Released a little over a year after the tragic death of Jhonn Balance, 2005’s The Ape Of Naples serves as a hail and farewell to Balance and to Coil by Peter Christopherson, drawing on sessions dating back to the never-completed Backwards album from the 1990s as well as various compositions drawn from live performances in more recent years. (Further songs included on an initial vinyl release, as well as others, were released in 2008 as a Coil album by Christopherson as The New Backwards.) While serving more as tribute and appreciation from one half of the partnership than as a true Coil album by terrible default, it succeeds at exactly that, capturing the blend of seemingly ancient and shockingly modern, lyrically and musically, in the kind of uncategorizable blend that defined the group. Its final track “Going Up” perhaps captures that beautiful strange synthesis of Coil best, including Balance sampled from their final live performance with the question “Are you ready to go now?” while singer/choreographer Francois Testory interprets the theme song of the classic UK sitcom Are You Being Served?