This is the first vinyl reissue of Tim Blake’s debut solo album in over forty years, and Munster has given Tim’s work the respect it deserves. The records are beautifully pressed on 180 gramme vinyl, and not only do you get the original album in all its glory, but also a second LP full of rarities from the same era; plus you get an insert with an interview with Blake too.
The vinyl sounds fantastic and its great to hear this album again in all its analogue glory. The cover is a reproduction of the original sleeve, and both pieces of vinyl fit nicely inside it, so at last we have a long-waited for deluxe edition of Tim Blake’s masterwork.
Blake’s first album sometimes gets overlooked after the success of his New Jerusalem opus, a record that even Hawkwind would allow one of the tracks to be played live while Tim did his first tenure with the band, and it also got lots of space rockers heading to Glastonbury to discover the mysteries of the landscape there.
1977’s Crystal Machine is a different beast altogether; it’s a suite of music that was performed live, accompanied by some of the earliest lasers used at concerts, as can be seen on the album sleeve. Tangerine Dream were also doing concerts with lasers in the USA the same year and released those concerts under the title Encore. Tim takes us on a similar cosmic voyage as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze et al, but the playing and use of instrumentation are definitely all Mr Blake’s and his compositions certainly stand out among those of his contemporaries.“Midnight” begins with swirling synth sounds and the type of high lead that I always associate with Tim, and it feels like an expanded version or a continuation of his “Octave Doctors” track from Gong’s Flying Teapot album. The track builds beautifully and slowly, like the fabrication of crystal structures on Mars. The melody is light and airy, and feels like calm of the evening on some alien world. To compare it to Klaus Schulze wouldn’t do it justice, but it does have a similar feel to his mid-seventies pieces.
Pulsing rhythms introduce “Metro/Logic”, and here Tim lets loose on his wild synth lead freakout with some legendary runs up the keyboard. The bass-heavy sequencer holds the piece together as Tim navigates planetary terrain, and this feels like travelling music, especially after the more soporific opening opus. “Last Ride Of The Boogie Child” has an almost funky bass pattern under some of Blake’s most blissful lead playing. The VCS3 swirls again, creating the sound of the cosmos while Blake builds up patterns on his sequencer, and some vocals can even be heard briefly at points.
Side 3 starts with “Surf”, a cover that only Tim can do, a Beach Boys of electronica, and it sounds like an odd hybrid of a 1950s song played in the year 2525. “Synthese Intemporelle 1 + 2” are taken from a rare Spanish 7” and feature sections from the track on the main album edited down to a 45 rpm running time. The remaining 3 tracks that cover the final groove of side 3 and all of side 4 are demos recorded during this period and are known as “The Birth Of The Crystal Machine”. Having these three tracks on vinyl are worth your entrance fee alone as they are masterclasses in Tim’s compositional process. A gurgling synth opens “Metro Poly Train” with a rolling bass sequencer, and some top of the octave lead flies around this track as it trips the light fantastic of kosmische prog. The sound here sometimes has a similar vibe to that of Jean Michel Jarre, who had yet to release his first album when these demos were made.
“Oming In” is full of lush sweeping chords that drift below tweeting synths, and it hangs almost static for a time in a similar way to Tangerine Dream’s Zeit (it’s also here we see just how good Munster’s pressing is as there is not a single piece of crackle on the discs). The track slowly builds, squelching patterns and rolling lead lines wander around, but sound beautiful and you just have to love the sound of those old analogue synths. It’s a track of galactic proportions that hovers in the stratosphere of exo-planets.The melody of “Mirrors Of Light” almost shimmers in glacial wonder and drifts over its sequenced backing in a strange fashion. This is not Berlin School music but something like jazz from a future electronic age to be played in some type of orbiting space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s a fine end to the album and certainly in keeping with pieces from the original release.
If you are a fan of Blake’s work, this is a must-have reissue, even only if you just want to update your old 1970s vinyl if it’s worn out. If you are new to his work, then this is a fine place to begin as you are getting the full Crystal Machine experience in one place for the first time on vinyl. As mentioned, the pressing is gorgeous, which certainly enhances the listening experience and the added bonus of the interview with Tim is always a welcome thing.At last we have the complete Crystal Machine, a thing of beauty that shines bright like an ancient star from a distant nebula.
-Gary Parsons-
