Recorded in just a few days in New York while Soft Machine were touring America, this debut album is really a reflection of the band's live sets at the time : a collection of psych-flavoured pop songs linked together by instrumental, sometimes improvised, interludes. Although the arrangements don't have the sophistication of later ones, what strikes one when listening to this album is how unique a style Soft Machine had already come up with at the time. Granted, there is some naivety in both the lyrics and music sometimes (some of the songs date from the Wilde Flowers years), but also an impressive maturity as a group of players. The interplay between Ratledge's organ and Wyatt's drums is of an intensity rarely paralleled in Soft Machine's later, more jazz-oriented efforts. Kevin Ayers' contributions are concentrated on the second side, the highlights of which are the absurdly repetitive "We Did It Again" and the Gurdjieff-inspired "Why Are We Sleeping?", both of which have since remained favourites of Ayers' solo gigs.
Kevin Ayers' departure after the lenghty American
tours of 1968 almost caused Soft
Machine to break up. But when
Wyatt and
Ratledge were
offered to play a few gigs to promote the newly released first album
in February 1969, they brought in former roadie Hugh Hopper and reformed the
band. This new start provided Ratledge with the impetus to
really have a go at composing, and the result is his lengthy "Esther's Nosejob" suite, which totals 11 minutes and makes up most
of side two of Volume Two. The arrangements are of an unprecedented sophistication,
combining Ratledge's keyboards with the dual saxophones of the
Hopper brothers
(former Wilde Flowers leader Brian later augmented the trio on most
of their 1969 gigs), and the music is largely experimental.
Side one is also made up of segued more song-based tracks, most of
them Hopper-Wyatt collaborations, bearing the collective title "Rivmic
Melodies". They are humorously introduced by a spoken statement by Wyatt presenting
them as a collection of songs "from the official orchestra of the
College of Pataphysics". Particularly funny is Wyatt's two-part "Concise
British Alphabet". The album includes two other songs, "As Long As He
Lies Perfectly Still", a tribute to former bandmate Kevin Ayers,
alluding to his macrobiotic food addiction as well as directly
quoting from "Why Are We Sleeping?" and "Lullabye Letter"; and
"Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening", a exquisitely weird
Hopper song that Wyatt singing suitably oblique lyrics to an unorthodox
open-tuning acoustic guitar chord sequence.
A double set, this is certainly the work
Soft Machine is
most remembered for. A groundbreaking musical statement, it is an
artistic achievement on par with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew in terms of its
capacity to mix rock and jazz elements into a coherent and exciting
musical vision. Each of the four sides contains one lengthy
composition; with the exception of one, they are entirely
instrumental. Since the previous album, Soft Machine has been augmented
with saxophone player Elton
Dean; for a brief period (as documented on
the Peel Sessions set), there was even a full brass section in the band, but
sax/flute player Lyn Dobson and trombonist Nick Evans are only featured one track
each.
The set opens with "Facelift", a Hugh
Hopper composition which is actually a
collage of two live performances (from the Fairfield Hall and Mothers
in Birmingham, both in January 1970) plus some tape loops overlayed
by Hopper later
on. Most of the material is from the Fairfield concert, and the side
opens with the extraordinary organ solo with which the second half
began; Ratledge proves how resourceful and inventive an instrumentalist he was at the
time, making most other practitioners sound academic with his sliding
pitch-warps and visceral gobs of sound. The "bugged" soprano
(Dobson) and
alto (Dean) play
a Zappa-like theme, which segues quickly into a very percussive 7/4
tune, with Wyatt
asserting himself strongly behind the organ solo. Dobson solos well on flute and
electric soprano, and it's back to the theme, which is played
forwards before the tape is reversed to give a pyramid effect.
Mike Ratledge's "Slightly All The Time" starts with harmonics on the bass, and Dean's
overdubbed alto and saxello play a theme which has a strong jazz
flavour. Dean solos on alto over a ponderous bass progression, being interrupted
occasionally by brief two-horn riffs which are introduced each time
by a staccato organ phrase. A flute solo by Jimmy Hastings develops
into a written flute loop, which repeats on top of the saxes' theme,
and the saxello and organ solo over a 9/4 pattern. The track fades
with a stately theme voiced by the reeds, fuzz organ, and fuzz bass;
this is the classic "Backwards" theme, that would later be covered by
Caravan as part of their "A-Hunting We Shall Go" suite.
