THE ANAL STAIRCASE

One of COIL's flotsam and jetsam releases, the 2015 compilation THE ANAL STAIRCASE in a way is a reissue of the 1986 THE ANAL STAIRCASE EP however for whatever reason this combo pack of the original EP with other lost material didn't find a catchy title like "Unnatural History Part Whatever" or some other cryptic referenced title but rather borrowed from an existing early release which makes it a bit confusing (such is the case of COIL's entire canon actually.)

This collection of 17 tracks features the original three tracks on the EP in their entirety as well as the "The Anal Staircase (Relentless Mix)" track from the 1991 various artists comp "Total Volume One." The rest of the tracks are basically unreleased demos, remixes and other versions of tracks from various other releases as well as some that never made it on to any official COIL release. While these types of comps may seem superfluous, they do provide fans a glimpse of how dedicated the team of John Balance, Peter Christopherson and Drew McDowall were in their relentless pursuit of experimental electronic eclectic weirdness.

Like any COIL release, this one features the usual experimental electronica with many creepy instrumental neoclassical darkwave tracks sitting side by side with electro-industrial all fortified with atonal noise and the occasional brutal poetry. The tracks are fairly amorphous in how they simply drift on from one to the other in an unrelated fashion but the comp does showcase this act's perfection streak with various versions of the same track that often sound completely unrelated. These guys had a relentless work ethic that bore enough fruit to find new compilations still springing up two decades after the band officially folded.

While many of these tracks will sound familiar in terms of style, others like the two "Greensleeves" on synthesizers tracks will offer a surprise but not one that i particularly like as they sound way too happy and upbeat to be on any COIL release. Overall this is an interesting side show for hardcore COIL fans but not exactly an essential compilation to my ears like many of their collections of unreleased material which often proves to be some of the most interesting recordings these guys ever put to tape. This will also be the only place to find the original ANAL STAIRCASE EP on CD as the original 1986 EP was only released on vinyl.