Coil
Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)

January 2002

Cover Image

BUY@THRESHOLD HOUSE (disc a)
BUY@THRESHOLD HOUSE (disc b)

UK CDx2 Threshold House ESKATON 23

disc a

  1. Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (part one) [ESKATON11]
  2. Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (part two) - [MP3] [ESKATON11]
  3. Bee Stings [ESKATON13]
  4. Glowworms/Waveforms [ESKATON13]
  5. Summer Substructures [ESKATON13]
  6. A Warning from the Sun (for Fritz) - [MP3] [ESKATON13]
    Amethyst Deceivers (live) (unlisted)

disc b

  1. Regel [ESKATON15]
  2. Rosa Decidua - [MP3] [ESKATON15]
  3. Switches - [MP3] [ESKATON15]
  4. The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant [ESKATON15]
  5. Amethyst Deceivers [ESKATON15]
  6. A White Rainbow [ESKATON18]
  7. North [ESKATON18]
  8. Magnetic North [ESKATON18]
  9. Christmas is Now Drawing Near [ESKATON18]

John Balance
Peter Christopherson
William Breeze
Drew McDowall
Rose McDowall

Collects the four singles: Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and Winter Solstice.
First 300 or so copies mail ordered came with a bonus CD-R

Amethyst Deceivers

Amethyst deceiver (repeated)

Pay your respects to the vultures
For they are your future
Our fathers and mothers
Have failed to release us
Into the welcoming arms
Of the amethyst deceivers

Amethyst deceiver (repeated)

The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant

Construction of disasters
Our words not properly fixed
??? fixate
Is this the threshold?
Is this the threshold?
Fixed in a thousand poisons blended and descended
Indestructible definiteness
It's only zero charges electricity
Enough ??? resistance
No action without, it seems, inaction
Making a noise to cope with this pain
I happen to be content to ??? awful
It was logical but fatal
Once more the fortress of pure numbers
Confusion with a false move
It will fall soon
It will fall soon
It will fall soon
The white magic of the moon
Is the black magic of the Earth
The ??? on my hands
To what extent have we deceived ourselves as to the damage?
Being misled, mistaken by instinct
Ice temples crackle
Like ??? in the wave
And my eyes vibrate at a catgut rate
Stagger into the streets bearing after the blood-red number
The flag banner, stutter and stammer
Nothing will ever be the same
Nothing will ever be the same
Nothing will ever be the same

Bee Stings

Don't believe A.E.
See for yourself the summer fields
See for yourself the summer fields
Before the tractor comes and wakes you
Before the cereal is sown
Walk along on your own
Don't believe the guidebooks
See the glimmer on a wet stone surface
Be an idiot
Be yourself
Drink the dew
Drink the dew

Don't believe A.E.
See for yourself the summer fields
Seek the advice of the summer fields
Before the tractor comes and wakes you
Before the cereal is sown
Walk along on your own
Don't believe the guidebooks
See the glimmer on a wet stone surface
Be an idiot
Be yourself
Drink the dew
Drink the dew

Christmas is Now Drawing Near

Christmas is now drawing near at hand
Come serve the Lord and be at His command
And God a portion for you will provide
And give a blessing to your soul besides

Down in the garden where flowers grow in ranks
Down on your bended knees and give the Lord thanks
Down on your knees and pray both night and day
Leave off your sins and live upright I pray

So proud and lofty is some sort of sin
Which many take delight and pleasure in
Whose conversation God doth much dislike
And yet He shakes His sword before He strikes

So proud and lofty do some people go
Dressing themselves like players in the show
They patch and paint and dress with idle stuff
As if God had not made them fine enough

Even little children learn to curse and swear
And can't rehearse one word of godly prayer
Oh teach them better, oh teach them to rely
On Christ the sinner's friend who reigns on high

Glowworms/Waveforms

Waveform, variance, monolith, mask
Reflection, hat, treestump, bin
Where's the bells?
Where's the bells?
Where's the bats?
Where's the summer?
Where's the keyboard?
Where's the instinct?
Where's the patience?
Where's the tiny golden books?
Where's the notepad?
Where's the ??? ?
Where's the woodwork?
Where's the science?
Where's the diet?
Where's the incoming... amount?
Where's the artifact?
Where's the post... man?
Where's the ??? ?
Where's the old coins?
Where's the syllabus?
Where's the red door?
Where's the martyr?
Where's my mother?
Where's my breakfast?
Where's my punchbag?
Where's my cornfield?
Where's the waveform?
Where's my breeding-ground?
Where's my paintbrush?
Where's my horse head?
Where's my symmetry?
Where's my torso?
Where's my ??? ?
Where's my drum?
Where's my bum?
Where's my bum?
Where's my bum?
Where's my summertime?
Where's my footstep?
Where's my chequer?
Where's my idiot?
Where's my waveform?
Where's my hat?
Where's my footwear?
Where's my footwear?
Where's my eyelash?
Where's my tongue?
Where's my bum?
Where's my bum?
Where's my mirror?
Where's the bells?
Where's the bells?
Where's the bells?
Where's my phone call?
Where's my phone call?
Where's my summertime?
Where's my summertime?

