Saturday, February 16, 2013

COIL/ELpH/LEE RANALDO-FRISK-ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDING, UNRELEASED, 1996, UK/USA

Oh my…yes, I do believe I have a show stopper for you all. This soundtrack to Todd Verow's film adaption of Dennis Cooper's novel "Frisk" (IMDB info here) features original compositions by both Coil (also using their alter ego ELpH here) and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, as well as a handful of pieces they've co-composed and/or have had pastiched together, medley-style. All of this loot has languished on this soundtrack up till this point without any formal release. Now, here it is for your collective predilection and as a stand-alone gesture in its own right,  it works a charm.

The entirety of this film is up on Youtube here, so you can reach your own conclusions about it in cinematic terms, but the effectiveness of the soundtrack that Coil and Ranaldo have devised is immediate and undeniable. Coil's opening theme sets things propulsively in motion with an excellent and very 90's bit of motorik rock akin to Kreidler's work of the time but they achieve equally gripping ends with the languid abstract guitar essay "The Sleeper". Elsewhere, Coil alternate between offering up glistening spectral electronic tones, re-tooling their opening gambit, plying some of their acid house moves of the era and applying the sort of delicacy and shading they'd soon bring to bear on their Musick To Play In The Dark albums.

Ranaldo contributes just about exactly the sort of timbral and textural guitar interventions you'd anticipate from the gentleman and these work a charm as well. Their individual efforts tend to be more remarkable than the small handful of tracks here where the two concerns combine forces but the overall cohesiveness and impact of this work is undeniable. Coil's closing gambit in particular reminds me why Clive Barker once remarked that they were the only band that could make his bowels churn: it's easily among their most sinister and penetrating moments and a fitting coda to a harrowing story.




14 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow this sounds like something special, thank you! Great write up too. Why on earth did this not get a proper release, I wonder? J

Unknown said...

Great! Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Thanks alot!

apf said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. Any chance to get Frantz' "Peut etre..." in 320 or FLAC ? glad ur back.

Anonymous said...

jeeez, thanks a lot.
for the linxx and info. never heard of that before. looks like most Coil material comes from Worship the Glitch & other from that era..?
will listen to this asap with great care.
your blog is great, as always.
cheers

Loki said...

great stuff... I was always curious about this...

Unknown said...

So glad to see you're still around. I was wondering if you might kindly re-upload the AMM/MEV "Live Electronic Music Improvised" split release (Mainstream label) that was posted on this blog a while back. The link is now dead, and I cannot find this historic recording anywhere else. Many thanks!

Anonymous said...

A friend linked to another post of yours and then I found this. Fantastic! This was apocryphal back before we used Google for everything and I had forgotten all about it. Thank you very much for posting it!

erreur_fatale said...

cool beans. I was totally in the mood for a good movie tonight, and Frisk is perfect.

Anonymous said...

thank you very much! A wonderful ride I will never forget!
all the best
Wang Xi

Anonymous said...

Not to post an unrelated comment, and I do of course appreciate sharing this movie, cuz it's a good one, but...I beg you. PLEASE repost Coil's "Backward" demos (preferably in lossless)! That is my fav demo collection of Coil. I have looked for it everywhere!

this goth bitch said...

any chance you can reupload? no link available any more and i just came across this post! i must have it :) pretty please. great blog btw!

Anonymous said...

fyi, YouTube has removed the film video.