The album breaks the hour long set into five lengthy tracks; “Triple Sun Introduction,” “Snow Falls into Military Temples,” “A Slip in the Marylebone Road,” Triple Sons and the One You Bury” and “The Dreamer is Still Asleep – A Somnambulist in an Ambulance.” Most of the songs performed are unique to the set, with only “Triple Sons” and “The Dreamer is Still Asleep” appearing in highly altered form on studio albums. In their live form all the songs are pushed to their trance inducing limit with Balance’s repetition and eventual mutation of the lyrics giving the oscillating tracks their center.
The whole performance flows very well, with all the songs knitted into a meditative web, a landscape which provides the room to analyze the very worldly melancholy expressed in the lyrics. As Balance says about a third of the way through the show “were doing a quiet set this evening, we’ve had to much shouting over the last year.” Indeed all the songs are similarly subdued but different enough from each other to provide a variety of texture. When Jhonn Balance intones “Working out a means of escape, we cut across the crop circles, the seer says no, not much time left for these escape attempts,” there is a palpable longing in his words.
The audio mix is impeccable, bringing out every nuance of the synthesizers and highlighting Tom Edwards’ marimba. Despite the album not being recorded with binaural sound the whole experience is very immersive. This is a live album that should be listened to loud and preferably with nice headphones or high quality speakers. The soundscapes and rambling lyrics of the performance demand attention in strange ways, being both thought provoking and hypnotic. “A somnambulist in an ambulance” is an image that deserves cognizance but as it is repeated over six minutes it’s meaning beings to dissolve.
Perhaps that is the intent of the repetition, to make the words lose their meaning. If the lyrics have no meaning then we are forced to look for meaning in the sound around the words. The trick, with Coil at least, is to think of the songs in a holistic way, a singular beast that is not necessarily the sum of its parts.
As a snapshot of Coil in 2003 this is a fantastic album, highlighting some of the most beautiful live work that the band produced. For fans it is a must have album and for people who want to experience a different type of music, or as Coil put it “Musick,” this is certainly a good place to start. In their own words, “Coil know how to destroy angels. How to paralyze. Imagine the world in a bottle. We take the bottle, smash it and open your throat with it. I warn you we are murderous. We will massacre the logical revolts. We know nothing. We know everything. We know one thing only. Absolute existence, absolute motion, absolute direction, absolute truth.”
Tracklist:
1. Triple Sun Introduction
2. Snow Falls into Military Temples
3. A Slip in the Marylebone Road
4. Triple Sons and the One You Bury
5. The Dreamer is Still Asleep - The Somnambulist in an Ambulance
Download:
https://mega.nz/#!0BpnnJCQ!9EXXJjgwc_flmp2EjOU5HFJGC749DYSJbCvnX_9sB5A
