A THOUSAND LIGHTS IN A DARKENED ROOM (RELEASED UNDER THE NAME BLACK LIGHT DISTRICT)

Amusingly this was recorded at 'Slut's hole' in London. Where in the name of God do they get these names? The cool sleeve was created by Mr 'Nurse With Wound' Steve Stapleton - a long term collaborator of these recidivists.

This kicks off with some discordant stabs of piano reminiscent of John Cage - tuneless - but nice enough. There's plenty of mutated electronic deviousness going on from beginning to end, but on the whole it seems a bit disjointed and patchy. 'Red Skeletons' is chock full of digital bleeps and chopped up tapped telephone recordings. 'A Thousand Lights...' is a bit minimal for a Coil release. It's very experimental but not all that engaging if truth be told.

'Die Wölfe Kommen Zurück' is a slowly evolving, vocal free and somewhat dreary dronefest with repetitive but unusual percussion. I just don't get this album - it doesn't sit right at all in their discography, which is probably why it's categorised under the name 'Black Light District'.

You'd really have to be in a particular frame of mind to listen to this from beginning to end. I'm finding it really irritating at the moment. It's all so staccato. 'Green Water' has wobbly twangy bass with bird song and undulating sequencers at the fore. This is far better than what's gone before but is all over too soon. A multitude of reversed electronic sounds make up the 9 min 'Cold Dream Of An Earth Star'. It's icy cold and emotionless and quite frankly instantly forgettable.

The unforgettable follows with the fantastic 'Blue Rats' - a throbbing electronic sleaze bag of sound with John Balance sounding like a demon rodent from hell, amongst, for once, a tune you can hold on to.

It's back to the forgettable with the finale 'Chalice'. Here samples of religious Christian music is interspersed with odd chugging and slashing electronic beats, but it's of no real interest to any other than Coil die hards.

A strangely disappointing album that promises so much when listened to randomly one track at a time. It suffers from a stilted one dimensional approach that wears off after 15 minutes. Only the superb but simplistic creepiness of 'Blue Rats' saves this mediocre album