Time Machines
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''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 Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...
drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...
pieces named after corresponding
hallucinogenic drug Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, moo ...
s, "tested and retested" during the album's studio sessions for apparent
narcotic The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
potency. Main member
John Balance Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. He was best known as a co-founder ...
also described the album as an attempt to create "temporal slips".


Background and composition

''Time Machines'' is composed of four
electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...
drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...
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 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine (DOET) is a psychedelic drug of the phenethylamine, amphetamine, and DOx families. It is closely related to DOM and is a synthetic analogue of the naturally occurring phenethylamine psychedelic mescaline. The ...
,
DMT Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also known as ''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (''N'',''N''-DMT), is a serotonergic hallucinogen and investigational drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many plants and animals, including humans. D ...
and
psilocybin mushroom Psilocybin mushrooms, or psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms or as shrooms, are a type of hallucinogenic mushroom and a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain the prodrug psilocybin, which turns into t ...
s (telepathine and DMT being primary components of
ayahuasca AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' descen ...
). 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 ndlost track of time".
Drew McDowall Drew McDowall is a Scottish NYC based composer and musician. He was a member of Coil in the 1990s contributing heavily to some of their most respected and influential works. As well as his solo work he has collaborated with Kali Malone, Cateri ...
created the original demo for the record, at first inspired by what he saw as a hypnotic state created in
Tibetan music The music of Tibet ( zh, 藏族音乐) reflects the cultural heritage of the trans-Himalayan region centered in Tibet, but also known wherever ethnic Tibetan groups are found in Nepal, Bhutan, India and further abroad. The religious music of ...
, 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 David Keenan (born April 1971) is a Scottish writer and author of five novels. Career He used to run the Glasgow record shop, distribution company and record label Volcanic Tongue. Journalism His work for ''The Wire'' (for whom he wrote f ...
for ''
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'' 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.
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. However, the group later tended towards regarding ''Time Machines'' a part of the Coil catalog; 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, but never developed. A two-disc version was announced in January 2006 as a future release, 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 " ople tell me how much of an impact it had on them – which is always pretty surprising." 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.


Reception

Sean Cooper of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
gave the album four out of five stars and described it as " joyable, if a mite limited in scope." Record distributor Boomkat praised the album upon its re-release, calling it a "now-classic chemical songbook".


Track listing


Personnel

According to
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
: *
Peter Christopherson Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis. He also ...
– performer *
John Balance Geoffrey Nigel Laurence Rushton (16 February 1962 – 13 November 2004), better known under the pseudonyms John Balance or the later variation Jhonn Balance, was an English musician, occultist, artist and poet. He was best known as a co-founder ...
– performer *
Drew McDowall Drew McDowall is a Scottish NYC based composer and musician. He was a member of Coil in the 1990s contributing heavily to some of their most respected and influential works. As well as his solo work he has collaborated with Kali Malone, Cateri ...
– performer


References


External links

* *
''Time Machines''
at Brainwashed
Time Machines website
*stickers
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See also

*
Harmine Harmine is a β-carboline and a harmala alkaloid. It occurs in a number of different plants, most notably ''Peganum harmala'' and ''Banisteriopsis caapi''. Harmine reversibly inhibits monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme which breaks down mono ...
* DOET/hecate *
5-MeO-DMT 5-MeO-DMT (5-methoxy-''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine), also known as ''O''-methylbufotenin or mebufotenin (), is a naturally occurring psychedelic of the tryptamine family. It is found in a wide variety of plant species, and is also secreted by ...
*
Psilocybin Psilocybin, also known as 4-phosphoryloxy-''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (4-PO-DMT), is a natural product, naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid and Investigational New Drug, investigational drug found in more than List of psilocybin mushroom ...
{{Authority control 1998 albums Coil (band) albums Drone music albums by English artists Psychedelic drug research