THE ANAL STAIRCASE EP

THE ANAL STAIRCASE was COIL's second EP to be released after 1984's "How To Destroy Angels" but despite the EP designation is more like a single because the tracks on it were also featured on the "Horse Rotorvator" album released in the same year of 1986. The only differentiating factor is that the title track on this one features Rico Conning's dystopian remix of "The Anal Staircase" that featured a harsh electro-industrial danceable beat that plodded on for nearly 6-minutes long.

The remaining two tracks "Blood From The Air" and "Ravenous" were both featured on the "Horse Rotorvator" album only the former on all formats whereas the latter on the later CD issues. Both of these tracks are completely different and offer a gloomy darkwave psychedelia with depressive vocals and strange sounds that decorate the background. Somewhat of a collector's item, the first UK pressing on Force & Form was limited to 500 copies and this EP was only repressed one more time on vinyl on Relativity.

This three track 14 1/2 minute release has pretty much been made irrelevant with the 2015 compilation CD THE ANAL STAIRCASE which features all three tracks from this original EP plus 14 extra tracks taken from early mixes for tracks from the "Gold Is The Metal (With The Broadest Shoulders)" album which was released in 1987. This first three-track edition of THE ANAL STAIRCASE will really only be of interest to collectors of vinyl since the 2015 compilation was only released on CD. Musically speaking, the three songs are OK but not the period of COIL that appeals to me the most and nothing to get overly excited about.