COCTEAU TWINS Head Over Heels (Beggars Banquet) cd 10.98
And now the third installment in our series of reviews of the recent Cocteau Twins' re-issues...
From the first two songs of Cocteau Twins' second album you get the feeling that this was perhaps the most haunting, mysterious and yes, goth album of their just shy of two decade long career - showcasing much dynamic and emotional depth. It's not until the third song that they suddenly release their firm shadowy hold on the dour, echoing catacomb depths, bursting forth with the glorious shimmer-pop number "Sugar Hiccup" and continuing the momentum on from there with much more aggressive guitars of "In Our Angelhood". With the departure of their fellow founding member bassist Will Heggie, the group was pared down to just the duo of Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser. Guthrie's guitarwork slinks, lurks sears and blisters through each of these ten songs. It's a perfect contrast to Fraser's unmistakable breathtaking fairy-speak vocal performance, and one that would only blossom and deepen immensely on following releases. Simply beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Hiccup"
MPEG Stream: "The Tinderbox (Of The Heart)"

COCTEAU TWINS Heaven Or Las Vegas (Beggars Banquet) cd 12.98
Beggars has just reissued the Cocteau Twins catalog. We're gonna try to list 'em all, one by one...starting (why not?) with this one. Heaven Or Las Vegas was originally released in 1990. Their music swoops and floats as if conjured by the wings of the most lovely and magical deepsea birds. Somehow it's at once immensely majestic, deeply comforting and sweetly infectious. Robin Guthrie's glistening guitars and Elizabeth Fraser's voice spiral together effortlessly while Simon Raymonde forms waves of regal bass lines that anchor the proceedings. Features the beloved Cocteau Twins' hit "Iceblink Luck".
MPEG Stream: "Iceblink Luck"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven Or Las Vegas"

COCTEAU TWINS Stars And Topsoil: A Collection (1982-1990) (4AD) 2lp 22.00
Finally a good Cocteau Twins collection on vinyl! There has been plenty of anthologies and collections of this ethereal dream pop trio coming out since the band's 1996 break-up. We suspect that is partly to satisfy fans by collecting all the odds and ends the band recorded (they have 4 cds worth of singles and B sides alone), but perhaps also to get more fan influence to pressure the band to finally release their scrapped and abandoned last album. Here's hoping!
Stars and Topsoil is a vinyl reissue of an 18 song compilation originally released on cd in 2000 of the band's picks from their essential 4AD catalog, from Garlands to Heaven Or Las Vegas, including rare ep and single tracks. Diehard fans who already own the records will no doubt have this stuff already, but for new fans or the newly curious, this is as good as a place to start as any. You can hear so many recent artists (Beach House, Gang Gang Dance, Ulrich Schnauss, M83, Sleep Over, Grouper, Puro Instinct, to name but a few) in the gauzy DNA strains of this seminal group.

COCTEAU TWINS Treasure (Beggars Banquet) cd 10.98
And now we continue our re-visiting of the Cocteau Twins' recent reissues... Without question, on this the Cocteau Twins' third album originally released in 1984, Elizabeth Fraser's vocal performance nears the sublime. You may not be able to decipher a single word of her secret tongue, but waves of emotion crash and swirl gloriously around you nevertheless. Each element - guitar, voice, bass and percussion - is perfectly executed and arranged. Truly stunning and almost magical, it's an enduring classic that more than lives up to its name.
MPEG Stream: "Ivo"
MPEG Stream: "Lorelei"

COCTEAU TWINS Victorialand (Beggars Banquet) cd 10.98

MPEG Stream: "The Thinner The Air"
MPEG Stream: "Little Spacey"

CODEINE Barely Real (Sub Pop) cd 7.98

CODEINE Frigid Stars LP (Sub Pop) cd 10.98
Once in a while we like to step away from all the new (or newly reissued) music pouring in and devote our attention (and yours) to something that's not new, just an old favorite that hasn't gotten the full-on AQ review treatment. Here's a deserving example: the 1991 debut from Sub Pop slow-core specialists Codeine. Definitely one of those records that Andee, Allan, et. al. here will tell you, if you don't have it already, you oughta get one now...seriously. Emo, indie-rock, post-rock, whatever this is, it's a classic. A classic of majestic melancholia. For the Frigid Stars LP, this NYC-based trio consisted of Stephen Immerwahr on bass and vocals, Chris Brokaw on drums and guitar and John Engle on guitar. They employ the soft-loud dynamic that their former Sub Pop labelmates Nirvana already made famous (or would around that same year). Not that they sound much like Nirvana. They sound a bit more like Low, albeit a lumbering downtuned Low. Codeine's own brand of moody, melodic misery wouldn't, couldn't be an MTV hit. Indie-pop it was, but so sad and slow... The songs on here share slowly crawling tempos, and echoey drum hits and big distorted guitar chords crashing down to give extra weight to Immerwahr's weary vocals and love-lost lyrics. We've always wanted to hear a metal band do a cover of some track from this record, maybe "D". But even though this isn't really "heavy" in a metal sense, it still IS heavy. A great record for when you're sad and alone. Strange how something like this will make you feel better, but it will.
As a side note, Allan needs to mention that he first heard this album over the phone. Not the whole album, but sound clips much like the ones on our website. That's right, way back when before the internet and the mp3 and all that, somebody got the idea to do a dial-up music service where you'd get to check out new music over the phone, by calling a 900-number I think, and using a touch-tone phone to choose what you wanted to hear. It had something to do with the old Factsheet Five 'zine as I recall. I remember looking at the album cover reproduced in the 'zine -- a negative photo of black stars floating in white emptiness -- and hearing the long-distance sounds of those Frigid Stars like a transmission from that deep space void... even under those circumstances, maybe especially under those circumstances, Codeine were so effective. I think I might have selected it to listen to on the basis of the album cover and title alone, and was not disappointed.
MPEG Stream: "D"
MPEG Stream: "Cave-In"

