Zos Kia/Coil
Transparent

THE REVIEW

The esoteric-industrial genre was born in the early '80s thanks to the foundational Psychic TV by Genesis P. Orridge, the very first Current 93 and Coil. In Italy, the most fervent followers of this trend were the Ain Soph. It is certainly an incredibly interesting genre that brought the original and dissonant industrial music into cross-pollination with sacred music: in this context, works like Nature Unveiled by Current 93, Horse Rotovator by Coil, and Kshatriya by Ain Soph are still cornerstones to this day. Esoteric and magical doctrines and a character like Aleister Crowley were undoubtedly of great importance to this scene. Now Cold Spring makes available one of the cornerstone pieces of the genre by re-releasing Transparent, the 1983 EP that came out under the name Zos Kia/Coil. It is the very first incarnation of Coil: in that lineup, a very young John Balance was accompanied by John “Zoskia” Gosling and vocalist Min while Peter Christopherson had a still marginal role. The first 5 tracks come from the recording of a 1983 concert at Berlin's Atonal and are characterized by a strong disruptive charge as in the opening "Sicktone – Version 1," where you can hear the voice of Aleister Crowley and in the tribal "Baptism Of Fire." The rest of the album continues with abrasive sounds stemming from early industrial music as in "Sewn Open," more subdued moments – the proto dark-ambient "Silence & Secrecy" – and the long and sinuous "On Balance," a hypnotic mantra that already foreshadows certain minimal and ritualistic tendencies of Coil and which is the most musical piece of the entire work, not far from a psychedelic and Krautrock aesthetic. The closing track is "Rape," also recorded live at the Equinox. Ultimately, Transparent proves to be an essential piece for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the genesis and roots of esoteric post-industrial music and a group that has left a great void like Coil. After the fragmented Backwards, Cold Spring undertakes another recovery operation of the Coil archives, unearthing recordings that are still raw but nonetheless important.