Audiopile Review: The discography of post-industrial wizards Coil is full of mysterious nooks and crannies. Honestly, we’d never heard of ‘Born Again Pagans’, credited to Coil vs. ELpH, until this 30th anniversary reissue came to our attention (although the cover is familiar, now you come to mention it). Having given it a listen, we’re not sure how we ever lived without it. ELpH was the name Coil gave to an invisible gremlin who would sneak into studio sessions and cause equipment to malfunction in creative and aesthetically pleasing ways. ELpH was responsible for one of our favourite Coil releases, ‘Worship the Glitch’. And you must know how we love all things glitchy and electronic. So, we were extremely excited to discover the existence of ‘Born Again Pagans’, and it did not disappoint, particularly in this new form, which expands the original CD EP into an epic triple LP. And while all that may seem typically esoteric, remember that this is Coil in the wake of their acid house-inspired ‘Love’s Secret Domain’. Opener ‘Protection’ is even like a trippy take on Chemical Brothers-style big beat. Admittedly, everything takes a turn for the abstract from there on in, but the brain-tickling ambient textures of ‘pHILM #1 (Vox)’ are hardly off-putting. And ‘Static Electrician’ could be mid-period Autechre. If ‘Love’s Secret Domain’ was the rave dancefloor, this collection might be the chill-out room. It certainly sounds nothing like a collection of studio off-cuts. The closing 20-minute ‘Zwolf’, for instance, is an electro-acoustic composition of considerable ambitiousness. ‘Born Again Pagans’ may be a nook, but it’s one you’ll want to curl up in for quite some time.

***

Infinite Fog are delighted to present another piece of the intriguing COIL puzzle. In the mid 1990s the core team of John Balance and Peter Christopherson were continuing their exploration of the outer reaches of electronic sound production as exemplified by the “Born Again Pagans” release, originally an EP only, featuring both the hugely danceable “Protection” smash which had Danny Hyde’s influence writ in large letters all over it, as well as the first outings of their intriguing more ambient/glitch-based ElpH material, probably their most haunting and haunted works. This new 3LP/2CD anthology re-edition collects all of the ElpH material which didn’t appear on their later “Worship the Glitch” album, namely the pHILM #1 10″, a host of very rare compilation tracks as well as a number of at the time unreleased pieces in the same vein. The stunningly presented release also features the ElpH entity’s last ever appearance originally available as part of raster noton’s award winning 20′ to 2000 series of releases, the “Zwölf” EP.
All of the material has been lovingly remastered by Jessica Thompson with re-imagined design-work by Oleg Galay and including a replica of the original St. Sebastian on acid poster.