I don't believe in destroying good mysteries or adding to bad reputations.
~~ John Balance, Coil

Traversing the fecund grounds of psychotropics, homosexuality, the Ordo Templi Orientis, and Chaos Magick, Coil is one of the few post-industrial bands that can still truly be considered pioneers. Drawing on samples, cut-ups, ambient growling, and house rhythms, Coil continually redefines itself.

Founding member Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson worked at London design firm Hipgnosis in the early 1970s, before meeting Cosey Fanni Tutti and Genesis P-Orridge in 1976. Christopherson became the third member of performance troupe COUM Transmissions, heightening their transgressive sexuality (hence his nickname) and bloody effects - aesthetic traits carried over into Coil. With the addition of Chris Carter, COUM became that progenitor of all industrial bands, Throbbing Gristle. When TG terminated its mission in 1981, P-Orridge and Christopherson formed Thee Temple Ov Psychic Youth, and its musical ministry, Psychic TV. John Balance, a TG adherent and ex-PTV member, had already started to record under the name Coil when Christopherson left Psychic TV in 1983 to join him. Together they would form the core in Coil's continually variegated line-up.

Coil have initiated a number of off-shoot projects (Black Light District, ElpH, Foxtrot) in addition to working with bands like Current 93, Nurse With Wound, and Chris & Cosey (ex-TG). They've also produced dozens of singles, music videos (notably Ministry's Just One Fix), soundtracks and commercials.

Coil's first LP, Scatology (Phantom, 1984) was immediately hailed as a new direction in industrial music. Using dark, guttural sounds and archaic electronic equipment Coil created what Balance calls an "alchemy of sound," transforming everything from a toilet flush to the sound of shitting into explorations of natural decay. Continuing their interest in biological collapse their 1984 single, a controversial and discernibly musical cover of Tainted Love, was recorded in aid of the Terence Higgins Trust, as a reflection on the AIDS epidemic. In 1985 Coil collaborated with visionary filmmaker Derek Jarman, resulting in the soundtrack for The Angelic Conversation (1985). Shortly before Jarman's death in 1994, another collaboration yielded music for his enigmatic film Blue (1993).

Their next studio album, Horse Rotorvator (1986), was heavily influenced by their foray into cinema: a fusion of location noise, jazz and dirges (including a requiem for Pier Paolo Pasolini). The album's list of influences included good friend William S. Burroughs, Kenneth Anger and Clive Barker. Coil's friendship with Barker eventually led them to record the soundtrack for Hellraiser (1987), only to have it abandoned by the film's nervous producers. Though Barker affectionately described the music as "bowel-churning," it was Coil's most beautiful EP to date.

Gold Is The Metal (1987) started a new habit for Coil. By releasing an album of experiments and outright 'disappointments' from the Horse Rotorvator period, Coil openly examined their recording processes. Analysis continued with the collections, Unnatural History volumes 1 (1990), 2 (1995) and 3 (1997), featuring tracks that had appeared in limited edition, on television commercials, or compilations, culminating in their ElpH releases: entire albums built around studio glitches.

In 1991, with producer Danny Hyde, Love's Secret Domain and the Snow EP marked Coil as house music innovaters, making them more widely accessible than ever.