Robert Wyatt's "Moon In June" features a great deal of the drummer's highly
unorthodox singing, with that cool, pure tone which is most effective
in the improvised passages, especially when doctored with echo. Wyatt plays most
of the organ and electric piano on this track (including the bass
lines), Ratledge
and Hopper only
coming in for a solo near the end of the vocal section
(Dean is nowhere
to be heard on this side), before the lengthy improvisation which
features free jazz violinist Rab Spall and a quote by Wyatt from Kevin Ayers' "Clarence In Wonderland".
Finally, there's Ratledge's "Out-Bloody-Rageous", which opens in startling fashion
with piano taps played backwards, all based on the progressions of
the bass line which underpins the main theme. This theme is again
played by Dean
on overdubbed alto and saxello, and trombonist Nick Evans makes a
couple of brief appearances. Dean has a beautiful alto solo
before the track ends with another tape collage, this time of the
electric piano overdubbed three or four times, playing phrases of
differing lengths which gradually contract.
From the opening notes of Mike Ratledge's "Teeth", it is
obvious that the now entirely instrumental Soft Machine has moved on to
jazzier, freer territories. Augmenting the quartet of Ratledge, Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt are several guest
musicians, including former and future members (notably Roy
Babbington on double bass). The album is dominated by Hopper's epic "Virtually" which
fills up the entire second side and, like his other contribution
"Kings And Queens", is loosely based on some of his typical
repetitive bass riffs, with an alternation of tight ensemble sections
and more abstract, largely improvised ones. Dean's saxello and alto sax are
in the foreground most of the time, the influence of free jazz more
apparent than ever before in his playing, not to mention his
composition "Fletcher's Blemish". Ratledge rarely ventures out of
his trademark Bitches Brew-style electric piano accompaniment, his fuzz organ solo on "Teeth" being the exception. The rhythm section of Hopper and Wyatt is a fascinating mixture
of solidity and looseness, somehow an illustration of the ongoing
conflicts within the band at the time.
"Teeth" is probably the most successful track on this collection,
notably its second half which resembles the short-lived nonet version
of Soft Machine
in late 1969, when Dean is joined by Nick Evans on trombone, Alan Skidmore on
tenor sax and Jimmy Hastings on bass clarinet to back Ratledge's solo, with a result
strongly reminiscent of the version of "Esther's Nosejob" on the Peel Sessions
album. On the whole, Fourth is quite an experimental album, half of which is truly
exhilariting and excitingly innovative, with the other half somewhat
failing to take off, as exemplified by the frustrating fade-out at
the end of "Virtually". The unusual ubiquity of the guest
participants also leads one to think what subsquent events would
confirm : that this, the 'classic' incarnation of Soft Machine to many, never
quite stabilised into an harmonious, self-sufficient unit.
The internal conflicts within the band were
finally resolved when Robert Wyatt left Soft Machine in August 1971. His
replacement, Phil Howard, an Australian exile, had been a member of Elton Dean's part-time jazz band
Just Us for some time already (playing on Dean's then just-released
eponymous solo album), and had even performed on a BBC 'In Concert'
recording with Soft Machine the previous March (see below). A tour of France and
Germany in the Autumn however failed to solidify the new quartet, and
Howard left in December following recording sessions for a new studio
album. Dissatisfied with the results, Hopper and Ratledge got hold of
John Marshall
and the resulting line-up re-recorded half of the tracks.
Musically, "5"
sees Soft Machine heading for much more austere musical territory. Gone are
the ultra-complex Ratledge epics à la "Teeth" and the
meandering Hopper multi-theme suites à la "Facelift" or
"Virtually". Instead, we are treated to skeletal themes and a lot of
extra space, an approach that inevitably brings to mind the early
Weather Report, a band that was becoming very popular during this
period and exerted a profound influence on the Softs at the time.
Pieces like "As If" (built around a bass line excerpt for the very
beginning and end) or "M.C." (basically an atmosphere created around
a scale) are as minimalist as the Softs ever got. "All White" and
"Drop" have more substantial themes but they are stated in such a way
that one doesn't necessarily realise they are written. The only
exception to the prevailing mood is "Pigling Bland", but this is easy
to explain - this was composed by Ratledge in 1969 as a coda for
"Esther's Nosejob", the main part of which was ultimately dropped
from the band's set early in 1971, the "Pigling Bland" bit ending up
being glued to "Teeth" instead. The majesty of its melody comes as a
relief after the bleak, if often fascinating, landscapes that make up Fifth.
