Bleep

Originally released in 2000, the Musick albums were seen as Coil at the intoxicating height of their powers. John Balance joined by Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV), Thighpaulsandra (Spiritualized) and Scottish singer Rose McDowall (Strawberry Switchblade) created an album not so much as music to zone out with, but to completely surrender to and hopefully be freed from at some point again, such is it's captivating power.

Created in the same fruitful sessions as the first Musick To Play In The Dark album recorded in Weston-super-Mare where the group had retreated to from London in 1999. Musick To Play In The Dark² dives deeper into bewitching post-industrial electronica, opiated ballads, Luciferian glitch and subliminal hymnals which the group referred to as “moon music”. Rose McDowall’s vocals on An Emergency speak of finding a lost soul in the darkness, ringing out over layers of panned drone before the track is brought to an early close. Where Are You? plays out the most decayed, haunting and detuned of all instrumentals against Balance at his most directly comprehensible, with the inverse of this on closing track Batwings (A Limnal Hymn) featuring vocals in a language known only to the singer himself intertwining with a hypnotic descending melody. A tragic self fulfilling prophecy in some ways, the bracketed title would later prove to be true when it was played at Balance's own funeral service in 2004.

The sound design of tracks like Ether or Paranoid Inlay juxtaposes a visionary electronic approach with historical gothic imagery and haunting macabre poetry from Balance. Influences can be seen in musical contemporaries: themes found in Björk and FKA Twigs lyrics or even the harpsichord found in some of Oneohtrix Point Never’s recent work - bridging the gap between arcane practice and visionary innovation.Finally back in print and completely restored and remastered - this transcendental masterpiece is a work of genius narcotic and nocturnal energies.