Coil

First ever reissue of Coil's debut. How To Destroy Angels came out in 1984 on the Belgian label L.A.Y.L.A.H. as a single-sided twelve inch: one track of seventeen minutes, made by John Balance and Peter Christopherson shortly after they had left Psychic TV and before anyone, themselves included, knew what Coil was going to be. The subtitle on the sleeve was Ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy, and the notes on the back told the listener how and under what circumstances the record should be played. It has been out of print ever since.

There is very little in it: gongs, bowed and struck metal, some low percussion, left to ring until the decays overlap and the whole thing starts to hum. No rhythm to hold on to and no development in the usual sense. The air simply gets thicker. The sleeve notes explained that the piece had been organised on magickal and numerological principles, that the image behind it was Mars, and that it was meant to do something to the person listening, not to entertain him. Balance and Christopherson were serious about this, and most of what Coil made over the following twenty years starts from the same idea. The last line of those notes, "the price of existence is eternal warfare", has stuck to the group ever since.

Coil and Sub Rosa have a long history together, from the Myths 4 compilation in 1989 to City of Light with Bill Laswell in 1997 and the Another Brown World / Baby Food LP in 2017, all of them sold out for years. This edition keeps the original layout, one side of audio and one side etched, on 180 gram audiophile vinyl, and adds a previously unpublished hard board insert. Originals are hard to come by and expensive when they turn up.