TITLE - MAN IS THE ANIMAL: A COIL ZINE
EDITED BY - CORMAC PENTECOST
GENRE - THE BAND COIL, THEIR MUSIC, INFLUENCES & LEGACY [INCL. THEMES OF MAGICK, ESOTERICA, HAUNTOLOGY etc.]
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - UNITED KINGDOM
A5/PERFECT-BOUND/60 PAGES/FULL COLOUR
PRICE - £6.75 + SHIPPING FROM TEMPORAL BOUNDARY PRESS
A full-colour, multimedia zine about the experimental band
British band Coil, with articles on their music, poetry inspired by the band
members, and deep dives into their lyrics and influences. Started in 2021, it
has now published two issues.
Produced by the Temporal Boundary Press stable, which also
publishes "Waiting For You: A Detectorists Zine", and is affiliated to the
lauded Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd project, (the only recommendation
one needs) “Man Is The Animal” is a fanzine fully dedicated to Coil. But this
is no half-arsed fan-club pamphlet. Editor Cormac Pentecost’s editorial piece
in issue 1 is a statement of intent: this is not a “love-letter to a defunct
band…but a means of exploring latent potentialities”. The zine explores how
Coil’s legacy has only just begun to be understood and actualised.
Various and diverse contributors proffer articles that
primarily explore Coil’s music, but these also touch on magick, hauntology, liminality
and the occult. Notables such as John Dee, Aleister Crowley and William
Burroughs are invoked often. As I said earlier, this is a deep dive into Coil’s
esoteric influences, and not for the casual reader, but long-term fans will find
much to enhance their enjoyment of the band’s music.
As a Coil novice, Sean Oscar’s deeply personal article in
issue 1, “A Hauntology of Coil”, resonated with me, as he describes discovering
Coil, long after their demise, as a relic of the past which keeps coming back
in the present like a ghost with unfinished business. Other highlights include
“Four Poems For John Balance” by Jeremy Reed in issue 2; these are haunting and
vivid nightmare-eulogies for lead singer John Balance’s early and unexpected
death - an all-too recognisable urban landscape of coffee shops and despair.
“Man Is The Animal” is nicely produced and easy to read with
clear printing and evocative artwork throughout. It is probably aimed more at
the seasoned Coil acolyte, but new adventurers on the journey will find much to
enjoy and to inspire them. Being part of the Folk Horror Revival stable, there
is a lot of overlap with the themes that they explore, so the zine is also
fervently recommended for enthusiasts of FHR and all that is associated with
it.
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