Mashina Vremeni (Russian for "Time Machine") is a legendary Russian blues rock group formed in the late 1960s in the Soviet Union by Andrey Makarevich and Alexander Kutikov, later joined by Evgeny Margulis. While originally inspired by The Beatles and soviet bards (singer-songwriters), the band eventually developed towards a more straight-ahead blues rock sound.

Despite the long history, Mashina released no official albums before 1983, because of the state censorship. Early records were self-released via tapes and not considered albums. Since 1991 all Mashina Vremeny albums are released by Sintez records, Kutikov's record label.

The band is famous for its eclectic style. Makarevich prefers the traditional russian rock style, Kutikov composes more hard rock driven music, while Margulis is credited as one of Russia's major blues players. Through years and lineup changes, almost every member composed a song, and many of them were singing themselves. In 90's, from five instrumentalists of Mashina Vremeni four were singers simultaneously. All of the band's leaders sing in numerous side projects and often release solo albums.

Since the foundation, the band went through dramatical lineup changes. In 1974 Kutikov departed from Mashina due to conflict with drummer Sergey Kavagoe, and was replaced by Margulis. He returned to new lineup, after Margulis and Kavagoe left the band in 1979 and formed Воскресение. From 1979 to 1982 Petr Podgorodetsky played keyboard and composed some boogie-woogie-driven songs with humorous lyrics. In 1982 he was replaced with Alexander Zaytsev.

80's are considered Mashina's "golden era": the ideological suppression on band was eased and they were allowed to tour and publish albums officially. In 1980 Mashina Vremeni won the first prize on Tbilisi Rock Festival (runner-up was Автограф). Many of the most popular songs, such as Povorot (The Turn), Marionetki (Puppets), Kosteor (Flame) belong to this period.

In 1990 Mashina celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gig on Red Square. Many friendly musicians, including band's former members, participated in it. As Zaytsev was fired due to his alcohol abuse, Mashina leaders invited Margulis and Podgorodetsky to join the reunion. This lineup, consisting of four singing songwriters and considered the most famous, remained until 2000, when the band once again fired its keyboardist, now Podgorodetsky. Currently keyboards are played by Andrey Derzhavin. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.