Time Machines

Last updated

Time Machines
TimeMachinesEskaton10.jpg
Studio album by
Time Machines
Released26 January 1998
Genre
Length73:32
Label Eskaton
Producer Coil
Time Machines chronology
Time Machines
(1998)		 Coil Presents Time Machines
(2000)

Time Machines is a 1998 studio album by English experimental group Coil, originally released under the one-off project alias Time Machines. The album was created under the premise of psychedelic drone pieces named after corresponding hallucinogenic drugs, "tested and retested" during the album's studio sessions for apparent narcotic potency. Main member John Balance also described the album as an attempt to create "temporal slips". [1]

Contents

Background and composition

Time Machines is composed of four electronic drone pieces created with modular synthesizers, which as hinted at in their track names are an attempt to recreate the chemically derived psychedelic and narcotic potency of telepathine, DOET, DMT and psilocybin mushrooms (telepathine and DMT being primary components of ayahuasca). As well as this, Balance intended the album to cause "temporal slips": he commented that the musical effect was demonstrated when the group "listened to it loud [and] lost track of time". [1] Drew McDowall created the original demo for the record, at first inspired by what he saw as a hypnotic state created in Tibetan music, but his final idea with Balance and Christopherson was to use filters and oscillators on the tones of the demo to induce trancelike effects.

In a 1998 interview, given to David Keenan for The Wire magazine, Balance explained the album's concept and intent, inspired by trancelike states:

One of the interesting things with Time Machines is that there's a handful of responses which we've had where what happened to the listeners was exactly what we intended to happen. There would be some kind of temporal disruption caused by just listening to the music, just interacting with the music. The drugs thing is actually a hook we hung it on – it originally came out of me and Drew talking that some of the types of music you listen to – sacred musics like Tibetan music or anything with a sacred intent which often is long ceremonial type music which could last for a day or three days or something. There are periods of time in that where you will come out of time. That's the intention of it to go into a trance and achieve an otherness. We thought can we do this sort of electronic punk-primitive? We did demos with a simple mono synth and we managed it. We sat in the room and listened to it loud and we lost track of time – it could be five minutes in or 20 minutes in but you suddenly get this feeling, the hairs on the back of your neck, and you'd realise that you'd had some sort of temporal slip. We fine-tuned, well, filters and oscillators and stuff, to try and maximise this effect. It was that we were after with simple tones – somehow you could slip through. [1]

When Time Machines was first released, the group was initially very conscious that it should not be labeled as a Coil album due to how abstract and different it was compared to previous Coil albums. [2] However, the group later tended towards regarding Time Machines a part of the Coil catalog; [2] this led the 2000 follow-up live album Coil Presents Time Machines to be released as a Coil album.

Legacy

A five-disc Time Machines box set was announced in 1998, [3] [4] :  53   but never developed. A two-disc version was announced in January 2006 as a future release, [5] but this was never expanded on either, although an album by Peter Christopherson, called Time Machines II, was released posthumously. In retrospect, Drew McDowall has remarked that "[p]eople tell me how much of an impact it had on them – which is always pretty surprising." [6]

In 2018, surviving member Drew McDowall collaborated with British visual artist Florence To to perform an updated audio-visual version of the entire album in selected venues and festivals around the world. [7] [8] [9]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]

Sean Cooper of AllMusic gave the album four out of five stars and described it as "[e]njoyable, if a mite limited in scope." [10] Record distributor Boomkat praised the album upon its re-release, calling it a "now-classic chemical songbook". [11]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."7-Methoxy-β-Carboline: (Telepathine)"23:23
2."2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine: (DOET/Hecate)"13:20
3."5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine: (5-MeO-DMT)"10:02
4."4-Indolol, 3-[2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl], Phosphate Ester: (Psilocybin)"26:46
Total length:73:32

Personnel

According to AllMusic: [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coil (band)</span> English post-industrial band

