Bleep

Even after death, an artist’s work is never finished. Originally released in 2008 after the death of founding member John Balance, Coil's The New Backwards radically updates material from the 1993 sessions at Trent Reznor's Nothing Studios in New Orleans for the album Backwards. Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson remixed the tracks from these recordings in Bangkok with Danny Hyde. Now reissued via Infinite Fog, the album is further expanded with nine previously unheard tracks, yet again reaching a hand into the depths of Coil's eclectic archives.

With echoes of the past pulled forward in time, The New Backwards is the Philosopher's Stone of the Coil catalogue, embodying the group's 20+ year legacy and capturing a turning point in their artistic evolution. Songs achieve alchemical impermanence, at times sounding more like collages of human experience than cohesive musical narratives. Mind-shattering drums pummel through 'Fire Of The Green Dragon' as memories are rearranged beyond recognition. On the spiritually ecstatic 'Nature Is A Language', the line "Can't you read?" mutates into "Conjuring" through Balance's primal repetitions.

Many of Balance’s posthumous contributions found new meaning for Christopherson as he (and frequent collaborator Danny Hyde) sifted through and remixed what his musical partner had left behind. Rather than leave Balance’s vocals clean and untouched, his voice transcends into metallic shrieks and entrancing glitches. “I want to be a stranger, become a shapechanger,” he says on 'Copacaballa', and his wish is granted. 'Princess Margaret's Man In The D'Jamalfna' is the final offering from Coil, an island of catharsis in a sea of multitude and chaos.

The New Backwards is a testament to the transformative power of sound, and the group that pushed it to its limits. A perfect stepping stone into the more electronic territories stalked by Coil, the tracks within show the electronic angles the group often drifted towards with harsh, violent industrial structures of wall-of-noise techno. If you copped the Cold Spring issue of Danny Hyde's mixes, issued in 2015 by Cold Spring as Backwards, or have even a passing interest in industrial or electronic music in general than this is one of the most crucial recordings you will ever encounter.