Mannequin’s high summer offering is the reissue of two special collaborations between Mexican industrial-IDM masters Ford Proco and Coil, recorded in 1999 and previously only available on CD on Ford Proco’s own Vertigo de Lodo y de Miel. Apart from the archival interest the tracks will obviously garner from Coil fans, what we have here is two colourful pieces in their own right, an inspired combination of Coil’s nocturnal ways with the muscular, noisier shores of Ford Proco’s rich breed of harsh but considered industrial.
“Expansión Naranja” is fast, angular, tormented – rusty, noisy washes give way like butter to Peter Christopherson’s languid saxophone, surrounded by ghostly, complex drum patterns, which constantly mess with the listener. The second piece, “Ecuación de las Estrellas”, proceeds through echoed loops and sharp beats, as if walking heavy-footed through a lunar landscape. In spite of clocking up under 15 minutes, the two tracks are a journey – through planets, through forests, through throbbing empty warehouses. John Balance mumbles something in the background every now and again, like some sort of guide: he tells us to do drugs, he tells us that it’s not true that experience is the only thing that counts… considerations. Just enough to remind us that we’re in the depth of a Coil record looking at the stars.
ACC words 