There’s a special place in my heart for this release, there really is – continuing to pull greatness from the most unlikely of places, daring to roughening up that Bossanova perfection.
Michael Rodham-Heaps
496 posts
They could have taken the easy option and give us a facsimile of the recorded work but instead, forty-three years later, they rip it up and scatter the parts allowing them to thrill and confound in equal measure. Remarkable.
Collecting…connecting... cultivating... the band’s antenna always seemed to be searching out ways to bend modernity back on itself, prey to an older consciousness. As such, Gold Is The Metal has got me re-playing, dot-joining its many components to so much of Coil’s discography, seeing where the contents have leaked into future use beyond the obvious connections of this track being the demo of that.
...there’s the summery wonderosa of the title track "Autosmile" that’s got to be one of the best sonic uplifts / natural evolves I’ve taken in all year. Honestly, this collection of songs taps into something special, showing the acoustic guitar / singer songwriter schtick has more to offer than certain stadium-fillers would have you believe.
Asylum Variations shows no retread of the previous album, but a full-on evolution of what was laid down before, that familiar disaffected voice strung between the splashy synthesis and pedal-pawed bite.
A groundbreaking entity which later fractured into its own versions of the original dream, never to be whole again, and now some fifty-plus years later, the scattered survivors have penned four independent albums that celebrate what each brings to the unfathomable sum of its parts.
It is an interesting spectacle, because although the crowd knows to look forward to two forty-five minute sets and a short intermission, what those two sets might entail is anyone's guess. The air of anticipation is further heightened by the lack of a support slot, so nothing interferes with the trio's planned or unplanned journeys.
An impressive set of tunes with real sonic depth, concluding with the soft plumage of “‘Concrete Conversation”‘s undulatory rhythmic with croaking robotics slowly frequency combed to silence.
Slow ‘n’ steady, lulling mirroring sounds -- then just when you think it’s grasping towards some om-like union, a repetitive carpet of agitated frets throws things splendidly off-piste, the canvas suddenly gripped in an overfed rebound and answering recoil.
...they porously pull at the framework, cursively hint to the heritage but flex fresh perspectives; this is a living thing after all -- museums can wait.
he instrumental energy of these compositions is off the scale. Instinctively light and airy, their complexity playful, imaginative; everything vibrantly falls into place, spiralling plenty of intriguing pyrotechnics in the process.
The noir-flushed disquiet of "Uncertain" limping into a scattering post-rock pulmonary, Adi Newton’s voice a looming vulture shadow brambled in ambiguity. This album is still a keeper some forty plus years later, typified by the joy-shaped Molotov that is "Sensorium" and beyond.
A raucous revelry that burns solidly throughout, pokes the post-punk corpse, churns wildly industrial, sounds that hold well to that roughly-hued head of the cover that scars darkly primitive. Magazine really feels like a brooding wound of discontent that’s still wide open demanding to be prodded.
I knew I’d love this even before listening and when played its bleached-out summery disposition wove quite a spell, blistered with unexpected alt-pop moments that ear-wormed in the there and remained. So glad to see this back in print coupled with its reworked cousin
...plasticised blurs affixed to a melodic underling. Enveloped and overlapping textures feed in some nice weirded-out drone candy, slamming to full-on rock-out surprise before getting softly celestial. Intriguing shapes stippled and percussively bubbled, fluxing in hissy transits and snake-charmed loops.
Strange angels pouring into the on-screen fractal shapes and patterned orbits. Jarboe silhouetted, long hair flowing over her face, upturned hands to her solemnly pointed words, occasionally raising them in alter-like reverence to the intensity
...hiccuping hypnotics and slivering interchange shot through with darkened instabilities. A heady otherness The Stargazer’s Assistant have been worshipping from the get-go, imbued with ghostly burrs and vocalising vapour, spidering into a noisy abstractive rub.
...this recent 4AD culmination of their four Peel Sessions gives you an excellent band primer. The first four tracks airing months before their debut LP Fetisch was even released, barbed and gritty statements that thistle with a refreshing ferocity that guaranteed plenty of further investigation.