CODEINE Frigid Stars LP (Numero Group) 2lp+cd 28.00
While we wait for the repress of the entire awesome 6lp+3cd When I See The Sun Codeine boxset, and while we're still reveling in their recent visit, and mind blowing Great American Music Hall reunion tour performance, we might as well take a second to focus on this, their breathtaking debut, now re-released individually, separate from the boxset, fleshed out with a handful of bonus tracks, Peel Sessions, demos and rarities, thus totally essential for obsessives like us (or you?) - well, at least those among us who haven't already gone whole hog and bought the boxset. But for all you vinyl freaks who have been waiting to check these guys out, this is the perfect introduction, to one of the most beautiful, intense, moving, and hauntingly lovely chunks of slowcore indie rock EVER, the 1991 debut from Sub Pop slow-core specialists Codeine. Definitely one of those records that Andee, Allan, et. al. here will tell you, if you don't have it already, you oughta get one now...seriously. Emo, indie-rock, post-rock, whatever this is, it's a classic. A classic of majestic melancholia. For the Frigid Stars LP, this NYC-based trio consisted of Stephen Immerwahr on bass and vocals, Chris Brokaw on drums and guitar and John Engle on guitar. They employ the soft-loud dynamic that their former Sub Pop labelmates Nirvana already made famous (or would around that same year). Not that they sound much like Nirvana. They sound a bit more like Low, albeit a lumbering downtuned Low. Codeine's own brand of moody, melodic misery wouldn't, couldn't be an MTV hit. Indie-pop it was, but so sad and slow... The songs here share slowly crawling tempos, and echoey drum hits and big distorted guitar chords crashing down to give extra weight to Immerwahr's weary vocals and love-lost lyrics. We've always wanted to hear a metal band do a cover of some track from this record, maybe "D". But even though this isn't really "heavy" in a metal sense, it still IS heavy. A great record for when you're sad and alone. Strange how something like this will make you feel better, but it will.
As a side note, one aQ-er first heard this album over the phone. Not the whole album, but sound clips much like the ones on our website. That's right, way back when before the internet and the mp3 and all that, somebody got the idea to do a dial-up music service where you'd get to check out new music over the phone, by calling a 900-number, and using a touch-tone phone to choose what you wanted to hear. It had something to do with the old Factsheet Five 'zine as we recall. We have vague memories of looking at the album cover reproduced in the 'zine - a negative photo of black stars floating in white emptiness - and hearing the long-distance sounds of those Frigid Stars like a transmission from that deep space void... even under those circumstances, maybe especially under those circumstances, Codeine were so effective. We might just have selected it to listen to on the basis of the album cover and title alone, and were not disappointed.
MPEG Stream: "D"
MPEG Stream: "Cave-In"

CODEINE When I See The Sun (Numero Group) 3 x 2lp + 3cd box set 83.00
Finally repressed, so we can review it! We had been waiting for this FOREVER, a gorgeous, super deluxe comprehensive career retrospective from slowcore legends Codeine, a group who most aQ-ers count as all time faves, and whose sound most definitely influenced a legion of slo-mo outfits that would surface in their wake. This box collects both their albums proper, Frigid Stars and The White Birch, as well as the Barely Real ep, and on top of that, piles on TONS of rarities, single B-sides, compilation tracks, unreleased demos, live songs, Peel sessions, essentially everything they ever recorded, all housed in an impossibly lavish box, which includes SIX lps and THREE cds, as well as a huge booklet which includes essays by Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman, Love Child's Alan Licht, and the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd. There was originally an oral history compiled as well (Please Kill Me style), which included our very own Andee, but for some reason, that was not included, and will supposedly show up in print somewhere else eventually. But really, it's all about the music, and Codeine's music is truly breathtaking. Their recent reunion show here in two was one of the best shows we've seen. And even at that show, these boxes were sold out! But for now, we have a few in stock, and should hopefully be able to get more. But you never know...
We recently reviewed Codeine's debut, Frigid Stars, on its own, but that review most definitely also describes their body of work as a whole, and barring some subtle sonic shifts over the years, applies to all three of their records, which combined, exist as one of the most beautiful, intense, moving, and hauntingly harrowing collections of slowcore indie rock EVER. Definitely one of those bands that Andee, Allan, et. al. here will tell you, if you don't have all of their records, you oughta get them now... seriously. Emo, indie-rock, post-rock, whatever Codeine is, it's totally classic. A classic of majestic melancholia. They employed the soft-loud dynamic that their former Sub Pop labelmates Nirvana already made famous (or would around the same time). Not that they sound much like Nirvana. They sound a bit more like Low, albeit a lumbering downtuned Low. Codeine's own brand of moody, melodic misery wouldn't, couldn't be an MTV hit. Indie-pop it was, but so sad and slow... The songs share slowly crawling tempos, and echoey drum hits and big distorted guitar chords crashing down to give extra weight to vocalist/bassist Stephen Immerwahr's weary vocals and love-lost lyrics. We've always wanted to hear a metal band do cover Codeine. But even though this isn't really "heavy" in a metal sense, it still IS heavy. The perfect music for when you're sad and alone. Strange how something like this will make you feel better, but it will.
Highest recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "D"
MPEG Stream: "Cave-In"
MPEG Stream: "Tom"
MPEG Stream: "Sea"

CODEINE White Birch (Sub Pop) cd 10.98

MPEG Stream: "Tom"
MPEG Stream: "Sea"

COFFEY, DENNIS Big City Funk (Vampisoul) cd 17.98
It should come as no surprise that on his extensive musical resume Dennis Coffey can boast to scoring blaxploitation films as well as session playing on numerous Motown records and other soul and funk outings from his hometown of Detroit. Big City Funk compiles tracks from his four studio albums released on the Sussex label over the years 1971-'74. His fried and fiery delivery of instrumental funk has been a mainstay with crate diggers forever. In fact over the years he's been sampled by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and LL Cool J. When he's on, his tracks are on fire, reminding us at times of such disparate sounds as the Childrens Television Workshop and groups like Stark Reality. The overall sound and feeling of Coffey's songs would make the perfect soundtrack for a wild cop car chase or for those soft focus slow tease moments in classic '70s porn. Really fun and oh so '70s!
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Scorpio"
MPEG Stream: "Outrageous"

