Electric Sewer Age — Moon's Milk in Final Phase

Electric Sewer Age? Nope I'd not heard of the project either. But what this modest disk contains is some of the last material produced by Coil's Peter Christopherson prior to his untimely death in 2010. The disk also features long time Coil collaborator Danny Hyde alongside Divine Frequency head John Deek, who also sadly passed only a year after this material first saw the light of day on his label in 2012. With the title concepts leaning heavily towards classic Coil material of their later period the whole project has a distinctly haunted quality about it while also showcasing some of the best posthumous Coil material released so far.

The disk is divided into four parts each titled Moon's Milk with a theme distinguishing them in parenthesis. Immediately the first few seconds of Moon's Milk (Waxing) have me harking back to the sparse arrangements and uncanny combinations of rhythm and melody that marked out Coil's Black antlers and Ape of Naples disks. Freewheeling synths dance around a central core of gamelan and plucked strings while warped half human calls and cries circulate. The second offering Moon's Milk (Waning) is more introspective, less campy than the almost jaunty first piece. Synths are set to drone mode while the strings take up a jagged staccato against more swirling vocal derived revenants. Possibly the weakest of the tracks here, it still has more than enough to rise above the legions that have attempted to copy this style over the last decade.

Moon's Milk (Eternal Phase) is however a stone cold classic that could sit on any of Coil's best releases. Hanging off a minor key chord sequence reminiscent of Rosa Decidua (which appears within the original Moon's milk EP cycle) the tone is that special mix of melancholic beauty tinged with cosmic weary fatalism that Coil singly managed to conjure from the ether, especially in their final years. All the familiar string sounds are rendered watery, transmissions from the third mind, as is the additional flute, lending a nod to Christopherson's Threshold House Boys Choir project. At a shade over seven minutes it's just too short. Final offering Moon's Milk (Dark Passing) is a mysterious finale starting out with strange chanting amid flickering, gloaming electronics. It's not so much droning as glowing. Concrete elements, semi rhythms and wigged out space synths compete for attention. It's not as tight as the other pieces and carries the mark of Danny Hyde's more manic productions, albeit filtered through Christopherson's chilled sense of dread.

Hands down this is the best of the "new" Coil material released since their passing.