THE SOFT MACHINE

Well, I guess if I want to review a project with Kevin Ayers involved, this is it; his solo work, though often progressive, is not to be found here (yet?). I saw these guys open for Hendrix (both acts only had one album out at the time), and of course, they did nothing for me. I was only 14 or 15; even Hendrix did little for me, although I recognized the "hits". The auditorium in San Antonio had horrible acoustics, and both acts came across as a wall of muddy noise. Anyway, NOW I can say without hesitation that this album has many examples of genius (mixed in with many examples of self-indulgent goofiness). It's really hard to go back to the "beginning" objectively after devouring nearly every solo album Ayers and Wyatt have released over the years. I'm sure that if I listened to this album for the first time now, without ever having heard that solo work, that I would be unimpressed and perplexed. Moot point.