Rock · US · Active since 1998

Turing Machine

Propulsive, interlocking instrumental rock that feels like a high-speed logic puzzle. Precise rhythms and angular guitars for deep focus or late-night urban movement.

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Intro

Turing Machine sounds like the inner workings of a clock built from scrap metal and high-end circuitry. It is music defined by a relentless, motorik propulsion that feels both human and mechanical. The guitars don't play traditional riffs so much as they weave intricate, jagged patterns that lock into the bass and drums with surgical precision. It is the sound of a city moving at night, captured in a dry, punchy studio room where every snare hit and string pluck has a physical weight.

What makes them distinctive is the late Jerry Fuchs' drumming, which serves as the band's gravitational center. While many math rock bands lean into chaotic time signatures, Turing Machine favors a steady, driving groove influenced by Krautrock. They manage to be complex without being cold, using the grit of their noise-rock roots to keep the mathematical structures feeling urgent and alive. It is a rare balance of intellectual rigor and visceral, hip-shaking energy.

Start with 'A New Machine for Living' to hear the band at their most foundational and raw. If you want to hear how they evolved into a more polished, expansive force, 'What Is the Meaning of What' showcases their ability to integrate subtle electronic textures and guest contributions without losing their signature interlocking drive.

Turing Machine is an American instrumental rock band formed in New York City, United States, in 1998 by Justin Chearno and Scott DeSimon, late of DC's noise-rockers Pitchblende and Gerhardt 'Jerry' Fuchs, who had moved to New York to play with Bitch Magnet guitarist Jon Fine's new band, Vineland. Their music has been described as "Angular instrumental indie rock," that has "influences as vast as vintage prog, Krautrock and post-punk." On November 7, 2009, drummer Fuchs died in an elevator shaft accident. The last of Fuchs' studio work with Turing Machine was included posthumously in the 2012 album, What Is The Meaning of What. Some of the friends of the band such as Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsystem and Brian Chase helped to complete the unfinished album after Fuchs' death. Chearno died in August 2024. The name comes from the mathematical model of computation defined by Alan Turing with the same name (Turing machine).
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Our Catalog3 Albums · 2000 · 2012
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