COFFEY, DENNIS Big City Funk (Vampisoul) lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It should come as no surprise that on his extensive musical resume Dennis Coffey can boast to scoring blaxploitation films as well as session playing on numerous Motown records and other soul and funk outings from his hometown of Detroit. Big City Funk compiles tracks from his four studio albums released on the Sussex label over the years 1971-'74. His fried and fiery delivery of instrumental funk has been a mainstay with crate diggers forever. In fact over the years he's been sampled by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and LL Cool J. When he's on, his tracks are on fire, reminding us at times of such disparate sounds as the Childrens Television Workshop and groups like Stark Reality. The overall sound and feeling of Coffey's songs would make the perfect soundtrack for a wild cop car chase or for those soft focus slow tease moments in classic '70s porn. Really fun and oh so '70s!
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Scorpio"
MPEG Stream: "Outrageous"

COGAN, ORA The Boggy Mire (Isolated Now Waves) cassette 4.50
If the earthy dusk beauty of Ms Cogan's most recent full length The Quarry charmed your ears, you won't want to miss this special treat... and don't dilly dally, this limited edition cassette is sure to be gone in a flash. Only 50 copies were made, and we got a scant five from the lady herself! So, once they're gone, it's most likely that'll be it.
Although a boggy mire sounds like a rather unpleasant place to be, we think it might not be so bad with Ora by our side. She exudes a quiet strength and warm presence both in person and on record. Here, she covers the songs of legendary country, folk and blues artists Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, Bonnie Raitt, Irma Thomas, Don Gibson and Skip Spence, as well as more recent numbers by Sonic Youth and Rio En Medio, and tucks in a couple of old traditionals too. Lovely stuff!

COGAN, ORA The Quarry (Isolated Now Waves) cd 9.98
West Coast songstress Ms Ora Cogan is back with a pair of new releases... this, a full length titled The Quarry (on cd and lp), and a cassette called The Boggy Mire (it's not yet reviewed, so please ask if you are interested!). So lush yet rustic, The Quarry is perhaps a bit darker in tone and haunting in mood than her previous recordings. Deeply moving, but not despairing, each word is drawn out into almost non-verbal utterances which at times seem as much inspired by old tymey Appalachian folk as by Canadian aboriginal music vocalizations and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser. Cogan's voice lilts and swoops amid her delicate finger picked and strummed guitar along with some dreamy dulcimer, violin, and fleeting moments of droney dissonance too. The dozen numbers take an unhurried pace, gradually winding their way into your heart. A lovely and deceptively potent aural elixir!
MPEG Stream: "The Quarry"
MPEG Stream: "Gather"

COGAN, ORA The Quarry (Isolated Now Waves) lp 12.98
West Coast songstress Ms Ora Cogan is back with a pair of new releases... this, a full length titled The Quarry (on cd and lp), and a cassette called The Boggy Mire. So lush yet rustic, The Quarry is perhaps a bit darker in tone and haunting in mood than her previous recordings. Deeply moving, but not despairing, each word is drawn out into almost non-verbal utterances which at times seem as much inspired by old tymey Appalachian folk as by Canadian aboriginal music vocalizations and Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser. Cogan's voice lilts and swoops amid her delicate finger picked and strummed guitar along with some dreamy dulcimer, violin, and fleeting moments of droney dissonance too. The dozen numbers take an unhurried pace, gradually winding their way into your heart. A lovely and deceptively potent aural elixir! Limited pressing of 500!
MPEG Stream: "The Quarry"
MPEG Stream: "Gather"

COHEED & CAMBRIA The Second Stage Turbing Blade (Equal Vision) cd 13.98
We raved and raved about the new Coheed And Cambria record a few lists back. It even made a couple of our best of the year lists. Totally epic and proggy emo metal core. Heavy on the prog. With ridiculously amazing vocals somewhere between Geddy Lee from Rush, Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley and the guy from Shudder To Think. 10+ minute songs, ridiculous time signatures, hooks galore and that distinctive wail. So fucking great! Andee and Jim still listen to it in the store all the time! Andee and Jim -also- loved it enough to go to Bottom Of The Hill and check them out in person. And it was so awesome. Not only was it all ages so the place was packed with kids in their best emo finery, but EVERYONE was singing along to EVERY song at the top of their lungs. Even the kids in the pit. Every 'Woahhhh' and 'La La' was a deafening roar. The best part was the band though. Sort of drunk, a bit sloppy, they were a dishevelled, bearded, un-emo looking mess. Every between song break was met with screams for more, and the band would just deflect the requests with the explanation "We're fucking old. And tired. Let us take a fucking break. I can barely breathe up here." It was so satisfying, being old guys ourselves. The singer even had to go get his glasses to read the set list. So cool! But the real point of this story is, they played a bunch of songs neither of us recognized, but that instantly got stuck in our heads, all of which are thankfully on this here record, and all of which kick serious ass. Not nearly as polished or well produced as the new one, but it hardly matters because the songs are so goddamn good. If you haven't bought the new one, In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 maybe start there, but you certainly won't regret starting here either. Hell, buy both. You won't be sorry.
MPEG Stream: "Devil In Jersey City"
MPEG Stream: "Everything Evil"

COHEED AND CAMBRIA Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol.I (Sony / BMG) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Welcome Home"
MPEG Stream: "Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial)"
MPEG Stream: "Crossing The Frame"

COHEED AND CAMBRIA In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 (Equal Vision) cd 13.98
Emo doesn't get any more epic than this. Start with the name, Coheed And Cambria? What the fuck? And then song titles like "The Velourium Camper Pts. I-III", "Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow)" and "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men". But the music is where things get really weird, and epic. Lengthy and proggy song structures, huge crunchy metal guitars, convoluted and improbable rhythms, and vocals...woah, the vocals. Somewhere between Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley, Geddy Lee, the guy from Shudder To Think, and the guy from Cyclefly, with a gorgeously crystalline high tenor, that swoops and soars, not silly like, say, the Darkness, but more graceful and dramatic, and totally gorgeous. The title track is a metalcore masterpiece, but what sets it apart is the clean vocals throughout, the almost-Pinback sounding breakdown in the middle, and the Peter Gabriel like epic reprise, complete with a huge chorus of back up vocals. The record is super varied though, from Get Up Kids style emo romps, to metalcore crunch, to progressive weirdness, to MTV metal, with death metal breakdowns, super sappy pop choruses, complicated and ridiculous instrumental breaks, and a hidden track that manages to be so bizarre and silly and prog with multiple parts, SUPER dramatic vocals, lyrics like "My robot will never die..." and hyper complex instrumental segments, and still sound right at home with rest of the record. Sounds a bit like the bands stab at a grand musical a la the Who's Tommy. This gets played SO much in the store (this hit the spot for Jim's emo sweet tooth) and I (Andee) haven't stopped listening to it at home since I got it. Even saw their video on MTV2 which is really bizarre! But only made me like them more. Thought they'd be skinny little emo boys, but they're sort of bearded, husky, regular guys, and one of them sports a wicked rock-fro that would make Buzz from the Melvins proud!
MPEG Stream: "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3"
MPEG Stream: "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men"

