Coil ‎– Horse Rotorvator

In the summer when I was sixteen, I saw Pasolini's Salo (which after 25 years had finally received a certificate from the BBFC here in the UK) in an antiquated arthouse cinema. All I can say is that I went and sat in the dark in this beautiful, old theatre and, waiting for the film to start, I listened to the most incredible baroque-like music infused with an industrial yearning. A sort of perversity skilfully crafted with poetic consideration, I'd never heard anything like it and, sitting through what I can only describe as one of the most intense film experiences of my life, I couldn't help but keep wondering what I'd heard. After the film I found out it was something the projectionist had put on and with the film's detached observation of suffering and death, it was the perfect marriage to such a powerful look at the worst of human capabilities, with both explicitly referencing Dante's Inferno.

On that day Coil became my new favourite band and although I can't say I have an album of theirs I like the most, this is certainly one of their most grabbing works, dark but something a range of folks can listen to unlike some of their other output. Here though, the band demonstrate a true level of talent that many of the artists who work outside the heavily commercialised mainstream music framework sometimes fail to live up to, perhaps because their concepts don't always match their raw technical talent, unlike Coil, who've taken on numerous styles with ground-breaking accomplishment and furnished with lyrics that straddle themes ranging from the deeply personal to the taboo, incorporating mythology and mysticism. Along with other offerings from the pair, like Love's Secret Domain, Musick To Play In The Dark and The Ape Of Naples, this disc shows a genuine ability to be diverse within a single album and taken holistically, a long career, in a way that only Coil seemed able to do. I have such high expectations from the music I continue to search out for to this day, in whatever genre, on account of having discovered this delight.

Since then I saw them play at Hackney's Ocean Club in 2004, in what turned out to be their penultimate public performance, yet as a fan I'm sad that I'll never be able to own a good chunk of their catalogue due to short press runs, limited availability (I've bought my Coil releases from four record stores of which two are no more) and the painfully high prices for anything of theirs you might find online. Why reissues haven't typically been licensed can only be comprehended in terms of playing up to the moneyed collector crowd. Shame, since there are a lot of people who would love to see affordable physical copies of their work. That said, whatever price is paid for this masterpiece, it'd be hard to imagine it being anything but worth it in ways so many LPs aren't. It stands out as the cutting edge of its time and remains a beautiful achievement forever after.

Coil's second album was released in five different colours - piss yellow, shit brown, blood red, spunk white/clear, blue - as well as black, and the title was inspired by a dream which jjohn balance (geoff rushton) had, involving a horse's jawbone being used as a plough.

I was the label manager of k422 (of which, force and form was a subsidiary) at the time of it's production and release, and spent a long time ensuring - as per geoff, sleazy and stephen's wishes - the correct shades of vynil were achieved.