Flower Machine
Through A London Window/one In A Million
Starting with their 2004 debut album 'Chalk Dust Dream Of The Tea Cozy Mitten Company,' The Flower Machine has been one of the longest-running yet most obscure bands in the Los Angeles psych scene. Led by Dutch-American singer and guitarist Peter Quinnell, the band has consistently focused on crafting dense, heavily-overdubbed psych-pop songs, delivered through an intermittent series of loud and chaotic performances over the years in the LA club scene. Strongly influenced by Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The Outsiders, and Kevin Ayers, The Flower Machine's idiosyncratic take on psychedelia was shaped during Peter's formative years in Amsterdam, a city where the spirit of 1967 in many ways never ended. Currently based in San Luis Obispo, California, The Flower Machine recorded the basic tracks for their Hypnotic Bridge single in a cavernous warehouse near the airport, using an 8-track machine. The tapes were then taken to a studio in the leafy realm of Cambria, where they added sitar, flute, organ, backwards guitars and subtle layers of mellotron cello to complete the A-side, 'Through A London Window,' which was inspired in part by Antonioni's 1966 cinematic masterpiece 'Blow Up.' 'One In A Million,' perhaps the most obscure item in the Pink Floyd cannon, makes its vinyl debut on the B-side. Surviving only on a murky audience tape from a gig in Copenhagen in September, 1967, the song is thought to be a joint composition between Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. It even may have been an early version of the rumored 'She Was A Millionaire' single The Pink Floyd were working on to follow up 'See Emily Play.' Peter spent ages decoding its lyrics, enabling us to present here, for the first time ever, a fully realized version of a song that many consider to be one of the last holy relics of 1967. Peter employs a black-and-white Danelectro 59 for the guitar parts, while Matt plays the menacing, Wright-influenced organ. Artwork by Yu Maeda.