Coil — Coil vs. ElpH:Worship the Glitch

With 1995's "Worship the Glitch", Coil proved their music could be brilliantly multifaceted and evocative- even when stripped down to simple 1-6 minute sound experiments, devoid of both vocals and conceptualization.  It was released under the alias 'Coil vs. ElpH', ElpH being the name Coil used for music that had been created subconsciously or accidentally, revealing hidden voices within the equipment. 

Out of print many years, this album was known only to cultish Coil fans and online sound traders.  It has long been a favorite of mine, and I am glad to see it in circulation as a physical release again- with the Dais Records reissue either coming in the form of a digital download, double LP (double 12" for the first time ever), or CD.

This album has a sort of emotional maturity in its laid-back reflection; it brings to mind images of ancient ruins, sitting partially intact in the sun for years and years, a slowly crumbling physical memory.  There is no urgency here, and yet there is a not a dull moment.  It is a time dilated reverie, lazily wavering in the air as the clouds drag through the sky.  Each track has only a few ideas and lasts just long enough.

The sounds are beautifully mixed and produced, a narcotic effect in their color charged vividness.  Synthetic voices, quietly glimmering, pulsing and buzzing in ultra-clarity.  Yes, the voices of McKenna's DMT 'ElpH'...  Certainly, Sleazy was searching with great determination for that linguistic resonance, the catalyst to entity contact.  To those who have heard "Black Light District: A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room" (a wonderful album), the sound palette here is very similar, a shimmer of lunar light.  Through vocoding, sweeping and phasing, timbres are imbued with inverted rainbow halos.  The colors are those which dance upon the back of your eyelid in the darkness. 

Actually, it may be the Coil release best suited to thoughtful home psychedelic use (along with "Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil"), as there is none of the wallowing self-destructive balladry or general John Balance melancholia to drag a trip into an overly serious and emotional direction.  Each 2 minute is an immersive microcosm with its own physics, moving parts, interacting lifeforms.  This, to me, is what 'psychedelic' electronic music must achieve: three-dimensional abstraction with the detail to hold up under scrutiny.  "Time Machines", the Coil album most explicitly designed for psychedelic use, is an unapologetic black hole, and no novice level experience.  This album changes frequently enough to provide relief.

As for the 'remastering' of this album, I  personally hear no difference from the original.  This is not bad thing, however, as I would rather they leave the contents of the original album as it was originally intended.

In conclusion, even though this is technically a 'minor' Coil release and an incomplete representation of their style as a whole, it is truly a gem.  Anyone open to the visionary possibilities of ambient electronics should find a dazzlingly strange universe at their fingertips, a contrast to the comparatively mundane world of new age soundscape music.  Even the skeptic may be convinced that they, too, could contact aliens with a bag of mushrooms and a synthesizer.