Unnatural History III: Joyful Participation in the Sorrows of the World

The final entry in Coil’s Unnatural History series, released in 1997, didn’t mean there were further earlier uncollected rarities still plus more to come in the years that remained for the duo. But it still serves as a good in-the-moment catchup, featuring singles, compilation appearances, remixes and more across what was rapidly approaching a fifteen year continuing burst of creativity. Starting with the lengthy, disorienting and dance-adjacent “First Dark Ride,” the B-side to their iconic “Nasa-Arab” single, like the two previous volumes it’s predominantly instrumental, touching on a wide variety of sonic approaches. Both sides of their queasy 1990 single “Wrong Eye”/“Scope” make the cut, as does a (per John Balance’s notes, “clumsy”) 1985 remix of “Panic” and 1996’s “Lost Rivers of London,” an entrancing example of John Balance at his most mystic via a poetry reading. One of the most fascinating, often hilarious entries is “Music For Commercials,” a series of short snippets first released on the B-side of the original The Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser EP that were composed for Peter Christopherson’s ad work.