Coil – Gold Is The Metal (With The Broadest Shoulders)

Track notes:
1. The Last Rites Of Spring - Twin gods of death at the end of the tunnel. Panic in the streets of Mandalay.

2. Paradisiac - Was originally intended for "The Dark Age Of Love" - which subsequently became the "Love's Secret Domain" album. This is the deep space techno mix as opposed to the raw horn original.

3. Thump - A provisional title that stuck. Recorded between "Scatology" and "Horse Rotorvator". A loose tune set in a Thai boxing stadium. The ties and bonds of love and conflict.

4. For Us They Will - At one point this track was due to be released as a 10" single in the Netherlands, but these plans never came to fruition.

5. The Broken Wheel - These sections were recorded and mixed by Coil and Jim Thirlwell. It was originally intended that a 12" extended version of this, our first proper Coil song, should be released. This never happened and eventually a shorter more compact version of "The Wheel" appeared on the obscure Some Bizarre/EMI compilation "If You Can't Please Yourself, You Can't Please Your Soul" where it never received the attention we think it deserved.

6. Boy In A Suitcase - This particular relic dates from the time of the very early Coil sessions, played on a rented Fairlight and recorded in our bedroom. It features a rare vocal performance by Sleazy and has the added involvement of Andrew Poppy on brass. At the same time we recorded several other tracks like "Ergot" and "Silence And Secrecy" that have yet to see the light of day. The title comes from a chance remark overheard in the back of a Marrakesh taxi, and later confirmed by a series of forensic photographs.

7. The Golden Hole - Sowing stones - the gods of mud.

8. Cardinal Points - The arrangeent of real strings is by Billy McGee. This is an out-take from "Horse Rotorvator". We had planned to adapt this piece when we were working on the film score for Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" movie, but we pulled out of the project before work could be completed.

9. Red Slur - An early alternative.

10. ...Of Free Enterprise - The picture completed, via Acapulco.

11. Aqua Regalia - An abandoned work which was due to be on "The Dark Age Of Love". Richard Fur-Verge played the string part. The lyrics of the song, not included on this particular version, explored the links between royalty and water - royal waters - the royal wee - underwater kingdoms and Europe after the reign.

12. Metal In The Head - A psychotropic broadcast via Tesla's wireless. The title is based on the fact that Shostakovich composed music he claimed to hear in his head, receiving it like a radio broadcast. He had splinters of shrapnel lodged in his brain from the first world war, which he believed were responsible for these transmissions.

13. Either His, Or Yours - An alternative mix to the one on John Giorno's poetry systems album "A Diamond In The Mouth Of A Corpse" - more aggressive possessiveness.

14. Chickenskin - An everything fixation. The camera shows a magnified close-up of goose-bumps on naked chicken's skin. An ichy snippet that slipped in sometime, someplace.

15. Soundtrap - Recorded live at Bar Maldoror - a point of entry.

16. Hellraiser - One of a series of musical sketches recorded in paradise.

17. The Wheal - This early version of the track is taken from a rough cassette mix, but is has an energy and warmth that we found endearing. Alex Fergusson's fuzzy pyrotechnic guitar features much more heavily than in the final version.

18. The First Five Minutes After Violent Death - Pasolini's point of view - a more or less intensive speculation.

Thanks to all our friends and variations, past, present and future, especially David Tibet, Kat, Steven Stapleton, Geoff Cox-Dorée, Gavin Semple, Robert Ansell, Fulgur, Henry Boxer, and the whirled serpents...

Threshould House
via World Sepent
Made in England.

"The Last Rites Of Spring" includes a sample by Igor Stravinsky.

Released with 8 pp. front insert.

This repress was made by Universal M & L, UK at some point between April 1999 and April 2002.