Magnetic North

Heaviness, heaviness
Blue sapphire six-pointed star
Blue sapphire six-pointed star
Deep ruby-red inverted pyramid
Deep ruby-red inverted pyramid
And red rose ??? the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Yellow cube in the lower pelvis
Yellow cube, yellow cube
Silver moon crescent below the navel
Red ruby inverted pyramid
White-winged globe defines the forehead
White-winged globe defines the forehead
Between the eyes, between the eyes
Black oval egg occupying the throat
Black egg within the throat
And red rose filling the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Heaviness, heaviness
Blue sapphire six-pointed star
Deep ruby-red inverted pyramid
Deep ruby-red inverted pyramid
And red rose ??? the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Yellow cube in the lower pelvis
Yellow cube, yellow cube
Silver moon crescent below the navel
Red ruby inverted pyramid
White-winged globe defines the forehead
White-winged globe defines the forehead
Between the eyes, between the eyes
Black over back occupying the throat
Black egg within the throat
And red rose filling the skull
Red rose filling the skull
Heaviness, heaviness

North

This black dog has no owner
This black dog has no odour

Regel

Some words are audible between 0'40 and 1'00. Any ideas?

Rosa Decidua

Rose, I hear your voice near to me
I've put away the poisoned chalice, for now
And lie down amongst the flowerbeds

Whichever stars we walk among
We both seek out the darkest red
The wine was turned to blood again
Without this blood we'd both be dead

I've wound myself tight into the hedgerows
Let's see which way the winter wind blows

(You are my shadow)

Summer Substructures

We're going under
We're going under
By the water ???
We're so ???

We're going so near
We are so ???

We are so
We are so
The ??? is ???
We're soldiers of my soul
Low
...???...
There's someone in, in my whole
Dreams high on the water

The light beats even faster
Than it may ??? me
The ??? is in me

Come into me

Over the waves we go
Over the ??? we go

??? by the water on the water's edge
Oh, they walk there, I know

A Warning from the Sun (for Fritz)

The sun is coming
The sun is coming
The dragon flies
The dragon flies
His breath will drown
His breath will drown
This world with astral fire

The sun is coming
The sun is coming
The dragon flies
The dragon flies

His breath will drown this world
With astral fire

The sun is coming
The sun is coming
The dragon flies
His breath will drown
This world with astral fire
This world with astral fire

A White Rainbow

A white rainbow (a roaring aura)
Under an unquiet skull
(A tremulous column of air, hanging there)
Moon's milk spills from my unquiet skull and forms a white rainbow
(A psychosis, a roaring aura)
Aurora borealis
A white rainbow
A lunar ascension, a solar declension
A tremulous column of air hanging there
A bleached beach, a psychosis
(Laughing like skeletons clattering at midday)
Feel the moon's pull
Feel the moon's pull
Moon's milk spills from my unquiet skull
A white rainbow, inverted vertigo
A psychosis
(Moon's milk spills)
And overhead, overhead
(Feel the moon's pull)
A tremulous column of air, hanging there
(A white rainbow)
Laughing like skeletons clattering at midday
And overhead, a white rainbow
Under an unquiet skull, under an unquiet skull
Feel the moon's pull
A white rainbow

Most fans have probably collected each one of the seasonal Solstice & Equinox singles back when they were released in 1998. Now that they're long out of print, a reasonably priced collection takes their place. With one slight addition: a live version of "Amethist Deceivers" recorded somewhere in Europe in 2001. The first phase: the Spring Equinox single, "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull," was their first release with then full-time member, violist Bill Breeze. It's comprised of two drone-a-licious 8+ minute parts which sound pretty much like different takes on the same track. The next single, the Summer Solstice is made up of four vocal songs featuring viola and mad electronics. "Glitch" artists could easily learn something about song composition and using the laptop noise as a piece of the puzzle rather than isolate it and bore the listener. Disc two features phases three and four, with guests like Rose McDowell on the dark masterpiece, "Rosa Decidua" and their version of "Christmas is Now Drawing Near". Autumn's five songs to me don't seem terribly seasonally thematic, not nearly as much as songs "Summer Substructures" and "Bee Stings" from the summer EP and "A White Rainbow" and "Christmas" from the winter EP. I distinctly remember being the most excited about the Autumn release songs. Over three years later, "Switches" and "Amethyst Deceivers" still bring chills to my spine. Here, the group ran the spectrum from electric charges to thunderous percussion holding nothing back. The roar of the dark winter rolls in for the winter EP, which lyrically almost attempts to tie a connection as Balance sings, "Moon's milk spills from my unquiet skull and forms a white rainbow." Once again, the music also jumps around from styles, through glitch and viola vocal tracks to a reverberant sound collage, a serene digital bubblebath with spoken word, ending up on the string heavy Christmas song with Rose. It's a pain indeed to buy these all over again, and Coil have alluded to a live release so the bonus track could very well surface somewhere else. It's nice to have all the songs together without having to switch CDs every 25 minutes. - Jon Whitney, Brainwashed