Coil’s ‘Backwards’ 10-year anniversary 2LP reissue set for January 23 via Cold Spring
Coil’s 'Backwards' 10-year anniversary 2LP reissue set for January 23 via Cold Spring
Cold Spring Records will reissue Coil’s album “Backwards” as a 10-year anniversary vinyl edition on January 23, 2026. The post-industrial/experimental release arrives as 2×LP on black vinyl, plus two colour variants: 2×LP “Cold White” (limited to 500) and 2×LP “Fire Red” (limited to 300, Cold Spring exclusive). All editions are housed in a gatefold matt-laminate sleeve with silver detail. Orders placed via the Cold Spring store or Bandcamp include the first release of the full “Backwards Demos” (10-track CD), a poster, and an artcard.
The album documents material developed after 1990’s “Love’s Secret Domain”, updated between 1993 and 1995, and then completed in 1996 at Trent Reznor’s Nothing Studios in New Orleans. The 2015 master by Danny Hyde preserves the original versions of “A Cold Cell” and “Fire Of The Mind” heard on compilations and differs substantially from the later set “The New Backwards” (2008). Hyde says: “This album is the essential bridge between ‘LSD’ and the later ‘Musick To Play In The Dark’ series. It was to be released… it should have been released… but because of issues with grey men it wasn’t. It is now, so enjoy.”
About Coil
Coil formed in London, England, in 1982 as the project of John Balance (a.k.a. Jhonn Balance). Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (ex-Throbbing Gristle / Psychic TV) soon joined, and the duo became the core of the group through 2004. Key collaborators over the years included Stephen Thrower, Drew McDowall, Thighpaulsandra, Ossian Brown, and William Breeze. Coil also worked under aliases such as Black Light District, ELpH and Time Machines.
Coil’s first studio album, “Scatology”, was issued in 1984/85 through Some Bizzare’s K.422/Force & Form imprints, with later reissues on Threshold House. The LP’s packaging included variants for instance holding the “Anal Staircase” postcard. “Horse Rotorvator” followed in 1986 via Force & Form/K.422 (Some Bizzare) in the UK, with separate licensing for Europe and the US (e.g., Boudisque; Relativity).
In 1991 Coil released “Love’s Secret Domain”, featuring singles “Windowpane” and “The Snow”, with releases handled across Threshold House/Torso (EU) and Wax Trax! (US). The band later documented a contractual dispute around Wax Trax!/TVT in a 1993 Threshold House newsletter.
From 1992 onward Coil developed material intended as the follow-up to “LSD”, recording in London and (from 1996) at Trent Reznor’s Nothing Studios in New Orleans. Those sessions circulated as “Backwards” demos and were later reworked by Christopherson and Danny Hyde as “The New Backwards” (2008). Late-period studio activity pivoted to nocturnal electronics and vocal experiments across the two “Musick To Play In The Dark” volumes, released on Coil’s own Threshold House/Eskaton nexus.
Coil ceased following Balance’s death in November 2004; posthumous releases included “The Ape of Naples” (2005) and, later, “The New Backwards” (2008), drawn from the 1990s material. Christopherson died in 2010.
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