This collection leads with its name-sake, three pieces intended for use in the 1987 Hellraiser film before Christopher Young took over its scoring duties. Blending a range of piano-like synth voices with heavy electronic percussion, the “Hellraiser” cue opens with an establishment of the brooding undertones which persist in “The Box Theme”, as that piece adds in more lingering low tones and the clinking of a malfunctioning music box. “Main Title” revisits the instrumentation from “Hellraiser”, pushing it to a more driven pace and harder energy, with faint lulls drawing in touches from “The Box Theme” as well.
The remainder of the record is a tour through music Coil produced for use in commercials for assorted companies and products, including “Liqueur”, “Video Recorder”, “Accident Insurance”, and so on. As might be imagined, these pieces, aside from having very short durations, are also much more friendly in tone, though they retain the synths and experimental flavoring. Presumably, they were also created around the same time as the Hellraiser themes, as some of the instrumentation sounds near-identical at times (the piano of “Perfume” being one of the more easily identified instances). Something of a dig, as it’s targeted towards Coil completionists, but it does offer up a nice deep look into their material and quick-form composing techniques of the time.
Scrambled Brains 