COHEED AND CAMBRIA In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 (Equal Vision) 2lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Emo doesn't get any more epic than this. Start with the name, Coheed And Cambria? What the fuck? And then song titles like "The Velourium Camper Pts. I-III", "Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow)" and "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men". But the music is where things get really weird, and epic. Lengthy and proggy song structures, huge crunchy metal guitars, convoluted and improbable rhythms, and vocals...woah, the vocals. Somewhere between Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley, Geddy Lee, the guy from Shudder To Think, and the guy from Cyclefly, with a gorgeously crystalline high tenor, that swoops and soars, not silly like, say, the Darkness, but more graceful and dramatic, and totally gorgeous. The title track is a metalcore masterpiece, but what sets it apart is the clean vocals throughout, the almost-Pinback sounding breakdown in the middle, and the Peter Gabriel like epic reprise, complete with a huge chorus of back up vocals. The record is super varied though, from Get Up Kids style emo romps, to metalcore crunch, to progressive weirdness, to MTV metal, with death metal breakdowns, super sappy pop choruses, complicated and ridiculous instrumental breaks, and a hidden track that manages to be so bizarre and silly and prog with multiple parts, SUPER dramatic vocals, lyrics like "My robot will never die..." and hyper complex instrumental segments, and still sound right at home with rest of the record. Sounds a bit like the bands stab at a grand musical a la the Who's Tommy. This gets played SO much in the store (this hit the spot for Jim's emo sweet tooth) and I (Andee) haven't stopped listening to it at home since I got it. Even saw their video on MTV2 which is really bizarre! But only made me like them more. Thought they'd be skinny little emo boys, but they're sort of bearded, husky, regular guys, and one of them sports a wicked rock-fro that would make Buzz from the Melvins proud!
MPEG Stream: "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3"
MPEG Stream: "Cuts Marked In The March Of Men"

COHEED AND CAMBRIA Live At The Starland Ballroom (Sony) dvd 21.00

COHEED AND CAMBRIA No World For Tomorrow (Sony BMG) cd 11.98

COHEN, ALICE Walking Up Walls (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 14.98
Alice Cohen is one of the cofounders of the Portland-based Olde English Spelling Bee label and here on her second release offers up an intense sketchbook of sonic seances. Recorded from home, these recordings were originally made as a musical diary, not intended for release. But their home-spun nature revealed, through a process akin to automatic writing, a kind of ghostly songcraft that would otherwise not have been created through a normal studio recording. Swathes of burning guitar, rockish organ and disembodied layers of vocals culminate in shadowy perfumed murk. Bits of fuzzy song-structures peek through the miasma reminding us of times of a more carnivalesque Grouper or a more freeform Azalia Snail. Drifting and shimmery but at times woozily unsteady or blithely romantic in it conjuration. building up to rapturous peaks and then sinking into sullen valleys. Truly exploratory music!

COHEN, CHRIS Overgrown Path (Captured Tracks) cd 14.98
Chris Cohen might not be a household name for most folks, but if you live in SF you might remember him from when he played in the mighty Deerhoof, as well as Curtains, and the Natural Dreamers. He's also played with, White Magic, Cass McCombs, Danielson, Haunted Graffiti and a bunch of others. Overgrown Path is his first solo record under his own name, and is a gorgeous collection of psychedelic pop, not nearly as weird as we were maybe expecting, but really all the better for it. The instrumentation is lush and lovely, produced like a classic orchestral pop record, with some cool sonic twists, and Cohen's voices is warm and honeyed, deep and soulful, but slipping easily into a near falsetto, and the songs here, classic sounding and catchy, obviously indebted to classic pop outfits like the Zombies, Big Star, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, etc, but here given a little modern / avant tweak. Opener "Monad" is impossibly lovely, rich, piano chords, over softly swirling guitars, Beach Boys like drumming, blooping bass, then Cohen's dreamy vox, sunshiney guitar melodies, and the chorus/bridge, which finds the sound fracturing into something much more psychedelic, all swirling and woozy and subtly spacey, not to mention the warped droney outro. "Optimist High" is another chunk of near perfect pop, the sound warm and washed out, and dreamily prismatic, definitely reminding us of modern retro poppers like the New Lines and Zumpano, and here, on a track like this, the only thing giving this away as a modern recording, is the recording itself, otherwise it could be some lost Emitt Rhodes B side or something.
The whole record has a definite sixties/seventies singer/songwriter vibe, some tracks darkly groovy, others chiming and jangly, and still others brooding and melancholy, all of them lush and lovely and so absolutely dreamy. A new soft pop fave for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Monad"
MPEG Stream: "Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Rollercoaster Rider"
MPEG Stream: "Optimist High"

