Regardless of the spiritual meanings behind what the group was attempting to accomplish here, this 3 disk set is ultimately, as the title of my review indicates, completely unlistenable. The sounds here do not sound composed; if they evoke anything, it is only an anomaly, an accident- I do not believe one can simply translate an image into sound and still find the SOUL of that image, that thing that made it interesting/worth looking at/spiritually significant, remotely intact.
The ANS is evidently capable of creating some ghostly, strange sounds worthy of inclusion on a Coil album, but the virtually unchanging drone of the ANS is all that is found on the album, and even it is not structured in any way. There is no attempt at track ordering. There is no humanity. This is the closest to mechanical randomness in music one can find.
Perhaps if the rest of Coil’s truly beautiful, transcendental discography did not exist, “ANS” would hold SOME value, but as it stands, even if you evaluate “ANS” as something to use an ambient backdrop for other activities, many other Coil albums are far, far beyond it (”Time Machines”, “Queens of the Circulating Library”).
I’ve heard every piece on this set at least once by now, but I basically had to force myself to listen to it. I can enjoy maybe 2/3 of one track of this at a time from a purely textural standpoint, but it is completely empty sound. I doubt that I would even pay normal CD price for this (I downloaded it), so the fact that they charge more than $100 for it leaves me with no other choice but to give it the lowest rating possible.
In conclusion, I find it admirable that these adventurous musicians would try to work with such a machine. However, I have no idea why they released this. If you haven’t heard Coil, get the “Musick to the Play in the Dark” series. If you’re already a fan, get every other release first, and there are a LOT.
Originally published on Amazon.com on July 27th, 2008.
