a very painful album: it was conceivedin pain, it was recorded in pain, it was completed in pain. Many of its songsdate back over a decade to when the working title was Backwards.Peter Christopherson—along with the supporting cast of Thighpaulsandra,Ossian Brown, Cliff Stapleton, Mike Yorke, and others—has pulledtogether songs from different sessions, recorded at different times anddifferent parts of the world to piece this together. The packaging islavish but delicate. A glued insert folds out into a poster, containinglyrics and images by Ian Johnstone, but the card stock in which it isconatined is not something to be left in places where it can be damagedeasily.
One of the intentions seems to have been not to make something like anUnnatural History (Coil's compilation series of previously issued singles and othernon-LP tracks), so everything here is previously unreleased, more or less. The songschosen, or the versions presented have never been issued. Fans willappreciate finally having the music recorded in that infamous NewOrleans session and earmarked for that Trent Reznor-curated imprint ofInterscope Records long ago. Six of the 11 songs come from there.
"Fire of the Mind," which was also a working title of this album atone point, opens the record with the rich choral and organ based beautyreminiscent of the Musick to Play in the Dark series. It'saccented with the hurdy gurdy playing of Cliff Stapleton, who was arelatively new addition to Coil. (The other new additions to theensemble are the marimba and vibraphone playing of Tom Edwards and thepipe and duduk playing from Mike York, both of which featureprominently on other tracks.)
The first line is striking for coming from a recently departed man'smouth: "Does Death come alone or with eager reinforcements?" Along withother lines like "I don't expect I'll understand how life just trickledthrough my hand" on the equally touching "Amber Rain" hint that Balance could have known theend was near for him, however, I think he has always toyed with deathand the concept of the end. (See: Horse Rotorvator, whose working title was Funeral Music for Princess Diana,lines like "Most accidents occur at home" in "Sex with Sun Ra," and "theworld is in pain, we all must be shown, we must realise that everyonechanges and everything dies" on "Blood from the Air").
Balance's most political statement, "A Cold Cell" first appeared on a compilation from The Wiremagazine. "I Don't Get It" was a Song of the Week given away on theBrainwashed Coil website, however it was originally named "Spastiche."Both of these songs have been reworked into completely new versions.While the sound on "I Don't Get It" has been expanded with vocals andmore sound effects, "A Cold Cell" is more stripped and abbreviated.
"It's In My Blood" was also the title of a song dating back to theinfamous Backwards demos, but that song surfaced as "AYOR" on thosecompilations which first appeared in Russia before being issued throughThreshold House. On this album it is an entirely new song, yet Balance'spainful wailing remains. Similarly, "Heaven's Blade" here is acompletely different song than the song of the same title whichappeared on the unfinished demos.
Some might not appreciate how much material has been recycled,despite the fact that everything contained are indeed radically new versions. Songs like "The LastAmethyst Deceiver" and "Teenage Lightning 2005" stick out in particularas they have been issued so much.
"Tattooed Man," "Triple Sun," and "Going Up" are the newest songs,revealed only through live performances over the last few years. Theversions here might have been assembled through both archives of liveshows and in-studio recordings of the group. The first two being muchshorter than the noisier, elongated versions the band did live, whilethe last is based on the theme for the BBC's Are You Being Served? and features the wonderful soprano falsetto of Francois Testory.
The brevity of the majority of these songs actually do an effectivejob of conveying the notion of unfinished business, leaving everybodywithout that sense of closure they seek, but, as Balance says in thevery last line, "it just is."
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