Tim Blake
Lighthouse: An Anthology 1973-2012
The words ‘Hawkwind’ and ‘ambient’ do not generally sit close together, but electronic music pioneer
Tim Blake’s career is inextricably bound up with the space warlords, whom he first hooked up with at the start of the 70s as a sound and lighting engineer.
On this anthology Blake’s 40-year voyage is spread over two CDs, starting with three tracks recorded with fellow mystic travellers Gong, before selected tracks from his first – and best known – solo record, Crystal Machine in ’77, the followup to his New Jerusalem, a year later, his return to Hawkwind on the Live Seventy Nine and Levitation albums and later solo albums.
The problem for casual listeners is that Blake’s career encompasses the development of synthesisers from monophonic prototypes to the 360-degree sound monsters they eventually became, and some of the early tracks sound irredeemably dated. Also, despite spending most of his time living in France, Blake retained a defiantly British approach to electronic music that lacks the cosy melodicism of Jean Michel Jarre or the fluidity of Tangerine Dream.
A third CD of previously unreleased material includes some exploratory pieces leading up to Crystal Machine that help complete the jigsaw, and a DVD of a French TV show in 1979 reveals the beneficial effect of lighting on his music.
hugh Fielder