LIVE IN FRANCE (PARIS)

Recorded at Paris's Olympia theatre (as part of a one week festival including Magma, Grateful Dead, East Of Eden and The (Morrison-less) Doors, this is yet another very interesting live recording the incredible Cuneiform labels pulls from the cardboards. One of the shortest SM incarnations (that had only managed to record half of 5 album prior to the release of theses tapes, as Phil Howard had been ejected (he was pulling the Machine into a full improv band, much to Ratledge and Hopper's dislike) and John Marshall (originally sensed to be at the drum stool but not available when Wyatt had left) was brought in, but Dean was to leave soon, peeved at Howard's firing. All of the material is from Third and 5 and strangely nothing from 4, maybe as an anti-Howard reaction from the two masters on board. But ultimately Dean's departure (due to the sacking of Howard) will provoke a series of changes where a bunch of Nucleus members will fill the shoes of departing members and changing the jazz-rock Machine into a full fusion butterfly of Bundles and Softs albums. But for this particular release, three of the four tracks from third are present on that night's set-list, but there are tracks that are nowhere to be seen on studio records or even on their official historical releases of that era. Again the sound quality of this Cuneiform is extraordinarily good especially considering Elton Dean was plagued with bad mikes, but it does not affect the sound. Worthy of note, Dean was also playing electric piano that night (this was not usual as far as I know) and his replacement, Karl Jenkins, will also double on Kbs and reeds.

Maybe not essential unless you are a total SM fan, this record is once again the proof that the Machine was a well-oiled one capable of mesmerising concerts.