Time Machines – Time Machines

This is one of the best recordings in the world of drone music.
If you dive into these sounds (headphones are recommended) you will find some beautiful, mesmerizing soundscapes.
This is musick for professionals.
One note: Drew McDowall is responsible for most of the work and creativity of TIME MACHINES.

You enter a labyrinth, it swallows you up like an ivy wrapping around your body, spheres, tune in closely and you can see time engulfing you, an auditory passage, swim freely but don’t stray too far ;-)

Will you experience a subjective distortion of time? No.
Will this album make you feel drugged, as the titles may imply? No.
The most you'll get is possibly some vertigo while sounds swing between left and right channel.
But still - this is an absolute treat for any drone / experimental music connoisseur, even though some of the sonic effects which were new at that time have been used extensively by so many producers ever since, therefore may not have the appeal they had in the 90's.
Try this album out on a good pair of speakers, try it out with headphones, try it out sobber or under influence... and see what suits you best.

Dais records website lists a YELLOW vinyl version. Does this exist?

COIL
TIME MACHINES 2XLP
$27.99
Color

Clear
Red
Grey
Black
Yellow

Go listen to Edgar Froese's "Specific Gravity Of Smile" from 1983. It has to be the same drone instrument used. This LP explores that sound much more fuller.

TIME MACHINES II

‘Time Machines’ is the name of the 1998 album by the band and archangels of KHAOS ‘Coil’. It has four tracks, the names of which are taken from experimental new psychedelic drugs they had been sent by international chemists for their investigation and inspiration in their recreational work. At over twenty minutes “4-Indolol, 3-[2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl], Phosphate Ester: (Psilocybin)” is the last track on the album.

The album was intended to distort time for the listener. Through trial and error with the manipulation of synthesisers, samplers and other assorted gizmos ‘n’ gear the band arranged sounds that would displace or ‘slide’ time. There are no melodies, beats or obvious structure to any of the four tracks, just sounds, drones to be precise (drone being a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece).

The album was released under the name ‘Time Machines’ to dispel any preconceptions of the listener.

The album was very well received and some reviews were even published years before its release it was so effective in its goals.

The band had not played live in any serious context until ‘Time Machines’ was released. Coil played London’s Royal Festival Hall in a show entitled “Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness” in 2000. The reaction to that show encourage more touring and live performances right up until The End.

Coil disbanded in 2004 after the untimely death of founding member Jhonn Balance.

As with a substantial amount of their output there is a harsh element to the ‘Time Machines’ album, yet Coil were a lot less ‘harsh’ than their predecessors ‘Throbbing Gristle’, and band member Peter Christopherson later solo work would be the antithesis of harsh. Christopherson’s final albums before his death in 2010 would be of an unparallel beauty of light and peace. His bizarre and intriguing arrangements and configuration of equipment and sounds would remain a constant but the sound being created was sheer love, be it forlorn, unrequited or an abundance of & indulgent feast, there was an innate harmony that evoked peace to his solo work.

It is during this period he wrote and recorded ‘Time Machines II’. Peter died suddenly in 2010 aged just 55.

‘TIME MACHINES II’ is released tomorrow, 31st January 2014.

http://amalgamatedwondersoftheworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/time-machines-ii/

Not to reiterate, but this is entrancing. Just as good as any hallucinogen, these tracks demand attention. In fact, it's hard to ignore them. Though apparently "background music" this is acidic and amorphous and atmospheric. I see this as one of Coil's grand achievements in that it's a technical masterpiece yet esoteric and abstract enough to make it totally enthralling, too. If I get rid of all my CDs, this one will stay.

Simply mesmerising. A work that in fact is much more than it seems at a glance. Its reverberating synth drones can fill a room with low bass frequencies which kind of hypnotise you and really take you away. The louder you listen to it, the stronger the effect it has on you... beautiful, haunting and uncanny. (if you´re high, listen to it at your own risk)