Formed by 4AD bosses Ivo Watts-Russell and John Fryer, This Mortal Coil made some of the most sublime, prescient music ever. Not everyone was keen. AR Kane dismissed them as simply “people in black clothes with shaved heads” and the second album by the collective , the dense,sprawling Filigree and Shadow (also my favourite) was dismissed at the time by some critics for being too long and self -indulgent.
But as far as I’m concerned, they were, and are, pretty special. Their secret weapons were the ridiculously underrated musician Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins on guitar and their singers, especially Dominic Appleton, Louise and Dee Rutkowski and the wonderful Alison Limerick, who had scored some club hits at the time acid house was exploding in the UK. The more commercial side was explored on the third and final album Blood , featuring the likes of Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly covering Chris Bell’s sublime You And Your Sister.
The music flitted between typically 4AD sounds (dream pop, indie and atavistic folk) and odd instrumentals , and you can hear the influence on Bjork, Grimes and Young Fathers. I’m actually not into Liz Fraser’s cover of Song To the Siren on the debut, It’ll End In Tears. I feel she sings in a strange, nasal way (as though she needs a Lemsip) without her usual purity.
As ever, the artwork is also inspired. The late genius Vaughan Oliver, who created beautiful artwork for Cocteau Twins,Pixies, Ultra Vivid Scene,etc, made otherworldly seeming covers, in keeping with the ethereal, liminal spaces within the music, that would look gorgeous framed in your living room. 4AD are as ever all about the details.
Essentially, each This Mortal Coil album was so ahead of its time in terms of genre blurring that it feels utterly contemporary upon listening back. Can’t say that of early Kylie, can you?!
Hit The North 
I dig this band, they have kind of a ghostly thing going on. it’s not quite airy and it’s not quite metal. It’s kind of something else, maybe that’s why I like them.
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Ok this is one of my favorite acts. And I’m glad you named the second one your favorite, I think I’d have to go with that one too although Blood is one I’ve indulged in more. In fact it’s some of these recordings where I heard covers of songs before the originals, most notably the Gene Clark number “With Tomorrow.” (And in the past couple years I’ve gone down a Gene Clark rabbit hole, having also just read about his sad ejection from The Byrds). I seem to recall a box set that included a fourth CD, the original songs to all the covers they did. What an odd blend of songs too. That Ivo! Even the drum sequence from Can on Blood, from Halleluwah. Yes yes yes, TMC.
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I should also have mentioned the late Caroline Crawley from Shelleyan Orphan doing Syd Barrett’s Late Night. Another beautiful cover. You’re right, their covers are wonderful. Lonely Is An Eyesore is a gorgeous 4AD compilation.
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Yes I know Lonely is an eyesore too! What an introduction to that family of musicians, was grateful I got on to that back in the early to mid 90s I think. And I enjoyed some Shelleyan Orphan back in the day, too. Also the Wolfgang Press especially their album Queer. The bee’s knees. Funniest album cover ever too. I think inspired by Bill Burroughs, perhaps: that weirdest of weird American Beat writer you know.
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Funnily enough, was thinking of Kansas by Wolfgang Press, the others day. And contemplating celebrating the incomparable Dr Benway in future posts…
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