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I love the band when they attacks songs like Facelift with a massive force of drums fuzzy bass, fuzzy organs and various woodwind instruments. For me; what makes Soft Machine so great is the power balance in the sound between the various instruments. If one of the instruments becomes too dominant, the whole dynamic becomes a lot less interesting.

On the two sets which makes this album, the late Elton Dean occupies too much space for my liking. This was some of the final sets Robert Wyatt ever did in Soft Machine before he departed. His drumming is still great, but he is left with little space on these two sets. Both Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge has been reigned in too and pushed into the background.

Another gripe I have is cutting Facelift down to ten minutes. Facelift in full flow is a monster and an incredible piece of music. The version on this album, the opening song, is pretty lame. This due to too much Dean and not enough Hopper.

In short; these two set which makes up this album is not Soft Machine on their finest. It is still a good live album, but it is still pretty low on my list of their best live albums. Hence.....

3 stars

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