Coil was an English experimental project formed in London in 1982 by John Balance and Peter Christopherson, formerly of Throbbing Gristle. Horse Rotorvator (1986) and Musick to Play in the Dark (1999) are the classic entry points into one of the most influential industrial-electronic catalogs anywhere. Find Coil vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Coil formed in London in 1982 around John Balance (Geoff Rushton) and Peter Christopherson, the latter previously a member of the foundational industrial group Throbbing Gristle and the post-Throbbing Gristle band Psychic TV. The duo were romantic partners as well as creative collaborators across more than two decades. They released material across an extensive catalog of labels - Force & Form, Eskaton, Threshold House (their own label), and many others. John Balance died in November 2004 after falling from a balcony at their Weston-super-Mare home; Peter Christopherson died on November 25, 2010 in Bangkok. The project ended with Christopherson's death.
Coil's catalog spans industrial music, experimental electronic, dark ambient, neofolk, electronic dance, and psychedelic experimentation, with each major release typically marking a stylistic shift. Their work is widely cited as foundational to contemporary experimental electronic, drone, and dark ambient music, with their later catalog (the Musick to Play in the Dark series) particularly influential.
Original Threshold House and Force & Form pressings of the Coil catalog are widely collected in industrial, experimental, and dark ambient communities. Multiple posthumous reissues and archival releases have been issued through Dais Records and Cold Spring across the 2010s and 2020s.
Listeners new to Coil typically start with Horse Rotorvator (1986), Love's Secret Domain (1991), or Musick to Play in the Dark (1999).
