With Coil’s only full release for their Time Machines side-project (excepting a set of live material, which was later folded into a live album under Coil’s own name), the group builds four droning tone studies adding up to an hour, with each bearing the name of a drug that the track was apocryphally intended to evoke not just in mood, but in effect. The set opens with “7-Methoxy-β-Carboline: (Telepathine)“, which grows from a quiet start to a slow but definite pulse, with timbre vibrations as the synths slide up and down in their registers introducing minor but persistent alterations to the base tone until they develop into a distinct counter-wave, then merge with the main tone to fade to a compromised warble drift.
“2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine: (DOET/Hecate)“ follows, bringing a sharper edge to its tone-cycling, with rumbling dissonance bleeding through into the low end of the wave. As the track continues, that roughness gradually shifts to the fore of the loop, balancing out the whole of it into a wash of subdued grinding. “5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyl: (5-MeO-DMT)“, the shortest of the tracks, comes next, with a tingling crest brought down to firmer grounding as the modulation continues. This one shows the most pronounced manipulation, with regular pushes of the tone interference building something like a melody in their sinking and rising against the bassy throbbing.
Lastly comes “4-Indolol,3-[2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl],Phosphate Ester: (Psilocybin)“, the longest track, quickly settles into a low-end wave cycle while shimmery high-pitched counter-beat pulses before giving way to firmer mid-register tone bars, and eventually pressuring out into even higher, almost inaudible twinkling above the groaning bass stirring.
The commitment to the music’s styling is perhaps the most striking quality of the album when considered as a whole, but the small details which come with every minute of the music provide more to savor. There’s also a lightness to the tracks which is often absent from the relative popularization (and commonly metal-flavored rendering) of drone in the decades following Time Machines’ release. The success of the songs in effecting their time transportation mission vary not just from person to person, but also with each listening, depending on environment, willingness to focus on the audio to the exclusion of other stimuli, and so on. But the richness of detailing allows for many returns, and by letting the listener’s chosen level of commitment determine their engagement, it provides an interactive audio experience, whether supplemented by drugs of a more physical sort or not. One of Coil’s most mystical releases, both in spite and because of its simplicity.
Scrambled Brains 