Coil

* CD Edition. Remastered Edition of the definitive version. Features Rare Bonus Track *  Dais Records announces the reissue of Black Antlers, a defining work from Coil’s prolific final chapter, completed in 2006 by Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson following the passing of Jhonn Balance. This newly remastered edition presents the album in its intended final form, alongside the rare 2004 demo “Wraiths And Strays (From Montreal)” as a digital bonus track. Emerging during a period of creative reinvention, Black Antlers captures Coil at their most dynamic – fusing Thighpaulsandra’s synthesis, Balance’s poetic lyricism, and Christopherson’s digital experimentation with contributions from an expanded ensemble of musicians. From the hypnotic pulse of “The Gimp (Sometimes)” to the celestial chaos of “Sex With Sun Ra”, the album stands as a testament to the group’s fearless evolution.

Labels' press:  In the late-1990s, after a successful career as an MTV-era music video director, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson moved with Jhonn Balance – his partner in life and in Coil – from London to the rural Weston-super-Mare, creating an environment for all things "musick, musick, musick!" with a revolving door of new members, including Thighpaulsandra. This eruption in activity saw Coil's discography nearly double, and during this fruitful period, Thighpaulsandra asked the simple question: why doesn't Coil play live? After a 16-year wait, thanks to rapid technological advancement in the form of MacBooks, DAWs, VSTs and plug-ins, Coil were able to bring their music to the stage as always envisioned. In live performance, they could embrace the risks and freedoms of real-time sonic manipulation, as noted by Sleazy: "Reshape the show minute by minute... the direction is very spontaneous, not so much in the way of jazz improvisation but in a kind of stream of consciousness… Thighpaulsandra brought us his wisdom, and he was able to convince us we could do it."

From 1999 to 2003, Coil was "like a snake shedding its skin," transforming every six months into something "completely different." Their evolution was documented in real time through limited edition albums including Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil and Queens of the Circulating Library. In preparing for 2004’s Even an Evil Fatigue live series, Coil began work on their next period-defining masterpiece, Black Antlers.

Black Antlers showcases late-period Coil at their purest: stripped down, tighter, and leaner. The music became more rhythmic, with greater emphasis on beats: "the songs we did tend to be more... not rock in any sense of the word, but you know, more conventional in terms of structure, though still within an electronic genre." The album radiates intoxicating energy, combining Thighpaulsandra's advanced synthesis, Balance's poetic lyricism and Christopherson's flirtations with jazz and Ableton-aided PowerBook maximalism. Revitalized energy marked Black Antlers' recording, paired with the group's signature wordplay (the title came from imagined adult film titles). At their Evil Fatigue tour opener in Paris, Jhonn Balance introduced "Teenage Lightning (10th Birthday Version)" as "an updated version of one of our older-never 'hits'." The album opener "The Gimp (Sometimes)" is hypnotic and hallucinatory, while "Sex With Sun Ra (Part One – Saturnalia)" writhes through an imagined dialogue with the legendary composer. The companion piece "Sex With Sun Ra (Part Two – Sigillaricia)" evolves into a throbbing ouroboros of glitches, and "The Wraiths And Strays Of Paris" expands on the original demo (included here as a bonus track). The group’s delicate cover of "All The Pretty Little Horses" showcases Balance's whispered vocals at their most haunting.

The Dais reissue presents Coil's 2006 version of Black Antlers, with 2004's "Wraiths And Strays (From Montreal)" as a downloadable bonus track. Remastered by Josh Bonati.