Soft Machine's sixth
album may in retrospect be considered a transitional album. In the
same way that Volume Two had introduced the jazz element that was to become an
essential part of the band's sound in the early 70's,
Six Album
paved the way for the band's later fusion-oriented efforts. With that
album, Soft Machine's music lost all remaining references to the free-form and
anarchy of its early days.
Arguably, the influence of then new member Karl Jenkins in that move was
particularly strong. With a background in both classical music and
jazz, Jankins was an accomplished instrumentalist (on both reeds and
keyboard instruments) and a prolific composer. A founding member of
Ian Carr's Nucleus (alongside John
Marshall), he had penned most of that
band's first two albums, and would soon share an equal part of
Soft Machine's
compositional output with Mike
Ratledge.
Six Album
consists of two distinct albums : one is compiled from live
recordings made during the Autumn 1972 British tour; the other
gathers studio tracks recorded later that year. The live record is a
fantastic testament to that line-up's excellence. Supported by the
incredible rhythm section of Hopper and Marshall, Ratledge and Jenkins' dual keyboards weave
complex, multi-layered harmonic motifs to quite an hypnotizing
effect. There is already little left of the jazz influence still
heard on Fifth,
which Elton Dean probably took with him when he quit the band.
The studio LP is, in contrast, more experimental and less focussed.
The odd track here is really Hugh
Hopper's "1983", in the same 'abstract'
vein as his debut solo album 1984, which had been recorded
the previous Summer ("1983" was probably recorded during these very
sessions) and was released in March 1973, only a few weeks before Hopper's
departure from the band. The other tracks, in particular
Jenkins' "The
Soft Weed Factor", experiment with repetitive structures, and in a
way mark the return, albeit in a more polished and academic form, to
some of the directions explored on Third. The most successful
composition is Ratledge's "Chloe And The Pirates", which is
highlighted by Jenkins' extended oboe solo.
Having just acquired yet another Nucleus defector, bassist Roy Babbington, Soft Machine were pressured to go into the studio straight away in order to have a new album out for a projected US tour in the autumn of 1973. Apparently, much of the resulting album was composed over a very short period of time - only "Down The Road" had been routined onstage prior to the sessions. Actually there is even a disguised cover - Ratledge's "Day's Eye" is really just a re-vamp of a John McLaughlin piece off Extrapolation; and much of "Penny Hitch" sound like Jenkins' cover of his own "Soft Weed Factor". Even so, it's one of the best cuts on Seven. As with Six Album, Jenkins's contributions are hit-or-miss depending on whether they're just a complex rhythmic pattern over which to solo on either oboe or fuzz organ, or something more substantial. Ratledge contribues a couple of good themes, but his compositional output was quickly diminishing at this point. The real plus on the album is Babbington's immaculate bass playing; as a musician he's probably not as original and creative as Hugh Hopper, but he's just perfect for that kind of material, rock-solid and elegant. Otherwise, it's clear the Softs were getting a bit stagnant and needed a shot in the arm - which came in the shape of Allan Holdsworth.
Probably conscious of the lack of substantial
progression between Six
Album and Seven, Soft Machine decided to expand
its sound scope with the addition of a guitar player. With the
arrival of Allan Holdsworth (yet another ex-member of Nucleus) in November 1973, the
guitar made an unexpected return to the band's sound, six years after
Daevid Allen's departure. Bundles, recorded the following
Summer but released only in March 1975 (just days before
Holdsworth left
the group), on the band's new label Harvest, is certainly a dramatic
change of musical direction. Soft
Machine has now become a fusion band,
playing music based on energetic rock rhythms, supporting virtuosic
soloing.
The highlight of the album is the sidelong suite "Hazard Profile", an
epic Jenkins composition based on the riff of a previous piece of
his, Nucleus' "Song Of The Bearded Lady". This piece visits musical
territories not dissimilar to the progressive rock of Yes, Genesis
and the like, except all instrumental. The second side of the album
resembles more the preceding albums, in particular Ratledge's compositions.
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The first live performance by the classic Soft Machine quartet of Dean-Ratledge-Hopper-Wyatt to have been officially released, this was also televised at the time it was recorded (August 13th 1970), as part of the Promenade Concerts series held at the Royal Albert Hall. The sound quality is not exactly perfect, with Hugh Hopper's bass barely audible, but the band plays inspired renditions of such favourites as "Out-Bloody-Rageous", "Facelift" and the sidelong epic "Esther's Nosejob" from Volume Two, now exclusively instrumental (save Wyatt's brief wordless vocalese) and augmented with the beautifully melodic "Pigling Bland", which later turned up on its own on Fifth. Some say Soft Machine was at its best in a live context : this recording is a convincing evidence.
