Coil "The Ape of Naples"/"The New Backwards" 4xLP box set, never-played copy

$

225

Baron Elmo proudly offers a gritty and beautiful chunk of sound art from industrial culture hooligans COIL, dug up fresh for your pleasure: the vinyl box set edition of The Ape of Naples, first released on CD in 2005 by the band's own Threshold House label, issued in this considerably expanded 4-LP black vinyl edition two years later by the Important label in an edition of 1200 copies. This was the final album from Coil, released after the death of founding member and lead vocalist Jhonn Balance. The title of this album was originally intended to be Fire of the Mind. Several tracks from the never-completed album Backwards (intended to be issued on Trent Reznor's Nothing Records) are included here, and this box set edition adds an additional 44 minutes of music from the Backwards sessions, later made available on CD as The New Backwards. Included here is a cover version of the theme song from the BBC show Are You Being Served?, which utilises Balance's last ever words spoken on stage at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival in 2004, the band's final performance. The Ape of Naples is easily one of Coil's all-time finest, a twisted and very beautiful plunge into songform that churns and throbs with ideas that provoke, mysterious sounds that disturb and a hint of the homoerotic male sexuality explored by this ensemble at their mad best. Five LP sides with music, three sides with etchings -- nearly 110 minutes of prime Coil packed with a lyric insert in a gorgeous box. Fans should consider ownership of this disc mandatory. Both The Ape of Naples and The New Backwards are currently unavailable in any format, with no reissue in sight, and this box edition sold out almost instantly upon its release. This copy was purchased new by Baron Elmo and has never been played. We will combine multiple purchases, so the more you buy, the more you save on shipping. Thanks for the visit – please check out our eBay store to see the other fine items we carry!

Track listing
     The Ape Of Naples
A1 Fire Of The Mind 5:14
A2 The Last Amethyst Deceiver 10:11
A3 Tattooed Man 6:33

C1 Triple Sun 3:46
C2 It's In My Blood 4:51
C3 I Don't Get It 5:35
C4 Heaven's Blade 4:21
C5 Cold Cell 4:08

E1 Teenage Lightning 2005 7:11
E2 Amber Rain 5:12
E3 Going Up 8:30

     The New Backwards
G1 Careful What You Wish For 9:11
G2 Nature Is A Language 8:04
G3 Algerian Basses 5:04

H1 Copacabbala 6:52
H2 Paint Me As A Dead Soul 6:31
H3 Princess Margaret's Man In The D'Jamalfna 8:49

*****

Listening to The Ape of Naples is a bittersweet experience. As the last album recorded during John Balance's lifetime, it serves as a final statement and summation of the band's multi-faceted career. Naples is much more of a "classic"-sounding Coil album (in the vein of Love's Secret Domain and Musick to Play in the Dark, Vol. 1) than more recent outings (such as ANS, Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil, or Astral Disaster). Ape is made up of recording sessions that date back to the mid-'90s, recordings done for Trent Reznor's nothing label, and more recent works that were still getting worked out in a live environment ("Triple Sun," "Tattooed Man"). Balance and Peter Christopherson are joined by the likes of Danny Hyde, Thighpaulsandra, Ossian Brown, Cliff Stapleton, and Mike Yorke, depending on the track. Which would lead one to the assumption that the album would sound disjointed, with a rotating cast of characters involved. The magic of Coil is that the album flows as smoothly as it does, not as if it were pieced together over the years and with different collaborators. The focus of the album seems to be (perhaps consciously, perhaps not) on Balance's beautiful and expressive voice. All tracks feature his vocals, notably the industro-goth of "Heaven's Blade," the twisted circus atmospheres of "Tattooed Man," and quite possibly the saddest song Coil ever recorded, a cover of BBC favorite Are You Being Served's theme song, "Going Up." This last is a highlight in the Coil catalog, with Balance dueting with Francois Testroy, telling the listener that "it just is." The painful acceptance of this line encapsulates the experience of the album -- Balance is gone, we must move on and continue. The Ape of Naples is one of Coil's best albums and one of the best albums of 2005.
~ James Mason, All Music

*****

Jhonn Balance (1962-2004)

Peter Christopherson (1955-2010)

R.I.P.