COH Plays Cosey

This is the first part of a collaboration between Ivan Pavlov (COH, Soisong) and Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, Chris and Cosey, Carter Tutti).

The basic premise behind this album is that Ivan takes vocal recordings make by Cosey and turns them into this album. He does this very successfully whilst retaining his trademark COH sound with the rhythms and pulses you’d expect but it does have the feel of a true collaboration rather than just becoming COH featuring Cosey. You have Cosey’s spoken vocals coming through in snatches here and there and her cornet also makes an appearance.

In the press release that accompanies this a lot is made of the lack of inhibition and the openness of the use of private material that Cosey used to create the lyrics. This doesn’t particularly come across in what you hear or what you read as the words of the pieces themselves are too ambiguous for anyone not familiar with the context from which they were derived to really make that much sense of them. The lyrics printed in the booklet that comes with the CD are extracts from email exchanges.

There’s a sexual undercurrent going on in the delivery of some of the vocals, some of the lyrics and the photo of Ivan and Cosey on the back of the booklet. What this is alluding to I have no idea it’d be interesting to have more background on the themes they are exploring as you’re left feeling you have more questions than answers. It also appears to suggest in the introduction Cosey has written that there is some element of catharsis involved in the project.

It took a while to really get to grips with this. It’s by no means instant gratification but it has stood up to repeated plays and gets more and more compelling the more you hear it.
It’s a fine addition to the discographies of both of them and I’m looking forward to part 2 of the collaboration.

http://www.raster-noton.net/

http://post-pop.org/

http://www.chrisandcosey.com/

Coil - Live In Porto

This is an authorised bootleg of a Coil gig on the 21st June 2003 in Porto, Portugal. Coil for this show was Peter Christopherson, Thighpaulsandra & Ossian Brown. Jhonn Balance was too ill to attend so we instead get an (almost) instrumental set. The Cds come in three different coloured covers with a plastic disc the same size as the CD in clear plastic with the track titles written on it. I believe there were a total of 600 of these made. A number of them (they haven’t said how many) have been “discovered,” and are on sale from the Coil website.

With out Jhonn Balance you really are missing a vital ingredient of Coil and I think this shows on a number of tracks. First up is Blue Rats. A very different sounding Blue Rats to the one on the Foxtrot album. 18 minutes long and sounding more like a number of other tracks played together. I’m sure I can hear bits of Sex With Sun Ra in there. This doesn’t really come together until the last five minutes when it starts to sound more like Blue Rats and the synths get a bit more lively.

Next up is Triple Sun. This is a much more in your face version than the Mutek one from a week earlier, powerful, punchy and with more bottom end. You really do miss the vocals here. Listening to the versions of this on “And The Ambulance Died In His Arms,” and “The Ape of Naples,” you get a much more complete piece. This is followed with the mournful sounding Radio Westin a piece that with its’ short repetitive refrain would work well as film soundtrack material. You get some very low in the mix vocals going on here. Few words, mostly a sort of humming along. I’m guessing by Peter Christopherson. Track four Drip Drop is rather uninspiring and has the audience talking through most of it until what sounds almost like bagpipes make an appearance. Unfortunately their arrival isn’t really enough to save a lacklustre track and this one is very forgettable. The performance is rounded off with a much longer though fairly faithful rendition of The First Five Minutes After Death from” Horse Rotavator.”

Even after taking into consideration the lack of proper recording facilites used for this recording it still comes across as a bit of a patchy and substandard release, possibly one for completists only. Triple Sun and Radio Westin (and possibly The First Five Minutes After Death) make it worthwhile hearing but really without Balance Coil only come across as a fairly decent group than the force they really were.

www.thresholdhouse.com

http://www.myspace.com/thresholdhouse