Industrial/Noise charts

Review: Originally released as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) is a collection of four EPs Coil issued seasonally in 1998 via their Eskaton imprint. Featuring John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze, it was recorded in their Chiswick, London home studio before they relocated to Weston-Super-Mare. This pivotal work has long been considered a high point in Coil's discography, though it was never reissued or pressed on vinyl at the time. Arranged around the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil's deep dive into improvisation, ritualistic sound design and mystical atmospheres and stands proud as a testament to their individuality.

Review: First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super- Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or re-pressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness. Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity and sound design. 'Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull' initiates the proceedings on 'Spring Equinox', a two-part netherworld organ seance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, 'Summer Solstice' skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice- as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ('Bee Stings'), purgatorial spoken word ('Glowworms/Waveforms'), sultry chamber pieces ('Summer Substructures'), and falsetto ravings ('A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)'.

Review: Coil's comprehensive compilation Moon's Milk, based on the four annual seasons and the overpoweringly doomy moods they inspire, comes reissued 18 years after its initial 2002 release. With a strong Coil member base in tow - John Balance, Peter Christopherson, and Thighpaulsandra included - the Four Phases are once again called to mind, and seem to pierce the unconscious with their incisive quietude and unsettling (dis)inhibition, most often totally electronic and droning, but occasionally peppered with faintly hollering vocals and chromatic electric viola interspersals, the latter performed by the now notable occult cleric, William Breeze aka. Tau Silenus.