Coil were an English experimental music group formed in 1982 in London and dissolved in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by musician John Balance, Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of his partner and Psychic TV bandmate Peter Christopherson, formerly of pioneering industrial music group Throbbing Gristle. Coil's work explored themes related to the occult, sexuality, alchemy, and drugs while influencing genres such as gothic rock, neofolk and dark ambient. AllMusic called the group "one of the most beloved, mythologized groups to emerge from the British post-industrial scene."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Christopherson</span> English musician

Peter Martin Christopherson was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, and former member of British design agency Hipgnosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Balance</span> English musician and poet (1962–2004)

Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton, better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet.

<i>Scatology</i> (album) 1984 studio album by Coil

Scatology is the debut studio album by English experimental music group Coil. It was recorded at various studios in London during 1984 and produced by the band along with JG Thirlwell; the album features a prominent appearance of Stephen Thrower, who subsequently became an official member of Coil starting with the group's following album, Horse Rotorvator. Despite its title, the album focuses on alchemy, mainly an idea of turning base matter into gold. The record contains a wide array of cultural references, including to people such as Marquis de Sade, Alfred Jarry, Salvador Dalí, Charles Manson, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panic/Tainted Love</span> 1985 single by Coil

"Panic" and "Tainted Love" are songs recorded by British experimental music band Coil. These were released in 1985 through Some Bizzare in the UK and Wax Trax! Records in the US respectively, as the band's first single, and the sole one from their 1984 debut studio album, Scatology. Originally released on twelve-inch vinyl discs, the single was regarded as the first AIDS benefit release, and has been reissued several times on compact discs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Snow (song)</span> 1991 single by Coil

The Snow is a track by the British group Coil, available on the album Love's Secret Domain and also released as a 12" vinyl, cassette and CD EP.

<i>Loves Secret Domain</i> 1991 studio album by Coil

Love's Secret Domain is the third studio album by the British experimental band Coil, released in 1991. The singles released from the album were "Windowpane" and "The Snow". Guest vocalists include Marc Almond on the song "Titan Arch" and Annie Anxiety on the song "Things Happen".

<i>Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1</i> 1999 studio album by Coil

Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1 is a studio album by Coil that was released in September 1999. It is the first album in the Musick to Play in the Dark series, with the second volume being released in 2000. It was remastered by Drew McDowall and reissued by Dais Records in 2020.

<i>Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2</i> 2000 studio album by Coil

Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2 is a studio album by Coil that was released in September 2000. It was the second of two albums attributed purely to a style called "moon musick," which signify their change from a "solar" group to a "moon" group. Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1 was the first installment.

<i>Windowpane & the Snow</i> 1995 compilation album by Coil

Windowpane & The Snow was a CD released by the band Coil. This release compiles the two EPs, "Windowpane" and "The Snow". The original versions of the songs "Windowpane" and "The Snow" appear on the album Love's Secret Domain.

<i>Unnatural History II</i> 1995 compilation album by Coil

Unnatural History II is the second in the Unnatural History series of compilation albums by Coil. Unlike the compilations Stolen & Contaminated Songs and Gold Is the Metal with the Broadest Shoulders, the Unnatural History albums collect songs from more than one era of Coil's work.

<i>Unnatural History III</i> 1997 compilation album by Coil

Unnatural History III, subtitled Joyful Participation in the Sorrows of the World, is the third and final release in the Unnatural History series of compilation albums by British experimental band Coil. Unlike the compilations Stolen & Contaminated Songs and Gold Is the Metal with the Broadest Shoulders, the Unnatural History albums collect songs from more than one era of Coil's work.

<i>The Ape of Naples</i> 2005 studio album by Coil

The Ape of Naples is the final studio album by English experimental group Coil. It was released on 2 December 2005 in the UK and Thailand by Threshold House, and has subsequently been reissued by multiple labels since. The album was a definitive effort by primary Coil member Peter Christopherson to rework and remix material from 1993 to 2004 into a coherent final record. It was produced and released following the death of co-lead artist and lead vocalist John Balance, who died on 13 November 2004, and the album was released in memory of him.

