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Everything Keeps Dissolving: Conversations with Coil
Core members of the legendary British experimental band Coil tell its story in the present-tense, as events unfold across their twenty-year history.
Between 1983 and 2004 the legendary British experimental band Coil established themselves as shape-shifting doyens of esoteric music whose influence has grown spectacularly in the years since their untimely end. With music that could be dark, queer, and difficult, but often retained a warped pop sensibility, Coil’s albums were multi-faceted repositories of esoteric knowledge, lysergic wisdom and acerbic humor. In Everything Keeps Dissolvin g , core members John Balance and Peter Christopherson tell Coil’s story in the present-tense, and from their personal perspectives, as events unfold across their twenty-year history.
Accompanied by their various collaborators, Coil describe the fertile eruption of ideas, inspirations, and stray tangents that informed their lyrical and musical visions—as well as those dead paths and castoff concepts that didn’t take root. No only a worm’s eye view of Coil, these interviews provide insight into the late twentieth century’s evolving British cultural underground as channeled through two of its most astutely mercurial minds.
Between 1983 and 2004 the legendary British experimental band Coil established themselves as shape-shifting doyens of esoteric music whose influence has grown spectacularly in the years since their untimely end. With music that could be dark, queer, and difficult, but often retained a warped pop sensibility, Coil’s albums were multi-faceted repositories of esoteric knowledge, lysergic wisdom and acerbic humor. In Everything Keeps Dissolvin g , core members John Balance and Peter Christopherson tell Coil’s story in the present-tense, and from their personal perspectives, as events unfold across their twenty-year history.
Accompanied by their various collaborators, Coil describe the fertile eruption of ideas, inspirations, and stray tangents that informed their lyrical and musical visions—as well as those dead paths and castoff concepts that didn’t take root. No only a worm’s eye view of Coil, these interviews provide insight into the late twentieth century’s evolving British cultural underground as channeled through two of its most astutely mercurial minds.
600 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 30, 2023
This is a collection of interviews that have appeared in zines, Keyboard magazine, etc, with brief intros by the interviewers. (I had been under the misconception that this is a carefully edited oral history.) So there's a lot of more-or-less repeated material, as similar questions are bandied about in different interviews.
In the early interviews especially, Sleazy and Jhonn can go on and on about relatively abstract philosophical concepts about their approach, that a hardcore fan like me is already very familiar with. The energy does kick up a notch in the first interview including Stephen Thrower, with some spirited repartee between Thrower and Balance.
After that initial appearance, Thrower for the most part disappeared from the interviews. If you (like me) have always been curious about why Thrower left Coil, Balance says this in the Auf Abwegen '95/96 interviews:
So the question is always: even if you're a hardcore Coil fan, do you need this? I'd say if you already have the David Keenan book, then "no". There are a number of interviews in this that are dated after 2000, so I was hopeful there'd be more anecdotes and insight not already gone over in Keenan. But most of the later interviews retread earlier ground, and are relatively light on (for example) Coil's touring before Balance's death, and Christopherson's life after relocating to Thailand. It's nice having so many interviews in one place, but some editing would have been nice.
In the early interviews especially, Sleazy and Jhonn can go on and on about relatively abstract philosophical concepts about their approach, that a hardcore fan like me is already very familiar with. The energy does kick up a notch in the first interview including Stephen Thrower, with some spirited repartee between Thrower and Balance.
After that initial appearance, Thrower for the most part disappeared from the interviews. If you (like me) have always been curious about why Thrower left Coil, Balance says this in the Auf Abwegen '95/96 interviews:
He [Thrower] was a very important person when he was with us but we grew out of each other after eight years or so. He was always an irritant, which was a good thing! I don't mean that in a horrible way, but he was always an irritant and it provoked a lot in me and I suddenly realised I don't need to be irritated anymore. Maybe I've gone soft and he's on the right course, but good luck to him!
So the question is always: even if you're a hardcore Coil fan, do you need this? I'd say if you already have the David Keenan book, then "no". There are a number of interviews in this that are dated after 2000, so I was hopeful there'd be more anecdotes and insight not already gone over in Keenan. But most of the later interviews retread earlier ground, and are relatively light on (for example) Coil's touring before Balance's death, and Christopherson's life after relocating to Thailand. It's nice having so many interviews in one place, but some editing would have been nice.
May 14, 2023
Coil figure large in my list of favorite musicians, being in my all-time top 5. But even acquiring this is a bit more completist that I usually am. Strange Attractor Press did a wonderful job with this softback. Heavy, folded card stock cover and a matte, slightly textured paper for the pages interspersed with images or drawings. As a collection of interviews throughout the band’s 20 year existence, it can be a bit repetitive taken in as a whole. But reading Balance and Christopherson’s (among other non-founding members) words are always useful to remind oneself of maintaining intentionality in our own actions, the value in using sources of knowledge as inspiration and general dogged persistence. “Persistence is all.”, as the band would say. Everyone has their favorite artists and musicians. I’m not suggesting this is a volume you want to pick up unless already a fan. But we all have those who inspire us, that we find ourselves taking lessons from. And this book is a good contribution to the cause.
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May 23, 2023Ayor
May 23, 2023
If you know what it is, you already love it
February 6, 2024
This may be the gold standard for books about Coil; an utterly thorough, almost exhausting collection of interviews proves just how passionate the band was at communicating both their process and their intent. You likely already own this if you’re a fan, but I cannot recommend this book enough.
