Coil - Love's Secret Domain

Min-Ra, Jul 03, 2003

1993: techno was beginning to grow cliched and crusty already. Loves Secret Domain came flying in from left field and knocked a lot of us upside the head. It wasnt techno or rock or post-punk, house, experimental or industrial. A little of each, certainly but most of all it is a concept album. A personal oeuvre of some young bright minds saying "heres how we percieve existence". The tension of hyperawareness runs through each of these pieces like a painful throbbing wound.
Disco hospital starts with some cut-up to raise the shackles of the listener and blast away preconcieved notions. Teenage lightning is a wistful glance back to the intense and unforgettable moments of first love. Things happen brings us past the glow of youth into the late-twenties, with a fantastically run-down female vocalist who sounds like an east european Dorian Gray. Then comes the snow: voices of the dead singing at the living across the frozen wasteland of time. Dark River is a contemplative demo that might be filler, but it provides some needed emotional breathing room before track 6, which is possibly the best use of digeridoo in any piece ive heard (before it became overused). Also the dub-like bass kick on 06 is a great speaker test. Teenage lightning 2 is an even more keening bossa nova revierie on lost youth. Windowpane is a bit of an electro-dub throwback to Throbbing-Gristle/Psychic_TV. Further Back and Faster has to be one of trippiest damn tracks ever - a unique combination of dub rhythm and acid synth textures - play it LOUD! Titan arch takes us into gothy This Mortal Coil-esque trance. Chaostrophy is a fantastic piece of heavy drug schizophrenia - shades of Revolution Number Nine. Lorca Not Orca is our third melancholy encounter with Teenage Lightning. The album finishes strong with a quavering shakespearian spin on William Blakes "the Sick Rose". Anyone into Industrial, Goth or Darkwave or just plain creative electronica needs to hear (and buy!) this truly seminal CD.

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