England`s Hidden Reverse – A Secret History of The Esoteric Underground 2e

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Over the course of the 80s and 90s, Coil, C93 and NWW exist on the fringes of mainstream culture, secretly influencing it from the outside as they cross paths with Clive Barker, Bjork, Trent Reznor, Tiny Tim, Shirley Collins, Derek Jarman and more.

Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design. Long out of print and with the first edition demanding serious money from collectors, this much-anticipated expanded edition comes completely redesigned, with many new and previously unseen photographs and ephemera. More than anything, this book is wonderfully well-written in detailed, easy prose that skilfully darts between the three bands.The text is a fascinating look at the lives of London-based musicians from these and other bands and the interconnected nature of their social and artistic endeavours. David and Stapleton have accomplished so much more since 2003, and I would be interested to read Part II, perhaps, which looks at more of their 21st century releases and achievements. Written over a period of six years and first published in 2003, the book moves between John Balance and Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson of Coil’s original Threshold House in Chiswick and the old boys’ school they later moved to in Weston-super-Mare, to Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound’s goat farm and visionary art environment in Cooloorta in Southern Ireland, to the roof of a house in Muswell Hill where David Tibet of Current 93 receives a vision of Noddy crucified in the sky. A fascinatingly thorough document but the writing isn't always great and it often moves off into tangents it doesn't need to. They are part of a lineage of outsider culture that exists in the margins if for no other reason than that is where popular culture has seen fit to place authenticity for centuries.

Ohne Balance/Sleazy, ohne Stapleton, ohne Tibet würden wir heuer nicht die Musik hören, die wir hören, wäre die Musik nicht da, wo sie heute ist. Here’s Jesse Dorris, writing at Pitchfork about the 2020 reissue of their Musick to Play in the Dark : “‘Are You Shivering’ sets the stage with a ferocious roar, like a groaning opening of black rubber curtains; it recedes to reveal a glistening expanse of slippery little noises sliced into dripping tinsel. In 2020, David Tibet gives art shows in galleries whose curators hold his religious views in amused contempt. Having] decided that Noddy is a gnostic deity, then it’s a small step to thinking that I might as well worship Punch and Judy. It’s interesting to see where this stuff comes from and it turned me on to a lot of things of which I was previously unaware, including many other books, other bands and even painters.A clear labour of love, the book was sold as a limited edition with a free CD, and quickly became the key text on these musicians and the post-industrial underground. There's one hilarious top review on here bemoaning the fact that "hipster" David Keenan didn't get into the weeds of the various overtly nazi groups in the World Serpent orbit, which shows the sort of edgy posturing associated with some of this music. Finally reading England’s Hidden Reverse, I enjoyed it as much as I’d expected to, but there’s also an element of sadness mixed in. Not for the very squeamish or close minded but I imagine such a person wouldn’t be picking up such a gnarly volume to begin with.