Horse Rotorvator

Released

The blend of mysticism and sociopolitics that makes up Coil’s second album, 1986’s Horse Rotorvator, renders it one of that decade’s most memorable and uneasily powerful cultural efforts, its title from a John Balance dream about apocalypse, its cover art a photo of a location of a noted IRA bombing, its subject matter including the 1970s political murder of radical gay Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Stephen Thrower now formally part of the band with Balance and Peter Christopherson, further assisted by numerous guests new and returning, including JG Thirlwell and Marc Almond, the trio readily built on the reach of their earlier work to create a kaleidoscopic swirl of surreal poetry, sonic chaos, stomping beats and haunting, beautiful fragility. Balance’s sometimes tense, sometimes murmured, sometimes serenely cool pronouncements feel like a series of invocations of a world bubbling beneath a glossy surface. One of the more remarkable moments comes from another in their series of striking cover versions: Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire,” Almond’s wordless backing vocals a lovely touch.

Ned Raggett