About

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.

Primarily consisting of vocalist/musician John Balance and programmer/visual artist Peter Christopherson, along with various other members and contributors, Coil were one of the most beloved, mythologized groups to emerge from the British post-industrial scene. Initially established as an offshoot of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV in 1982, the band spent more than two decades making uncompromising, often unspeakably beautiful music that explored themes related to alchemy, dreams, the occult, drugs, and sexuality. They have remained a longstanding influence on genres such as goth rock, dark ambient, neofolk, techno, and experimental music in general.

“4 Tones to facilitate travel through time.” So begins the listeners’ journey into what has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of Coil history ever released. Each of the four pieces on Time Machines is named after the chemical compound of the hallucinogenic drug that they were composed for, and the album was meticulously crafted to enable what John Balance referred to as "temporal slips" in time and space, allowing both the artist and audience to figuratively "dissolve time". Inspired by long form ceremonial music of Tibet and other religions, where the intent is to lose oneself in the music – to meditate or achieve a trance state. Starting as a rough demo tape recorded solely by Coil member Drew McDowall, Time Machines started to take full form when McDowall enthusiastically delivered these demo recordings to Balance and Christopherson as sketches for a new Coil project with the primary goal of shifting Coil’s sound further into a more conceptually abstract direction. Largely recorded in 1997 using single takes with minimal post production, these four drones contain every intended fluctuation and tone, along with every glitch of the original – “Artifacts generated by your listening environment are an intrinsic part of the experience.” — (via Label)

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Label: Dais Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Repress
Reissued: 2021 / Original Release: 1998
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Drone, Experimental

File under: Ambient / Experimental / IDM
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