WORSHIP THE GLITCH (RELEASED UNDER THE NAME ELPH VS COIL)

This is certainly one album i got the right introduction to. In fact i can't think of a better way to become acquainted with one of COIL's most mind-blowing and alienating freakfests of its entire career. Back in my party days i let my naughty friends influence me into the occasional night of overindulgence where i didn't hold back and went for it with all the youthful nonchalance and gleeful intoxication that one would expect from someone in their early 20s. One fateful night my friend who prided himself on trying and turning everyone on to his favorite new intoxicant of choice gathered his friends for a drunken drug-fueled night of excess. Oh yeah! Those were the days :D

Having always been a lightweight in the drug and alcohol department i ended up passing out on the couch with the party still in tact only to wake up after most guests either puked their guts and and passed out elsewhere or just went home. Upon waking up in the pitch dark only with the music still playing, bizarre sounds were oozing out of the hi-fi speakers and exposing me to one of the absolute strangest sound journeys i had ever encountered at that period. This was the music of a friend who introduced me to the vast array of electronic music that i was rather clueless about at the time being a metalhead primarily at that age. To make it even more transcendental my buddy who worked at a hi-fi music store in the San Francisco Bay Area had one of the best sound systems that existed in the early 2000s.

Upon awakening my mind was blown into a million pieces as i sat there and listened to the most uncategorizable musical sound clips which in the morning i discovered was coming from the album WORSHIP THE GLITCH under the moniker ELPH VS COIL. Laying there soaking in the album in my state of mind with nowhere to escape i merely became one with the music that was specifically designed to showcase an unthinkable array of sound effects that can only be heard on the absolute best recording systems. While no album sounds as good on a YouTube video or regular stereo system, this was on a whole other level with an entire spectrum of sound effects that could only be detected on a hi-fi sound system that offered a wider spectrum of sound than the average.

Of course this experience affected me profoundly and although i had already known of COIL, nothing sounded like this one except perhaps a few early tracks that were compiled onto the first compilation of "Unnatural History." The ELPH VS COIL in reality refers to COIL itself given that ELPH was a pseudonym that John Balance, Peter Christopherson and Drew McDowall used for two releases that utilized computer mistakes from their own equipment and used as the sound effects that were organized into creepy, ethereal and eerie melodies that excelled at taking your mind on the wildest journey possible in the context of experimental glitch electronica. Following in the footsteps of the 1994 EP "Born Again Pagans" which itself was released under the moniker COIL VS ELPH rather than ELPH VS COIL, WORSHIP THE GLITCH polished the imperfections of that production into a serious gem of mind fuckery.

By mixing the sounds of computer glitches and forging them into bizarre samples and instrumental rhythms, the album is almost exclusively instrumental except for the rare vocal samplings of Aleister Crowley's wife Leah HIrsig which adds an even more bizarre sense of esoteric abstruseness to the mix. These guys even managed to include the track "Mono" which is a highly processed and unrecognizable cover of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down." Esoteric references lurk around every corner but nothing is really more relevant than the music itself which represented some of the most creative expression of sound mistakes ever recorded and taken to such extremes. The holographic cover art pretty much symbolizes what you get as the bizarre worlds of dark ambient and glitch mix and meander with sound collages and electroacoustic psychedelia. Easily the most influential glitch album to spawn the genre that followed.

While it may be tempting to conclude that the album is only good under the conditions of my first exposure, i have often revisted this one over the years to see how it holds up on its own without the ample use of a drug high experienced in the dark on the best stereo system of the day. I'm happy to say that the ingenuity alone guarantees that for anyone seeking the most wildly experimental and creative fertile soundscapes conceivable, WORSHIP THE GLITCH more than holds up under the scrutiny of my now completely sober brain primarily judging its qualities on intellect rather than emotional impact. For me it works on multiple levels and although this is hardly the place for COIL newbies to begin their journey, for those well indoctrinated into the COIL cult who crave their most wild and unapologetic visions of true sound freedom, this will surely please them immensely if they take the time to really examine this beyond the initial alienation effect. Personally this one ranks very high in the mighty COIL's canon and although a bit too abstract to pull out on a regular basis, totally hits the spot like no other when such musical excess is needed.