One of the most cultish groups anywhere, Coil, is returning to Moscow, just a year after their first performance here. Last time around, even before their arrival, the group raved about the greatness of the Russian soul, and this time around promises to be just as intense. "Each concert is different because each place is different. There is a mutual exchange of energy. In the best situations the energy magnifies itself to create a profound mystical or sexual experience ... Russia has a strong cultural affinity with its diverse and often violent history and in that context, it feels right," vocalist and percussionist John Balance said in an interview last year.

Peter Christopherson, the programmer and keyboardist who is also a former Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle frontman, and Balance are pushing the edge of experimentation in their creation of sounds and in other mediums. Their video clips have been banned, only later to be acknowledged as modern art. Their sounds are not recommended for pregnant woman.

As for their shows, last year's concert was one of the most significant in recent Moscow musical history, stirring the capital's we've-seen-it-all snobbishness. Well-known cultural figures gathered en masse at the sold-out concert where Balance, clad as an alien, coaxed out his sounds and rolled convulsively around the stage while beating his head against a steel wall.

It seems Coil affirmed their assumptions about Russia last time and found the energy they sought, because the group is known for their choosiness about where and when to play. "People have been waiting for us to play all around the world, but we only choose to play where spiritual density and intense sexual energy form a whirlwind," Balance said last year.

This year the concert will be held at Tochka, the largest club in Moscow, in the urban setting of an abandoned factory. It's a smaller venue then last year's Gorbushka, which the organizers explained is because of the slightly higher price, 777 rubles instead of last year's 666, and the lower turnout expected at a second concert so soon after the first. Coil's other plans here in Moscow are to record samples of a rare, retro Soviet synthesizer called ANS - which the Moscow concert organizers have kindly located for them.