COHEN, CHRIS Overgrown Path (Captured Tracks) lp 17.98
NOW HERE ON VINYL!
Chris Cohen might not be a household name for most folks, but if you live in SF you might remember him from when he played in the mighty Deerhoof, as well as Curtains, and the Natural Dreamers. He's also played with, White Magic, Cass McCombs, Danielson, Haunted Graffiti and a bunch of others. Overgrown Path is his first solo record under his own name, and is a gorgeous collection of psychedelic pop, not nearly as weird as we were maybe expecting, but really all the better for it. The instrumentation is lush and lovely, produced like a classic orchestral pop record, with some cool sonic twists, and Cohen's voices is warm and honeyed, deep and soulful, but slipping easily into a near falsetto, and the songs here, classic sounding and catchy, obviously indebted to classic pop outfits like the Zombies, Big Star, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, etc, but here given a little modern / avant tweak. Opener "Monad" is impossibly lovely, rich, piano chords, over softly swirling guitars, Beach Boys like drumming, blooping bass, then Cohen's dreamy vox, sunshiney guitar melodies, and the chorus/bridge, which finds the sound fracturing into something much more psychedelic, all swirling and woozy and subtly spacey, not to mention the warped droney outro. "Optimist High" is another chunk of near perfect pop, the sound warm and washed out, and dreamily prismatic, definitely reminding us of modern retro poppers like the New Lines and Zumpano, and here, on a track like this, the only thing giving this away as a modern recording, is the recording itself, otherwise it could be some lost Emitt Rhodes B side or something.
The whole record has a definite sixties/seventies singer/songwriter vibe, some tracks darkly groovy, others chiming and jangly, and still others brooding and melancholy, all of them lush and lovely and so absolutely dreamy. A new soft pop fave for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Monad"
MPEG Stream: "Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Rollercoaster Rider"
MPEG Stream: "Optimist High"

COHEN, LEONARD Dear Heather (Sony) cd 16.98
Doesn't it seem that Mr. Leonard Cohen has always been there? Ever the wise elder statesman, he enters his seventh decade with this new album! His voice still offers comforting solace, gentlemanly charm and occasionally a saucy wink. Over the years, his intimate speak-sing delivery has become increasingly more spoken than sung, however his omnipresent background singing ladies remain as elegant and ageless as ever.
MPEG Stream: "Go No More A-Roving"
MPEG Stream: "Dear Heather"

COHEN, LEONARD Death Of A Ladies Man (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

COHEN, LEONARD Death Of A Ladies' Man (4 Men With Beards) lp 19.98

COHEN, LEONARD Field Commander Cohen (Columbia) cd 17.98
Live Leonard, a wonderful previously unreleased performance from his 1979 world tour. Recorded in England. If you've never heard Cohen's sad-eyed, deep-voiced, world-weary storytelling songs, now is the time. Features "Bird On The Wire" and other classic Cohen cuts.

COHEN, LEONARD I'm Your Man (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
For some reason, this 1988 kinda comeback album from poet n' ladies man Leonard Cohen has always been one of our favorites, although he made his fame with records in the late '60s and '70s. Just gotta love its quirkiness (he's eating a banana on the cover for some reason) and its lush, quasi-electronic '80s production. And Cohen's cynical wit is in fine form here as it ever was. Songs such as "First We Take Manhattan" and "Everybody Knows" are clever and dark, the entire album delivering a sort of moody noirish cabaret, with a wink. Favorite track: "Jazz Police", goofy fun but somehow disturbing too.
MPEG Stream: "Everybody Knows"
MPEG Stream: "Jazz Police"

COHEN, LEONARD Live Songs (Sundazed) lp 21.00

COHEN, LEONARD New Skin For The Old Ceremony (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

COHEN, LEONARD New Skin For The Old Ceremony (Sundazed) lp 21.00

COHEN, LEONARD Old Ideas (Columbia) cd 14.98

COHEN, LEONARD Songs From A Room (Sundazed) lp 21.00

COHEN, LEONARD Songs Of Love And Hate (Sundazed) lp 21.00

COHEN, LEONARD Ten New Songs (Sony) cd 17.98
This is Leonard Cohen's first release in 9 years. Rumour is, he spent a good amount of that time in a Zen monastery. His voice still has that same soul shattering, breathy deep quality that it always had. The years have treated him well it seems. This record is more smoothly produced than previous releases and absent are the crazy child background vocals. 'Ten New Songs' seems as much collaborator Sharon Robinson's record as Cohen's--she cowrote all the songs, plays most of the instruments (primarily a synth that seems to have plucked from a cheezy 1984 power ballad), and accompanies Cohen's gloomy croak with her own sweet crooning. Sadly this record is missing the harder edge and jaded air that I liked about his earlier stuff. The slick production sort of bugs me, but I still love -that- voice and his crazy fucked up mind.
RealAudio clip: "In My Secret Life"
RealAudio clip: "Here It Is"

COHEN, TIM Bad Blood (Captured Tracks) 2x7" 10.98
A sort of companion to Cohen's recent Magic Trick solo full length on Captured Tracks, which was less a solo record, and more of a new band record, that new band being his 'Magic Trick' who also back him up here, on this double 7", and like the full length, the sound is definitely closely related to that of his other band the Fresh & Onlys, a gorgeous collection of lush mini pop epics, that range from classic jangle, to woozy balladry, reverb drenched countryish twang to fuzzy indie jangle, bouncy, hazy folky strum to gloomy post punk pop. And the thing is, whatever Cohen and crew decide to do, somehow it works, and sounds amazing, Cohen's deft popsmithery is pretty much unrivalled these days, with a release schedule that by all rights should have made us sick to death, but instead, we can barely get enough, every new record, a new collection of perfect(ly imperfect) pop, that will remain stuck in our heads until the next batch.
There are lots of highlights here, the raspy voiced, shimmery strummy drift of "Delicate Creatures", the Johnny Cash-esque, swaggery twang flecked shuffle of "Doctor, Doctor", the gloomy new wave-y brooder "Purpose In Life", and the sixties dream folk jangle of "Rock Bottom"... Like we said, it's all good, and even still we find ourselves, hankering for more. Luckily we probably won't be waiting long...
MPEG Stream: "Delicate Creatures"
MPEG Stream: "Fight For The One You Love"

