Coil - "Live One"

In 2000, Coil shocked their fans by announcing a live concert at the Royal Albert Hall. This was to be, essentially, their first live performance, having had some abortive live shows in the very early 1980s. And so it was that on April 2 of that year, John Balance, Peter Christopherson, Ossian Brown, and Thighpaulsandra took the stage. What came forth was 50-or-so minutes of slowly undulating electronic drone, subtly shifting oscillating synthesizers and tapes of Thighpaulsandra's mother, opera singer Dorothy Lewis. Titled "The Industrial Use of Semen Will Revolutionise the Human Race," the concert is broken into three pieces, two of which, "Everything Keeps Dissolving" and "Chasms" make their debut appearance. "Chasms" evokes the spirit of early Tangerine Dream, with a melody and ambience that could appear as an outtake of Electronic Meditation. This set is not song-oriented at all, leaning towards the Time Machines album for source material and inspiration. It would be the first of a handful of times that Coil would appear so ambient. As such, Balance does not sing during this concert. The second disc documents a performance just two months later at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona, featuring the same three tracks but appending three new ones (two of which, "The Universe Is a Haunted House" and "Elves" make their debut here). Coil also adds William Breeze on viola to the group. His contribution is showcased on an ambient version of "Amethyst Deceivers" (which appears, incidentally, in four different versions over the course of the Live series), which is markedly different from its studio version. And whereas the first disc of the set is impeccably recorded, the second show suffers from a non-soundboard bootleg source tape. At times, conversations in the audience are audible, and there is some distortion as well. It should be noted that the first disc of this set was released previously, as a bonus CD for fans who mail-ordered Musick to Play in the Dark Volume 2. While probably not the first live Coil album to buy, this is a useful documentation of the beginning of this extremely short-lived phase.

3.5 stars