Women that Yell - Part Three

Zos Kia was an early group of John Gosling, involving John Balance (Balance often going by the name Legion) and a post-punkette - Min. I think they realised one cassette and few 12 inches but they were mainly a live incarnation before they finally transformed into the duo Coil (although both bands seemed to co-exist quite happily together)

This trk was recorded live at the Berlin Atonal Fest of 83 and appears on the Transparent CD (1997)… The female vox is Min and you have to wait almost the whole trk before your ears are blasted by the most terrifying recorded scream you’ll ever hear.

The more dedicated Coil fans amongst you will recognise the backing for Min’s vocals…There’s also lots of tape hiss as this was pre-digital, but it sort of gives a “carpet of snakes” atmosphere that seems purposefully integral.

Violation/Rape (dwld expired)


Min - wonder what happened to her?

A year later Coil would record their landmark ‘How to destroy Angels’
and the shape of things to come was firmly set.

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Postscript: Found this on Uncarved.org which gives an intimate insight into the origins of this track

One of the records was by Zos Kia. Zos Kia were an offshoot of Psychic TV and - so I have just found out- of Coil. For their very early existence Coil [before the split with Gen. P. Orridge / PTV] and Zos Kia were an overlapping project.

I was doing/ living what I had only imagined as an impossible teenage dream ten years earlier.

At the same time the Zos Kia record connected with adult realities. the A side was called ‘Rape’. It was written by Min. It described in stark detail her experience of being raped aged 13/14 in the Australian outback.

It was and is shocking, almost unbearable to listen to. [Min only listened to the finished song once- ‘ it was an exorcism’ she told me].

If a point marks my transition from teenage to adult, it took place when I was 23 and first heard Min describe the rape. We were both lying fully clothed in bed [she lived in a freezing cold squat and it was winter]. It was an encounter with a reality which under cut what ever ‘illusions’ i may have had about the world. I remember her crying and myself unable to say or do anything to comfort her… what can be said or done in such circumstances?

So being able to help Min exorcise the experience through the record was ? An act, however insufficient. We pressed up 1000 copies, but very few people bought them.

…Min is now a qualified Speech and Language therapist working in London with a case load of 93 children, most of whom do not have English as a first language.

Alistair - for the new moon 19th April 2004
2004/04/19 @ 11:50 am