COHEN, TIM Laugh Tracks (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
We often marvel at how songwriters can keep churning out the hits, especially someone like Tim Cohen, who not only writes all the songs for the Fresh & Onlys, who have averaged close to 5 releases a year since their inception, but somehow, even after all of those records, has so many songs, that he also needs to release solo records, and that's not even counting all his various other groups and side projects. But as we've said in the past, if it ain't broke don't fix it. And yeah, it can sometimes be frustrating keeping up, especially if you're a completist, which many of us record nerds tend to be, but heck, the extra effort is most definitely worth it.
Cohen's newest solo full length continues his winning streak, with another collection of weird wonderful pop, folk flecked, with strange arrangements, lush harmonies, and incredible hooks, take the opening track, "Oh Oh Oh", with its cool drum/handclap rhythm, urgently strummed acoustic guitars, and rough crooned vocals, and then with about a minute left, the song shifts gears, and multiple vocals join in, for a gorgeous harmony refrain. Then there's "Wonderful Life", that sounds like some classic fifties jam, except for the weirdly gloomy basslines, the woozy keyboards, the reverbed guitar twang, and the super dynamic start stop breakdown. "A Mind Of Their Own" is all horns and harmonicas, "Laughter" evokes just the opposite, dark and brooding, with a distinctly Scott Walker vibe, "Send No Sign" is another old fashioned classic pop sounding number, all walking basslines, jangly guitar, but then there's some cool surprisingly prog sounding keyboards, and then more horns, super dramatic and EPIC, and that's sort of the magic of Cohen's songwriting, especially on his own, on the surface, what sounds super familiar, classic even, is quickly, often subtly subverted, and transformed into something else entirely, but something else, that impossibly STILL sounds familiar and classic, even though it's so obviously not. Another fantastic collection of fantastically twisted and (im)perfect pop from one of favorite modern songwriters...
MPEG Stream: "Oh, Oh, Oh"
MPEG Stream: "Wonderful Life"
MPEG Stream: "Send No Sign"

COHEN, TIM Tim Cohen's Magic Trick (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Yet another new release from the uber prolific Mr. Tim Cohen, who, when he's not fronting aQ faves the Fresh & Onlys, jamming out massive space drug epics with 3 Leafs, or blasting away mysteriously as black metal one man band Amocoma, finds time to make solo records too, like this one, with his OTHER band Magic Trick. And as you might imagine, the sound of TC's Magic Trick doesn't veer to far from the sound of the F+O, if anything, the sounds and songs here are more varied, less overtly garage rocky, and more personal, like experiments, but experiments suggests there's some risk of failure, some chance said experiment will fail, and as we know by now, Cohen's deft hand at popsmithery makes that pretty unlikely. And TCMT does seem to extend his streak, with another collection of perfect(ly off kilter) pop songs, from simple shuffly jangle, to pulsing electronic moody new wave, from brooding dour acoustic folkiness to sixties style sunshiney Spector-ish fuzz, often weaving all of those disparate sounds and styles together. Hazy reverby guitars drift under deep crooned vox, muted electronic pulses drive a warm liquid basslines, synths swirl and soar, female back up vox offer up angelic harmonies, Cohen's vocals getting better and better, rough and ragged one second, warm and smooth the next, and often slipping into a sweet falsetto, the songs too, with every record seeming to become more and more well crafted, a practically perfect assemblage of unlikely parts, surprising melodies, lush textures, quirkly electronics, multiple vocal parts, but none of those distracting from Cohen's vision, just adding to it, woven into a smooth, warm, shimmery, jangly dream poppy whole. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "I Am Never Going To Die"
MPEG Stream: "New House In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "The Flower"

COHEN, TIM Tim Cohen's Magic Trick (Captured Tracks) lp 13.98
Yet another new release from the uber prolific Mr. Tim Cohen, who, when he's not fronting aQ faves the Fresh & Onlys, jamming out massive space drug epics with 3 Leafs, or blasting away mysteriously as black metal one man band Amocoma, finds time to make solo records too, like this one, with his OTHER band Magic Trick. And as you might imagine, the sound of TC's Magic Trick doesn't veer to far from the sound of the F+O, if anything, the sounds and songs here are more varied, less overtly garage rocky, and more personal, like experiments, but experiments suggests there's some risk of failure, some chance said experiment will fail, and as we know by now, Cohen's deft hand at popsmithery makes that pretty unlikely. And TCMT does seem to extend his streak, with another collection of perfect(ly off kilter) pop songs, from simple shuffly jangle, to pulsing electronic moody new wave, from brooding dour acoustic folkiness to sixties style sunshiney Spector-ish fuzz, often weaving all of those disparate sounds and styles together. Hazy reverby guitars drift under deep crooned vox, muted electronic pulses drive a warm liquid basslines, synths swirl and soar, female back up vox offer up angelic harmonies, Cohen's vocals getting better and better, rough and ragged one second, warm and smooth the next, and often slipping into a sweet falsetto, the songs too, with every record seeming to become more and more well crafted, a practically perfect assemblage of unlikely parts, surprising melodies, lush textures, quirkly electronics, multiple vocal parts, but none of those distracting from Cohen's vision, just adding to it, woven into a smooth, warm, shimmery, jangly dream poppy whole. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "I Am Never Going To Die"
MPEG Stream: "New House In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "The Flower"

COHEN, TIM Two Sides of Tim Cohen (Secret Seven / Empty Cellar) lp 14.98
As if fronting super hyped garage rockers the Fresh & Onlys wasn't enough, or being the one man in one man weirdo black metal horde AmocomA, or playing in Black Fiction and Three Leafs or any of a number of other local bands, or even being the back up band for psych rock legend Rodriguez, well, apparently none of that is enough, as here's a brand new full length from Mr. Tim Cohen, he of all the above mentioned rockness.
The Two Sides seems to focus on another side of Cohen we've only gotten little glimpses of, and that's the classic popsmith. And yeah, classic pop sounds infuse pretty much everything he does (heck, even AmocomA has a distinctly pop vibe), but this is definitely his 'pop' record, a sort of lo-fi, ramshackle, home brewed psychedelic Pet Sounds for the current landscape of FM radio revivalists, a la Ariel Pink, Ty Segall, etc. But where Pink is truly drug addled and twisted, and Segall tends towards the slightly more rocking, Cohen here is emotional and sincere, the lyrics plenty twisted and bizarre, the music fractured and freaky, but it's all wound into something definitely classic sounding, Beach Boys, Beatles, of course, but more than the sound it's the vibe and the feel, as folky as it is classic rock, poppy all over, slipping effortlessly from moody and brooding almost Nick Drake sounding intimacy, to surprisingly lush almost radio ready old school FM pop. The vocals drift from softly sung spoken to soaring falsetto, wrapping themselves up in sweet harmonies, the musical backdrop more subtle than one might expect, intricate acoustic guitars, muted percussion, everything stripped down and wreathed in reverb and delay, a low key fuzzy psych pop, that will definitely appeal to the current crop of retro lo-fi drug poppers, but is way less willfully obscure, tapping into something a bit more classic, a bit more timeless.
Super nice packaging, thick eye popping sleeve, inside a printed lyric sheet, as well as an insert, with the code so you can download the whole record, as well as a bunch of digital only bonus tracks!