<i>Coil Presents Time Machines</i> 2000 live album by Coil

Coil Presents Time Machines was a live CD by Coil. This CD was produced in a limited amount of 1,000 copies and was given away with the initial mail orders of Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2. The CD is a live performance which took place on 2 April 2000 at the Cornucopia festival in the Royal Festival Hall in London, England. The name of the performance was "Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness". The album was later reissued as "CD A" on Live One in an unaltered form.

<i>Moons Milk (In Four Phases)</i> 2002 compilation album by Coil

Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) is a release by Coil that compiles four of their singles onto a double CD. The two-disc album compiles the CD versions of Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice (originally recorded throughout 1998, and released seasonally from March 1998 to January 1999). The album also has a live version of "Amethyst Deceivers" hidden at the end of the first disc, following several minutes of silence after "A Warning from the Sun (For Fritz)". This recording of "Amethyst Deceivers" was later released on Live Two, although the Moon's Milk version is a slightly longer edit. The release was given the catalog number ESKATON 023 and features artwork by Steven Stapleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nasa-Arab</span> 1994 single by Coil vs. The Eskaton

Nasa-Arab is a 12" single by Coil vs. The Eskaton. The Eskaton, however, is another alias of Coil. Eskaton is also the name of a record label that was run by Coil.

<i>Worship the Glitch</i> 1995 studio album by ELpH vs. Coil

Worship the Glitch is the only full-length album to be released by "ELpH vs. Coil", though an EP called Born Again Pagans is credited to "Coil vs. ELpH". ELpH is the name that Coil used to describe the random musical compositions that were generated from their own equipment, either by itself or as an unintended yet pleasant byproduct of their own work; as a result, this album can essentially count as a Coil album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew McDowall</span> Musical artist

Drew McDowall is a Scottish musician who has been a member, collaborator and remixer for various influential music groups. McDowall was formerly a full-time member of Coil.

<i>The New Backwards</i> 2008 studio album by Coil

The New Backwards is an album by Coil released on 18 April 2008. The album is reworked from the Backwards demo, which was originally created for Nothing Records.

<i>Astral Disaster</i> 1999 studio album by Coil

Astral Disaster is a studio album by Coil, originally released in January 1999 on Acme/Prescription, reissued in 2000 on Threshold House, and then reissued in 2017 through Acme/Prescription.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Keenan, David (July 21, 1998). "Coil Interview". Brainwashed. Brainwashed Inc. Retrieved April 28, 2017– via Brainwashed archive.
  2. 1 2 Strachan, Guy. "Coil, "Strangers In The Night" (Terrorizer #110, 2003)". Brainwashed.com. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  3. ↑ "The News". Brainwashed.com. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Keenan, David (September 1998). "Time Out of Joint". The Wire. No. 175. pp. 48–53. ISSN   0952-0686 – via the Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Archived January 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Lipez, Zachary (10 October 2017). "Almost 20 Years Later, Coil's Drone Masterpiece Is Still a Record Out of Time - VICE". VICE. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  7. ↑ "Quo Vadis presents: Drew Mcdowall + Florence To [Time Machines / Live AV], Pod Blotz [Live] at Elsewhere, New York (2020) ⟋ RA". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  8. ↑ "Drew McDowall (COIL) + Florence To: "Time Machines" | Conciertos y espectáculos | CaixaForum Barcelona". caixaforum.org (in European Spanish). Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  9. ↑ "Drew McDowall + Florence To "Time Machines Live AV 2018"". FESTIVAL FORTE. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  10. 1 2 Cooper, Sean. "Time Machines – Coil". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Coil - Time Machines - Boomkat". Boomkat. 3 November 2017.
  12. ↑ Time Machines - Coil | Credits | AllMusic , retrieved 6 November 2022

See also

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.