John Balance – The Art, Music & Writings Of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986.” 9LP with 282-page book in wooden box with Shirt / Slipmat / certificate

 

Since his untimely passing in 2004, it has remained impossible to calculate the importance and lasting legacy of John Balance. Most well know as the founding member of Coil, which began as a solo project before becoming a collaboration with his partner Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, even before that lasting and remarkably influential project, Balance had made a huge mark on the British underground, including membership in Psychic TV, numerous other musical projects, including Murderwerkers, published seven issues of a fanzine, Stabmental, and was a tireless correspondent with members of scenes in the UK and abroad, in addition to supporting many of those artists via his release of the highly collectable “Endzeit”, “Bethel”, and “The Men with the Deadly Dreams” compilations.

Over the last few years we’ve witnessed a slow trickle of vinyl reissues focused Balance’s work within Coil, but VOD’s latest, “The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986”, takes a rare dive into a sprawling body of never before heard and unreleased material made by the artist during some his most important and prolific years. Issued as a 9LP wooden box set, accompanied by 282-page book, Shirt / Slipmat / certificate, in a black vinyl edition, limited to 666 copies, it’s easily one of the most exciting releases of the year for any fan of Coil, Balance, or British underground music at large.

“The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986”, diving into a largely unheard sound world of John Balance, begins, logically, with nearly two LPs worth of material recorded between 1979 and 1980 of his earliest solo outings under the guise of Murderwerkers, fleshed out further with material by Stabmental, his collaboration with Tom Craig between 1980 and 1981. From here we move onto two LPs gathering some incredible solo recordings made between between 1982 and 1983, in addition to material made with the project Cultural Amnesia, as well as some early Coil recordings that illuminate the nascent stage of the seminal project. This momentum is carried forth with a further full LP of contributions that the project made to various compilations in 1984, then a full LP of Coil sessions, demos and outtakes recorded from 1983-1985, before concluding with an LP of Coil sound sources for the New Blockaders / Coil / Vortex Campaign Tape from 1984.

While this material presents an extensive and previously untapped overview of Balance’s sonic activity between 1979 and 1986, “The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance” is equally immersive and valuable via its incredible, 282-page book offering rare insights and overview to his early life and work, his thinking, goals and work-in-progress, comprising 30 pages of essays and memories by Nick Soulsby, Nicolas Ballet, Phil Barrington, Cultural Amnesia, Euan Craik, Alex Fergusson, Tom Craig, Adi Newton and Vittore Baroni, all dealing with all kinds of aspects of John Balance, from friendship to mail-art to music-collaborations. In addition to this, it also also includes the complete re-publishing of his magazine Stabmental Issue 1-7 with 106 pages which he published with Tom and Euan between 1979 and 1981, an overview of rare Tapes from back those days with John's audio and design contribution and participation, 12 pages of artwork-examples, 44 pages of extracts from early magazine-publications with interviews, etc., and 51 pages of letters written by John between 1979 and 1986 that give a wonderful insight into his way of thinking. To Round it all out, the collection also includes an extra 28-page booklet with the letters to Adi Newton written by Balance between 1979-1981.

Needless to say, all of this collected together - the 9LPs and books - accompanied by a shirt, slipmat, and certificate - makes “The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986” one of the most remarkable efforts ever dedicated to Balance and Coil ever released. Issued by VOD in a stunning wooden box-set edition of 666 copies, what else can we say? This one is mind-blowing in every way. - Bradford Bailey

----------------------------