Electric Sewer Age - In Final Phase

A haunted final transmission from beyond the grave, an infinite point in space collapsing in upon itself, memories of sound from the ending of all seasons. We have here the last music ever made by Peter Christopherson which was originally intended to complete the unreleased box set of Coil's seasonal singles. This is the sixth entry and features full collaboration with Coil's long-time 'secret' member, Danny Hyde. You can hear in the composition that Sleazy had already left behind the working templates of Coil and was once more, exploring hitherto unheard arenas of sound. Hyde's mastery of sonic manipulation is in full swing here, he's the one who more than anything made Coil's classic tune "First Dark Ride" the monster that it is. His own influences via Aural Rage appear here and there but they aren't very overt; more than anything this was a meeting of two minds with the singular purpose of creating something new, something riveting, something deliciously twisted.

Don't go into hearing this EP with any expectations as this is timeless, utterly place less music which will definitely take you down a winding, gnarled path. I can detect hints of the Threshold Houseboys Choir and shards of SoiSong from Peter's end of things but Hyde has excelled himself, conjuring up dark majesty through the mutilations of time and space on a track such as 'Moons Waning'. Throughout this piece we are shown through layer upon layer of damned beauty, one's pulse rises during the tautly tense proceedings. Out upon the shore, under the malignant eye of celestial malevolence, your prints leave not a trace upon the shifting sands which have always been here. Long before anything stirred or the dreams of empire manifest in the hearts of men, this was here. A barren, never ending stretch of absolute desolation as far as the eye can see.

When the gently whirring electronics give way to what I'd wager were orchestral stabs at one point, you fall completely under the spell of this wickedly glittering release. The remnants of what was, the very last drop of this vital fluid. In the oceans of the moon, we do indeed lie squid like and squalid. We shiver in this abandoned parallel universe which has been concluded many years after the initiation of that infamous collection of singles which Coil snuck out of their monolithic tower and then steeped in the unconscious dreams of an unforgiving world. I truly miss you, Sleazy, and this is as good a send off for the fans as any. Hyde has made a brave choice in releasing this, it would have been all too convenient to just delete it and forget but Coil were always about accessing and the accepting the parts of humanity which we are continually told to deny. If the Ape of Naples and The New Backwards were the last gasps of Coil then this is the first glint of where things were headed before Sleazy's untimely death last year.

There has been an immense loss in the musical world but with this release a more important chapter has now been begun: one of healing and closure. As codas go, this is a truly moving one, the lights flicker eerily in the East one last time as the brilliant vapor of a life spent in pursuit of uncompromising creation is allowed to leave the lodge and fly away from the shadow of the Black sun. Like doves released in the hopes of Peace, 'In Final Phase' lets all of us who remember and mourn have our moment of catharsis. Dec 27 2011