Another classic performance, and a much-bootlegged one. This concert in Amsterdam from March 1969 was in fact almost released at the time, but the band vetoed it. It became a best-selling bootleg in the 70's, and appeared on CD in the late 80's. It was finally issued officially on Voiceprint in 1996. It is an absolutely fantastic document of Soft Machine in concert circa Volume Two, an intense trio performance that actually consists of the whole album played in its entirety with no stops. Robert Wyatt obivously has difficulties handling both the drumming and the singing, and tends to concentrate on the former, leaving much of the music voice-free. Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper both make extensive use of the famed fuzz pedal. 45 minutes of pure magic, and the only available opportunity to hear early Soft Machine playing live.
This is a live session recorded for the BBC at London's Paris Theatre on March 11th 1971, pre-dating Virtually by only a few days. The setlist is largely similar, but this is a less typical performance by the classic Soft Machine line-up in that it features some additional guest musicians. John Peel introduced the concert as being by "Soft Machine and Heavy Friends". It actually begins with the Elton Dean Group (which a year later evolved into Just Us) - Dean, Mark Charig, Neville Whitehead and Phil Howard - augmented by Mike Ratledge on electric piano, performing "Blind Badger", a track that was to be recorded for Elton Dean's debut solo album two months later with a largely similar line-up, as would be the following track, "Neo Caliban Grides", where Dean, Ratledge and Howard are joined by Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt. The rest of the performance is a continuous 30-minute plus medley by the regular Dean-Ratledge-Hopper-Wyatt quartet, consisting of "Out-Bloody-Rageous", "Eamonn Andrews", "All White", "Kings And Queens", "Teeth" and "Pigling Bland". It is to be noted that both "All White" and "Pigling Bland" later turned up on Fifth, by which time Wyatt had left the band. For the last two numbers, Soft Machine is augmented by Ronnie Scott on tenor sax, Mark Charig on cornet, Paul Nieman and trombone and Roy Babbington on bass. All in all, a very strong performance that features some of the most jazz-oriented music Soft Machine ever produced.
This concert for the BBC was the fifth by the incarnation of Soft Machine that would record Six Album later that year, with Karl Jenkins joining Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper and John Marshall, adding his considerable skills on woodwinds and keyboards, not to mention his talents as composer. Less jazzy improvisation, more heavy riffing showcasing the extraordinary Hopper-Marshall rhythm section. "Slightly All The Time", the only leftover from the pre-Fifth days, is almost unrecognizable. The rest of the set is a mixture of compositions from Fifth ("All White", again bearing only minor resemblance to the original, "M.C.", "L.B.O." and "As If") and Six Album ("Fanfare", "Stumble" and "Riff"). Although only weeks into its existence, this line-up of Soft Machine was already a very solid unit, and this performance is arguably even better than the much-lauded live half of Six Album.
This double CD offers one of Elton Dean's last live performances with Soft Machine - Paris' Olympia Theatre on May 2nd, 1972. The line-up here is that of the second side of Fifth, that is Dean, Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper and John Marshall. The latter, a heavier and straighter drummer than Phil Howard, really solidifies the unit. At that point, Dean was playing almost as much electric piano as saxophone, which makes the later recruitment of Karl Jenkins seem a logical step. A lot of room is left to improvisation, and the versions of "Facelift" and "Slightly All The Time" on this set are substantially different to the original versions. The only - minor - problem with Live In France is the sound quality - mono and somewhat lacking in dynamics - but this is nonetheless a superb performance. (A new version of this album is due for release on Cuneiform Records in May, 2004)
The latest, and hopefully not last, in the series of live CD's from the classic era of Soft Machine. This contains the entirety (almost 80 minutes) of a two-set concert recorded and broadcast by Germany's Radio Bremen (it has since been aired again a few times), only days after the Soft Machine And Heavy Friends session (see above). And one of the very best in that it offers a unique opportunity to hear a complete performance by the band. This features most of the tracks (in shorter versions) from Third ("Facelift", "Slightly All The Time" - without the "Noisette"/"Backwards" part - and "Out-Bloody-Rageous") and all the ones from Fourth, plus Dean's "Neo-Caliban Grides", the transitional "Eamonn Andrews" (never included on any studio album) which features a vocal improvisation by Wyatt around the lyrics of "Hope For Happiness" and "Pigling Bland", the only leftover from the "Esther's Nosejob" suite.