Tim Blake - "Crystal Machine" 1976

If you liked the last post, chances are you'll enjoy this one too, as it's another member of the Gong Family. One of the things about Gong that I always loved was the spacey bits with synthesizers, predating Ambient and New Age. Gong along with Hawkwind were pioneering space-rock bands, and Tim Blake was the man at the helm of the mothership. When I first discovered this, his debut solo album, it was like I had finally found something that I'd been waiting for for a long time, it was just the right thing at the right time... An album of space synth ambience and prog influenced electronic jams from the 70's, hopefully just right for you too.

Tim Blake - Crystal Machine
Egg, 1977


















Tim Blake's Crystal Machine live show experience has been an influence on me lately. It would have been pretty special to see it. Anyway, I'm trying to recreate my own version for a small show this Thursday, details in the next post.
















"Tim Blake was Gong's keyboardist from 1971 till 1975, and was responsible for writing a substantial part of the three Gong masterpieces. His mad synthesizer came to symbolize the opposite of the radio-friendly, catchy, classical synthesizer of Jean-Michel Jarre. The concerts collected on Crystal Machine (Egg, 1977), which date as far back as 1971 (i.e., predate Jean-Michel Jarre), delivered surreal pieces in that "freak" style: Midnight, Metro Logic, Last Ride Of The Boogie Child, Synthese Intemporelle, Crystal Presence. " -http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/blake.html

Crystal Machine is :
Tim Blake - 2 EMS Synthis A´s, MINIMOOG, EMS Frequency Shifter, MXR Flanger, Sony TC 850 Tape deck echo, Sony Mix 12, ELKA Rhapsody
Patrice Warrener - SPECTRA PHYSICS 164 Argon Laser with his own Crystal Machine Projectors


















An interesting interview with Tim here,
and a lengthier one here, getting into the darker side of intra-band relationships.



















Tim still plays with Hawkwind, as you can see below....
He played keys on their latest album as well.















FILL YOUR EARS