The Ape of Naples 3LP

John Balance died in November 2004, and Peter Christopherson spent the aftermath piecing The Ape of Naples together out of material the two of them had been working on since 1993, dedicating the whole thing to his partner's memory. Balance's voice still runs through it, backed by Thighpaulsandra on keyboards, Cliff Stapleton on hurdy-gurdy and Mike York on pipes and duduk, an instrument list that reads more like a medieval court than a studio session. Pitchfork and AllMusic both ranked it among that year's best, with AllMusic calling it one of Coil's finest.