What Is the Meaning of What

New York’s Turing Machine might have called it quits when drummer Jerry Fuchs died in a 2009 accident, but instead the remaining members called on friends and family (members of LCD Soundsystem, Midnight Magic, and Disappears vocalist Brian Case, among others) to put Fuchs’ last tracks to work on new songs for this remarkable collection. Forsaking the group's proggy tendencies, What Is the Meaning of What goes for tightly wound, carefully unspooled sounds of drone and krautrock from beginning to end. Flinty guitars and reverberating bass lines pulse and push through tunes like the relentless “Yeah, C’mon!” and the Mobius-strip loopiness of the title track. Elsewhere, the tunes move like clockwork, chugging and ticking with dance floor–driven precision (“Slave to the Algorithm,” “If It’s Gone,” featuring Case's vocals). Others slither and glide on sheets of Kraftwerkian neon (“Lazy Afternoon of the Jaguar”). The drumless, ambient “Sex Ghost” allows for breath-catching and regrouping, but the tunes with Fuchs behind the wheel show what a truly exemplary timekeeper he was. This is a sendoff that's perfect, if bittersweet.