Tim Blake

I absolutely love this album.

Since receiving the album it has been on my decks almost constantly – almost too good and happy-making to review!

Tim Blake has a history as ,apart from his solo work, he has played keyboards with Hawkwind and Gong and has been an influence on the likes of Steve Hillage’s solo work.

This particular album showcases his many talents but at the core of his music is the German electronic bands such as Tangerine Dream and Deuter crossed with early British psychedelic bands such as Egg – not slavishly copying or even directly referencing but clearly there as an influence.

He develops huge-scale sound plateaux and anchors them with steady beats – almost Kraftwerk-like in their rigidity but on to of all that he throws in little vignettes of sound that draw the attention for a moment before subsuming back into the main themes.
Absolutely the epitome of great electronic music in that it doesn’t ground itself to any form but flies free to follow the path it lays for itself.

Four tracks here including ‘The Blue Light Zone’ which describes his recovery from a near-catastrophic car accident and ‘On Contemplating The Southern Cross’, a piece that came to him while driving across the Australian outback with Hawkwind and after he was struck by the incredible night sky showing the Southern Cross in all its glory. The two pieces explore mind states and give a hypnotic glimpse to the depth of a musicians mind.

It is all but impossible to listen to this album without feeling the emotions of the composer and absorbing his mindset and view of the world around him.

Simply magnificent.