The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex +2 cover

The Gay Man's Guide To Safer Sex +2

Recorded
Released

In strict terms, 2019’s The Gay Man’s Guide To Safer Sex + 2 is a truly posthumous Coil release some years after both John Balance and Peter Christopherson had died, with only Danny Hyde as a surviving participant from the sessions. Given the convoluted nature of Coil’s archives, one can be forgiven for skepticism as to how canonical this should be considered. But its origins still make it one of Coil’s most striking and moving efforts, being the soundtrack to a 1992 UK video film that was at once a necessary call to action at the height of AIDS’s pre-therapy destruction and a forthright and uncompromising celebration of male homosexuality. The ‘+2’ of the title refers to two ringers from Stolen and Contaminated Songs, “Nasa-Arab” and “Omlagus Garflungiloops,” the bases of the actual soundtrack cuts “Nasa-Arab 2” and “Exploding Frogs.” The remaining cuts are two variations of the main theme for the film, easily some of the most straightforwardly sensuous dance music they ever created, with echoed vocal snippets, steady beats and subtle hints of their exploratory trippiness setting an appropriately erotic atmosphere.

Ned Raggett

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