COHEN-SOLAL, JEAN Flutes Libres (MIO Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK, last ever copies however as the MIO label has sadly chosen to close up shop! So we grabbed a few of our faves (this and the Flamen Dialis). Here's our review from when we first listed this:
The time has come. That very special time, that only comes once in a long, long while. Open the gates! Unfurl the red carpet! Prepare thyselves! It's time to induct yet another record, into the elite and exclusive pantheon of Andee's favorite flute records. The Pantheon currently looks about like this: Phill Niblock's Four Full Flutes, Eberhard Blum's Berlin To Buffalo, Comus' First Utterance, Koukiji Kougezan's The Live [11th] Final Hyakusenmansyuuraku, Byard Lancaster's It's Not Up To Us, the first four Osanna records, Za Frumi, Alan Silva, Jethro Tull and pretty much all Roland Kirk and Eric Dolphy. Well, you can now add French flautist/double bassist Jean Cohen-Solal to that list. Flute Libres & Captain Tarthopom collects Cohen-Solal's first two ridiculously rare albums originally released in 1971 and 1973, on one cd. Long considered progressive rock masterpieces, these two records feature Cohen-Solal's ultra personal take on classical, jazz and avant garde, even mixing in some psychedelic rock and ambient minimalism to the mix. The disc starts off with a jazzy psych rock workout, sort of funky, with a boppy rhythm and wailing flutes, very catchy and cool. But from that point on, the record travels down a much darker path, as the jazz and funk and rock dissipate into spacy, shimmery soundscapes, reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd or even Taj Mahal Travellers, with warm melodic swells, shimmery washes of cymbals and gongs, and lonely notes, flute and double bass, swathed in reverb or wah, and sent to drift through the ether. Things rev up later on, adding shuffling jazz rhythms, dizzying flute melodies and faraway freakout guitars, channelling Magma and Focus, weaving meandering, propulsive and progressive, spacerock and jazzrock mantras. So good.
MPEG Stream: "Concerto Cyclique"
MPEG Stream: "Raga Du Matin"
MPEG Stream: "Matiere"

COIL ...And The Ambulance Died In His Arms (Threshold) cd 26.00
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COIL Astral Disaster (Loci / World Serpant) cd 19.98
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The year 2000 looks to be a busy year for Coil, after so many moons of sonic hybernation. "Astral Disaster" is the follow up to "Musick to Listen to in the Dark" and is equally as limited (only 2000). But that number is better than the original edition of "Astral Disaster" (a vinyl edition of only 99 copies!!!). Originally recorded on Samhain under the Thames River, "Astral Disaster" has been reworked into four lengthy pieces of Coil's techno-pagan ritual music that falls between the Coil aesthetic of the Solstice series of 1998 and "Time Machine"'s droning.

COIL Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil (Chalice / World Serpent) cd 19.98
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This has been a very productive year for Coil, with mixed results coming from so much activity after the long hibernation. "Constant Shallowness Leads To Evil" is a drastic turn for Coil away from their lunar drones and towards a more abrasive sound, with what sounds like manipulated recordings of rumbling diesel engines or malfunctioning amplifier tremolo. The clatter of cutlery and an intrusion of John Balance's seductive voice breaks up (adds to?) the dissonance of this noise production. Definitely better than the last couple of offerings from Coil, but their quality control could still see some improvement overall...
Packaged in one of those plastic clam shell cases (a la the 20' to 2000 series).

COIL Horse Rotovator (World Serpent) cd 15.98
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We here at Aquarius haven't agreed with the critical acclaim that's greeted the recent output of Coil; however, we do agree that their second proper album "Horse Rotovator" should still be viewed as one of the great electronic albums of the 1980s. Immersed in Industrial Culture's transgressive ideologies, and thus intended as perversions of contemporary media and politics, Coil produced "Horse Rotovator" in 1986 as a glorification of lysergic apocalypses within Jean Genet's reversed pantheon of Catholic imagery. Within this convoluted narrative, Coil crafted an unsurpassed album of macabre tales gilded with baroque and at times carnivalesque details. Unlike the majority of their Industrial contemporaries (such as their Wax Trax cronies), Coil's plunge into the realm of the abject wasn't hamstrung by technology. As Coil was one of the first ensembles to be well equipped with early sampling technologies (specifically, the Fairlight Emulator), they masterfully hybridized their dark intentions with the synth-based craft of the new wave pop song (it should be noted that Soft Cell's Marc Almond has been a longstanding friend and guest vocalist for Coil).
With bands like Peaches and Trans Am trawling the '80s solely for the purpose of irony, Coil's work from that decade may appear today as excessively bombastic, too homoerotic, or downright dated. However, "Horse Rotovator" and the (no longer!) criminally unavailable "Love's Secret Domain" undeniably stand at the apex of Coil's extensive career.
RealAudio clip: "Anal Staircase"
RealAudio clip: "Who By Fire"
RealAudio clip: "Golden Section"

