I couldn't resist posting a picture of Coil's The Ape of Naples; I have never been so utterly compelled to stare at a record cover for quite so long. My girlfriend found the reaction completely predictable. I'm surprised at how much I like the record, being a casual-but-interested-enough-fan to attempt to familiarize myself with A Guide for Beginners, A Guide for Finishers, Horse Rotovator, and whatever the digi-nocturne record with "Batwings" was. It's strange listening to a posthumous record that doesn't really sound like a cash-in; perhaps I just like to think that people that manage estates of guys like Jhonn Balance aren't ogling accounts books and wondering how to extract the last dollar from marginally gnostic weirdos and repressed pervs that dig Coil's abject meditations. At any rate, the extended prayer of "Cold Cell" is prescient to a point that edges so deeply into eerie it's almost hard to take (though I have to say that while this version of the songs fits better on the record, I prefer the more stately 6-minute version on A Guide for Finishers). This post is also partially in tribute to the fact that I never knew I had been waiting for a song like "Fire of the Mind" for so long. The kind of record that would cause your mother to suggest you "get some air" if she caught you listening to it on a visit home.