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The Soft Machine - Fourth CD (album) cover

FOURTH

The Soft Machine

 

Canterbury Scene

3.59 | 421 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

topographicbroadways
3 stars Where Third had been a record where the new Jazz direction was explored Robert Wyatt's more contemporary touch was still present and made it still very identifiable as Soft Machine. On this record they stray further into the Jazz domain and it makes for a more traditional Jazz sound.

Virtually Part's 1-4 is the high point of this record featuring fantastic experimentation and sounds with Robert Wyatt's final farewell a fantastic drum performance. Teeth, the albums opener also offers a fantastic listen with lots of improvisation around an interesting bass and drum pattern throughout it's duration.

Woodwind instruments are omnipresent throughout this record much more-so than on Third which makes for a less exciting musical experience but this is no less a fantastic record with brilliant performances from all involved and you can see Robert Wyatt's influence on the group has greatly diminished between the last record and Fourth.

Overall this is an album for Jazz purists with a lot of Miles Davis influence on the music and is by no means a traditional Canterbury scene record. For those who want Soft Machine at there collaborative peak buy Third, but to see fantastic musicians working hard individually and creating fantastic music Fourth is definitely the Soft Machine record for you.

topographicbroadways | 3/5 |

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