Background
The record has two songs on it, each taking up each one side of vinyl in its entirety. The contents of the B-side varied over repressings: the first edition contained noise-filled grooves, the second edition held playable, multi-layered music, and the third edition contained a flat, grooveless face. [2]
Originally, track "How to Destroy Angels" was intended to be the B-side of the track "Silence and Secrecy", but due to Christopherson and Balance leaving Psychic TV, owners of Temple Records, the idea was shelved. [2] "Silence and Secrecy" has only been released in partial form by way of a two-minute excerpt on the Zos Kia and early Coil retrospective Transparent . [3]
Both songs appeared, with additional remixes, on the album How to Destroy Angels (Remixes and Re-Recordings) .
How to Destroy Angels is also the name of Trent Reznor's (of Nine Inch Nails fame) side project together with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and Atticus Ross. Reznor has acknowledged that the earlier Coil release was the source of the band's name and that he had run the idea by Peter Christopherson before using it. [4]
Michael Trent Reznor is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. Reznor serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until 2016. The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was a commercial and critical success. Reznor has since released 11 more Nine Inch Nails studio albums.
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Coil were an experimental music group, founded in 1982 in London, England and concluded in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by musician John Balance, Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of his partner Peter Christopherson. Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other contributors throughout the band's career included Stephen Thrower, Danny Hyde, Drew McDowall, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra, and Ossian Brown. Coil's work explored themes related to alchemy, the occult, and sexuality, influencing genres such as goth rock, neofolk, and dark ambient. AllMusic called the group "one of the most beloved, mythologized groups to emerge from the British post-industrial scene."
Peter Martin Christopherson was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, and former member of British design agency Hipgnosis.
Fixed is the second extended play (EP) by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released on December 7, 1992, by Nothing, TVT, and Interscope Records. It serves as a companion release to Broken (1992), and includes remixes by Coil, Danny Hyde, JG Thirlwell, and Butch Vig, as well as then-live band members Chris Vrenna and James Woolley.
Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton, better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. His early work and wide-ranging collaborations made him one of the most influential figures in the industrial, experimental minimalist and neofolk music scenes.
Scatology is the debut studio album by English experimental music group Coil. It was recorded at various studios in London during 1984 and produced by the band along with JG Thirlwell; the album features a prominent appearance of Stephen Thrower, who subsequently became Coil's official member since their next studio album, Horse Rotorvator. Despite its title, the album focuses on alchemy, mainly an idea of turning base matter into gold. The record contains a wide array of cultural references, including personnel such as Marquis de Sade, Alfred Jarry, Salvador Dalí, Charles Manson, and others.
"Panic" and "Tainted Love" are songs recorded by British experimental music band Coil. These were released in 1985 through Some Bizzare in the UK and Wax Trax! Records in the US respectively, as the band's first single, and the sole one from their 1984 debut studio album, Scatology. Originally released on twelve-inch vinyl discs, the single was regarded as the first AIDS benefit release, and has been reissued several times on compact discs.
The Snow is a track by the British group Coil, available on the album Love's Secret Domain and also released as a 12" vinyl, cassette and CD EP.
ANS is a box set by Coil. The album uses a strange and esoteric photoelectric synthesizer known as the ANS synthesizer. It was built around half a century ago and still to this day sits where it was originally conceived; in the Moscow State University.
Unnatural History is a compilation album produced by Coil. Including tracks that originally appeared on various compilations and limited edition releases along with some previously unreleased material. The compilation was put together using songs from 1983–1986, but then was released in 1990.
How to Destroy Angels is a remix album by Coil. All of the songs are remixes from the 12" single of the same name, and features cover artwork by filmmaker Derek Jarman. The remixes were produced by John Balance, Peter Christopherson, and Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound. The song "Absolute Elsewhere" is blank and silent, as it was originally released. It is portrayed in this release as a single second of silence.
The Ape of Naples is the final studio album by English experimental group Coil. The album was the definitive effort of primary Coil musician Peter Christopherson, who compiled material from 1993 to 2004 to reassemble and rework it into a coherent final album. It was produced and released following the death of co-lead artist and lead vocalist John Balance, who died on 13 November 2004. The title of the album was originally intended to be Fire of the Mind.
The Angelic Conversation is a CD soundtrack released by Coil for the Derek Jarman film bearing the same name. This album was recorded by John Balance, Peter Christopherson, and Stephen Thrower. Judi Dench provides the vocals, which are recitations of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Black Antlers is a studio album by the experimental band Coil. It was originally released in CD-R format in 2004 in a limited edition and was sold during their Even an Evil Fatigue mini-tour. The album was later re-edited by Peter Christopherson and expanded to include a second CD of two new tracks, as well as a new track on the first disc. The second edition was released in August 2006 on the same day as the expanded version of The Remote Viewer. Both reissues were mastered by Mark Godwin, printed in Thailand and feature high quality images and packaging. Although the original edition did not include a catalogue number, the reissue was given a catalogue number of THBKK2.
Transparent is a collaborative release by the bands Zos Kia and Coil.
The New Backwards is an album by Coil released on 18 April 2008. The album is reworked from the Backwards demo, which was originally created for Nothing Records.
Live in Porto is the "authorised bootleg" of a live performance by Coil, which took place on 21 June 2003 at the Casa da Música Festival, Porto, Portugal. At this show, Coil were Peter Christopherson, Thighpaulsandra and Ossian Brown. Jhonn Balance was too sick to attend, as in case of Montreal concert at MUTEK Festival.
How to Destroy Angels (HTDA) is an American post-industrial supergroup formed in 2009 by Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross alongside Reznor's wife Mariqueen Maandig and longtime Nine Inch Nails collaborator Rob Sheridan. The group is named after a 1984 Coil EP of the same name. Alessandro Cortini joined the lineup for the duration of the 2013 tour.
Recoiled is an EP by Coil and Nine Inch Nails described as "A compilation of Coil's unreleased work for Nine Inch Nails" and "outtakes from the remix sessions from Fixed, Closer to God and Further Down The Spiral". It was released on February 24, 2014, via British record label Cold Spring. It was released posthumously after the deaths of the two original Coil members, Peter Christopherson and John Balance. Danny Hyde, a former employee and engineer of Coil, later licensed the remixes to Cold Spring. The release is composed of variations of previously released remixes, which appeared on the albums Fixed, Further Down the Spiral and the "Closer to God" single.