COIL Live Four (World Serpent) cd 18.98
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A splendid live album! Actually this is the first in a series of four volumes of Coil live recordings - released in reverse numerical order. And if this cd is any indication of the other three, I can't wait! The series 'begins' with the last two concerts (in Prague and Vienna) of their 2002 tour, and features the Coil lineup of mainmen Jhon Balance and Peter Christopherson; Ossian Brown and Thighpaulsandra as well as Black Sun Productions' Pierce and Massimo. As opposed to most of their recent studio recordings, each of which has had a considerably singular - primarily drone-based - focus, this presents a much wider scope of Coil's sound. Incredibly vivid soundscapes, meticulous collages, grand dramatic melodic orchestrations, seething minimal spoken word. Coil expertly traverse through all of these. If you're at all acquainted with their work, you'll hear a number of familiar segments, but they're all wonderfully incorporated into the album as a whole. I'd even venture to say that this live album makes for quite a nice introduction to Coil. That said, the one track that absolutely floored me was "Amethyst Deceivers". Although the audio sample only offers a mere glimpse, please do check it out! Of course it's all beautifully recorded, and the roar of the crowd is kept contained to in between songs - allowing you to fully immerse yourself in the performance that's in turns visceral, whimsical, and totally captivating. Ten tracks: "I Am Angie Bowie", "Last Rites of Spring", "Are You Shivering?", "Amethyst Deceivers", "A Warning from the Sun", "The Universe is a Haunted House", "Ostia", "I Don't Want to be the One", "Bang Bang", "An Unearthly Red". Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Amethyst Deceivers"

COIL Live One (World Serpent) 2cd 23.00
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Attention Coil fans... The fourth and final volume in this series of live documents has finally arrived, and it's a double cd set. A characteristically ever-evolving, dramatic montage with heaving drones, wheezing strings and sputtering electronics punctuated by John Balance's guttural shouts and moans and other ghostly effected voices. Visceral, beautiful and deeply moving. Yet another version of "Amethyst Deceivers" is included on the second disc - a slower, quieter and much more minimal rendering. Furthermore, with the recent dissolution of John Balance and Peter Christopherson's personal and artistic relationships, perhaps this will mark one of the very final releases from this astoundingly groundbreaking and deeply influential British duo. Well... then again, they've probably got a secret vault filled with as yet unreleased Coil recordings.
CD A, titled "The Industrial Use Of Semen Will Revolutionise The Human Race" features three tracks from their April 2000 performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London (please note: this UK live recording was originally released as the Time Machines limited edition cd).
CD B contains six tracks from their Barcelona concert two months later. Coil's perfoming line-up for these dates was Balance, Christopherson, Ossian Brown, and Thighpaulsandra, plus viola player William Breeze joined on in Spain.
MPEG Stream: "Everything Keeps Dissolving"
MPEG Stream: "Elves"

COIL Love's Secret Domain (Threshold House) cd 17.98
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The re-issue of "Love's Secret Domain" from 1991 is not unlike unearthing a long lost exquisite treasure. Obsessively coveted and revered over the last decade, it re-emerges still sounding fresh and current. Sadly and strangely, this album was often pigeonholed as an industrial-dance record. Sure, it was licensed to the US on Wax Trax and Coil's longstanding association with Industrial Culture (um, they started it) certainly confused idiot rock critics who aimlessly equated industrial with the militant stomp of Front 242. Clearly, "Love's Secret Domain" is an album that stands way above the standard Wax Trax fare of the time.
During the construction of this album, Coil's core duo -- Peter Christopherson and John Balance -- had immersed themselves in the acid house culture of the UK that flourished around The KLF (I don't care what you think of "What Time is Love," The KLF were geniuses in the art of pop subversion), 808 State, and even the early bleep techno from Warp Records. To Coil, the UK rave culture reflected many of their own ideas of transgression through almost pagan rituals of communities uniting around liberating music, sexual exploration, chemical enlightenment, and the release of hidden dark energies from the body and spirit.
"Love's Secret Domain" embodied a near-perfect harmony between the dark, occultish overtones from their previous albums "Scatology" and "Horse Rotovator" and the technological futurism at the heart of rave culture. Within this synthesis, Coil has not just created a handful of singles (although "The Snow" and "Windowpane" off of this album still make great dancefloor fodder), but has articulated the entire album as a sonic narrative. Swelling through the sampledelic abstraction on "Disco Hospital" (recently covered by admitted Coil fans Matmos) and the surreal tension of "Things Happen" (with Annie Anxiety Bandez' obtuse guest vocal appearance), Coil offers "The Snow" as a magnificient techno track, with creepy cut-ups of choral elements, constantly shifting and reforming melody patterns, and an 808 techno pulse. "Windowpane" in turn is far more seductive in its low slung bassline and downtempo pace. The rest of the album continues through a darkened path of hallucinatory electronics, intricate instrumentations, and occasional bursts of subverted pop sentiment. Unlike a lot of electronica records, nothing on "Love's Secret Domain" ever feels like filler.
This is a marvelous record that even after a decade has very few rivals.
RealAudio clip: "The Snow"
RealAudio clip: "Windowpane"
RealAudio clip: "Love's Secret Domain"

COIL Moon Milk (In Four Phases): The Solstice And Equinox Singles Collected (Eskaton) 2cd 15.98
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During the past decade, Coil has undergone a drastic metamorphosis that began with the extravagantly dark electronica of "Love's Secret Domain" and continued up to the kosmische ambience of "Musick To Listen To In Dark Vol 2." With all of the albums since "Love's Secret Domain" moving far away from their perverse use of pop structures, these more recent recordings initially had very little immediate impact on us. Yet with the reissue of their solstice / equinox series of singles onto this double CD set, it is clear that Coil's newer "lunar music" requires time for it to settle and perhaps ripen with age. Well, it's taken 3 years for us to really warm up to these recordings, which at the time of their release in 1998 seemed merely adequate.
Coil intended to thematically correspond these songs' droning poetry to the solstices and equinoxes corresponding to when they were made. Mostly they center around a miasmic abstraction of spartan, dirge arrangements for a few instruments (cellos, church organs, spanish guitar), maintaining their solemn pursuit into sonic alchemy. For the most part, Coil's John Balance hushes his voice into mere whispers of his pagan recitations, which barely stand out of the lulling instrumentation, although "The White Rainbow" track from the Winter single stands out as a eulogaic song dominated by Balance's rich singing. The album works much better than as a collection of singles whose original release format seemed far too abrupt for the extended atmospheres that are common throughout the whole series.
And to piss off everybody who bought the original series, Coil included a bonus live track.
RealAudio clip: "A White Rainbow"
RealAudio clip: "Bee Stings"