August 21, 2023
Incredible, but also heart breaking as you move closer towards the inevitable sudden stop, particularly with some of the foreshadowing in later interviews.
Balance discussing touring because they’re getting older (and don’t have much time left) two years before Balance’s death.
Sleazy: “He’s still a part of Coil, very much, and very much a guide and friend to us and we will continue to record with him but he will not be participating in live things at the moment”. One year before Balance’s death.
Sleazy: “the only other reason for staying in the UK was Jhonn Balance but, though we will no doubt continue to collaborate, we are no longer ‘boyfriends’, and he seems to me to be attempting to turn into Oliver Reed.” Just before Balance’s death.
The world is a darker place without Balance and Christopherson.
Balance discussing touring because they’re getting older (and don’t have much time left) two years before Balance’s death.
Sleazy: “He’s still a part of Coil, very much, and very much a guide and friend to us and we will continue to record with him but he will not be participating in live things at the moment”. One year before Balance’s death.
Sleazy: “the only other reason for staying in the UK was Jhonn Balance but, though we will no doubt continue to collaborate, we are no longer ‘boyfriends’, and he seems to me to be attempting to turn into Oliver Reed.” Just before Balance’s death.
The world is a darker place without Balance and Christopherson.
December 3, 2023
A labour of love for the editor. A surprisingly quick read for such a hefty tome. At the end of the book while Sleazy is directed towards Thailand, John is involved with Ian Johnstone in the charity Common Ground, which brings me back to one of its cofounders Roger Deakin and reading his writing last summer and autumn. Who are all gone now, these ancestors. The book is a good pathfinder to continue backwards.
March 15, 2023
This isn't without its flaws - the way the interviews are presented inevitably means there's a lot of repetition and redundancy. But at it's best it's fascinating and it's wonderful seeing how Balance and Sleazy bounced off each other - the passionate, babbling enthusiast and the grumpy, pragmatic old misanthrope. Only the last few interviews felt freighted with sadness about what was coming.
February 1, 2025
As near as you'll get to a perfect book if you're a fan of Coil. A chronologically-arranged series of conversations interspersed with outstanding photographs and other images. There's a history of the project in Nick Soulsby's Introduction, very worth reading.
Everything else is perfect for dipping into, ten or fifteen minutes to savour an interview with one or more of the Coil circle, then flip somewhere else. There's a brilliant index and it is a massive help but then there's bothersome aspect: use of Roman numerals for page numbering.
So you want to look up XTC, and turn to page 193. Except you have to consciously recall that schoolboy knowledge of how the Roman numerals work and then flick back and forth before finally homing in on CXCIII. I suspect this is a deliberately annoying aspect of the publication because it's very clear that no aspect of the design is accidental. It's another in a widely varied series of distinctively handsome Strange Attractor Press (SAP) publications.
(By the way, the Contents list _does_ provide Roman numerals so is more straightforward to navigate).
The front cover is a marvellous piece of art with gold leaf used for the Dark Sun motif.
So far, I have especially liked Mark Pilkington's Fortean Times interview of 2001, titled 'Sounds Of Blakeness'. Pilkington is a veteran of the forteana scene and co-director of SAP.
They are one of the most distinctive and interesting publishers around today and this is, like I said, a near-perfect book.
Everything else is perfect for dipping into, ten or fifteen minutes to savour an interview with one or more of the Coil circle, then flip somewhere else. There's a brilliant index and it is a massive help but then there's bothersome aspect: use of Roman numerals for page numbering.
So you want to look up XTC, and turn to page 193. Except you have to consciously recall that schoolboy knowledge of how the Roman numerals work and then flick back and forth before finally homing in on CXCIII. I suspect this is a deliberately annoying aspect of the publication because it's very clear that no aspect of the design is accidental. It's another in a widely varied series of distinctively handsome Strange Attractor Press (SAP) publications.
(By the way, the Contents list _does_ provide Roman numerals so is more straightforward to navigate).
The front cover is a marvellous piece of art with gold leaf used for the Dark Sun motif.
So far, I have especially liked Mark Pilkington's Fortean Times interview of 2001, titled 'Sounds Of Blakeness'. Pilkington is a veteran of the forteana scene and co-director of SAP.
They are one of the most distinctive and interesting publishers around today and this is, like I said, a near-perfect book.
July 1, 2024
The Author did a fantastic job of collecting even the most obscure interviews. It was a great choice to give the interviewers a chance to describe how the conversations went and how they remember the members of Coil as people. There are many sweet moments, interesting tidbits, a lot of humor, and deeper musings about life, art, drugs, spirituality, and magic.
However, this collection has its downside: a lot—and I mean a lot—of the questions are very repetitive, so you end up reading the same answers ten or fifteen times. It can be a slog.
However, this collection has its downside: a lot—and I mean a lot—of the questions are very repetitive, so you end up reading the same answers ten or fifteen times. It can be a slog.
April 19, 2024
Utterly fascinating if you are a Coil fan, but at the same time, the material gets very repetitive as they are asked the same questions over and over by mainly amateur interviewers, and give the same answers. I would rate this higher except that I'm giving up at about the halfway point, it's too much of a slog to get through.
January 12, 2024
I've read half these before. more than half the book is from the solar period (80s) and they skip 1998 entirely, my favorite coil year! props to nick for trashing tyr for being fascist dbags that they are. almost no knew nfo and thrower, drew, thighps are barely present. midgrade ectoplasm.
September 12, 2023
A great insight into the band's evolution and ultimately death in the form of documented interviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews