THE SOFT MACHINE

I rate Bundles very highly and this live album is therefore essential in my record collection. I have probably been listening to this album too much because I really find it so enjoyable. The Bundles line-up also plays on this live album. This include Allan Holdsworth.

The album starts with the mediative piece The Floating World and the listener is automatic drawn into Soft Machine's world. It is followed by Bundles and Land Of The Bag Snake. Superb stuff. Some avant-garde bass stuff comes in at Ealing Comedy. The Man Who Waved At Trains includes violin from Allan Holdsworth. Fabelous. Karl Jenkins is brilliant at Peff. North Point is just fuzz from Pembridge. Allan Holdsworth is brilliant on his guitar at Hazard Profile Part One. John Marshall gives us a ten minutes long drum solo on J.S.M. and parts of Riff III before the rest of the band joins in halfway through and takes us through Song Of Aeolus, Endgame and Penny Hitch with some brilliant interplays. And so ends this live album.

This live album can be compared to British Tour '75. The difference is the guitarists (John Etheridge vs. Allan Holdsworth). Both albums are superb. Allan Holdsworth is playing his guts out on this album and his fingerprints is all over it. That alone is reason enough to enjoy it. But the rest of the band is excellent too and this live album capture a brief moment of Soft Machine's career. Highly recommended, this brief moment is.

4 stars

Allan Holdsworth left the band after Bundles and in came another Nucleus member; John Etheridge. Mike Ratledge, the only remaining Soft Machine member left halfway through the recording and Karl Jenkins took over the tangents in addition to writing most of the material here. Alan Wakeman took over Karl Jenkins old job.

Gone too is most of the quirky avant-garde jazz Soft Machine pioneered. Softs is more or less a straight jazz-rock album with some added Soft Machine quirkiness. It can also be compared to their previous album Bundles. Both in style and quality wise.

Most of the material on Softs is simply stunning. The songs from The Tale of Taliesien to Kayoo is simply jazz-rock heaven. Excellent guitar solos backed up by outstanding saxophone and keyboards work. Fabelous ! The material changes between lyrically soft jazz to swinging jazz-rock. Everything here is very melodic, but still very Soft Machine. The rest of the album is the normal Soft Machine quirky fare, including a drum solo and an accoustic guitar piece.

By all standards; this is an excellent album. I still miss some of Karl Jenkins flutes and saxophones. Bundles is still a better album than this, but just by some inches. I love this album.

4 stars

I was in for a nice surprise though. Although this material is miles away from the Soft Machine I really love, the quality is surprisingly good. The line up here is David Allen on guitar, Robert Wyatt on drums & vocals, Kevin Ayers on bass and Mike Ratledge on keyboards. The bands this line up has spawned is impressive. Gong, Kevin Ayers, Matching Mole, Robert Wyatt and Soft Machine itself.

The music here is melodic but still twisted psychedelic rock. The average song length is three minutes. The main instrument here is Robert Wyatt's vocals. He has a special rasping voice which suits the material here. But the rest of the band is good too. Daevid Allan hates this CD because he think his playing is sub-standard. Well, this is not his finest hour. But according to Jimi Hendrix, he had nothing to be ashamed off and I think Daevid Allen is a bit hard on himself.

Some of the songs are actually very good, to my surprise. Memories, She's Gone, Save Yourself and That's How Much I Need You Now is the best songs here. The rest is not bad too. Again, I am surprised because listening to demos from bands normally means sub- standard material. This is not the case with Soft Machine.

I am not a fan of psychedelic rock or Soft Machine's first two albums. But if you disagree with me and likes their two first albums, this will be a CD you will need in your collection. In it's own right, this is a good CD.

3 stars

Soft Machine went more or less straight jazz on this album. Karl Jenkins took over the band and ran it his way. There is nothing straight about Soft Machine though. Their jazz has their own sound and signatures. Most often, it has some avant-garde slant to it. The first half of Six is also a live album. Most of Six feels like one long improvisation with organs, saxophones and flutes. The stuff here is good. Seven follows the same path as Six. Improvised jazz with some space rock and avant-garde influences. Seven is also a good album.

These two albums are pretty similar and it was a good idea to release them as a 2 CD budget release. If you do not own any of these two albums, this 2 CD package is therefore recommended.

3 stars

It is obvious that Allan Holdsworth's inclusion on guitars was the kick Soft Machine needed. His guitars are excellent. The Bundles album kicks of with his guitars at the nine minutes long opening track Hazard Profile Part 1. This track is a solid jazz-rock track and a break with the stuff from their previous albums. It is also like a breath of fresh air, in my view. The rest of Hazard Profile is a mix of jazz rock and a return to the old Soft Machine from Third onwards.

Gone Sailing is a piece of Allan Holdsworth on accoustic guitars. I believe that is a first on a Soft Machine album. A nice fifty seconds long track btw. The second excellent track on this alum is the title track Bundles. This is an excellent melody which is played almost as an improvisation with Allan Holdsworth on his electric guitars, backed up by hammond organs, drums and bass. This is one of Soft Machines best ever pieces of music.

After some other interesting pieces of music with the usual Soft Machine fingerprints all over them, we arrive at the third truly excellent track on this album. It is called The Floating World. This is an unusual piece of music for this album. It is not jazz rock. It is Soft Machine staring back at their previous four albums. It is a melancholic meditation with flute which ebbs and flows. This too is one of the best pieces of music Soft Machine has ever released.

Some says this is an untypical Soft Machine album. I disagree. In my view, they just did some tweaking on the Soft Machine formula after a slight stagnation on Six and Seven. Yes, it is a jazz rock album of sorts. But it is not a generic jazz rock album. It is jazz rock on Soft Machine's own terms. A couple of better tracks and this album would had been perfect. Anyway, Bundles is a truly stunning album.

4.5 stars

But thanks to prog archives one is constantly reminded that even with an album collection of more then 1500 units, one still doesn't know anything about music. (Frustrating site this is :-) So, going by some recent reviews here I dug this one up again and now it works just perfectly. Even at the first listen I was finding myself pleasantly nodding along with it.

In following Miles Davis' earlier experiments, this album must have been groundbreaking in the rock scene. Listening to Out-Bloody-Rageous I can hear Magma and Gong just around the corner. The playing is very tight and focused. The mood is very intense, the music is devoid of needless noodling and has plenty of space to breathe.

Excellent stuff. Candidate for a 5 star if I get to return to it more frequently. In the meantime I'll probably need to check out some of their other albums.

That is not necessary a bad thing, music wise. The music on Seven is actually good. The jazz is appealing, although a bit one dimentional. Most of the music here is laid back and a bit too repetetive. Karl Jenkins does a wind instrument impro solo and is backed up by Mike Ratledge on keyboard in the background as the basic melody. This is repeated over and over again on different melodies. I have to admit I like this music. It is easy on the ear where Third was one big camel of a challenge for me.

Seven is a good album, but I still miss the weirdness from Third.

3 stars

Soft Machine's 6th album, entitled no more nor less than 'Six', was the turning-point to the full- blown Jazz Rock sound they would get somewhat popular with their future records, Bundles and Softs, which would feature a guitarist. While Six(and Seven) do not feature any guitarist, this record still manages to sound like those upcoming releases very much, of course that could be product of it being the same line-up, with the exception of Hugh Hopper who would leave for the following record. But what it really is that makes it sound similar to the 'Guitar' phase of Soft Machine is what I'm going to say while reviewing the album:

First LP of the original recording compromises of a live performance of this new line-up, in which demonstrates that whole new sound they would later adopt with the guitar; lots of groove and energy coming from the fantastic rhythm section compromised by well-respected bass player Hugh Hopper and Nucleus' John Marshall, which in following releases would be compromised with Roy Babbington in place of Hugh on the bass duties. However the usual constant saxophone solos are present, but this time done by Karl Jenkins who also shares the keyboard duties with mastermind Mike Ratledge, giving a wider variety of soundscapes and jazzy hooks. Also, I must not forget that Jenkins' sax(and Oboe!) style is rather more loose and suites well the groovy style this album has newely featured, unlike the more jazz-rooted and spacey Elton Dean who often edged strict jazz territory or avant-garde dissonance. Overall very exciting, and pretty jazz-less compared to their highly acclaimed 'Third', so this record is not exclusive for fans of that album either of Jazz. Worthy of mention is the exceptional craft from each song in which flows flawlessly one after the other as if they all compromised one awesome huge jazz rock composition, very much alike as they would do with Bundles and the live recording, British Tour '75.

Second LP is pretty much a different story, though. Not only it's the studio recording, but the style of it is pretty much in the vein of the proto-jazz rock style of Fourth and Fifth, rather than the rock-headed and groovy vein the live record presented. So fans of that previous period who didn't enjoy the live recording because of its rock-direction, then this record will surely satisfy your jazz and spacey needs, specially with Chloe and The Pirates and The Soft Weed Factor, two mesmerizing compositions in which take you to a whole different level to that of the live recording, both remind somewhat of In a Silent Way's slow build-up structure, but a bit more spacey-alike and with a 70s sound.

So 'Six' is indeed one excellent fresh, half Jazz Rock the other half classic Soft Machine-esque, album. Both, fans of the guitar-driven Soft Machine and fans of the jazzier and more spacey Soft Machine can be delighted with this album, since the material of both styles are excellently done.

This album is made up of two parts. A live recording and one studio recording. But in essence; it is still a seventy minutes long jam. A bit strange for anyone but Soft Machine fans. For us; a Soft Machine album recorded naked in the Gobi Desert would be pretty normal fare from them. Let me hasten to add; this album was recorded fully clothed somewhere in England. I just wanted to point out that this band and their music is pretty eccentric. Or rather; very eccentric.

I find the music here less avant-garde and less introverted than the previous three albums (3,4 & 5). The band has opened up a bit and the music is more flowing, with the ecception off the drum and bass solo here. The change of members may have something to do with this. But in their Glasnost-like process; the band has lost something magic they had on Third. The quality of the material is also not as good as on the previous three albums. But there is still good stuff here for Soft Machine fans like myself.

I really like this album. But as a converted Soft Machine fan who preaches the joy of Soft Machine on every street corner in Great Britain, you may say that I like this album by default. Those who like the other jazz albums from Soft Machine will still like this album. But some of the magic has gone from this band on this album. This is their weakest mid-period jazz album, I am afraid.

3.25 stars

But Soft Machine's third is by far their most drastic change and perhaps their most defining album.The leap from their Second to Third saw huge change into their sound.Vocals appeared less frequently and instrumentals dominated their albums with complex arrangements,more experimental recording techniques,new instrumentation & a new member to the band (Elton Dean).Other notable differences were the amount of songs and their length in this case four tracks,all of with nearly 20 minutes in length.Which clearly shows Soft Machine weren't looking for mass acceptance or commercial success.Their is not doubt a huge free jazz influence which plays a prominent part through their long jams and improvisations most notably the addition Elton Dean and his Alto Saxophone & incredible solo's is crucial to their sound.Other musicians who recorded on this album but weren't full time members include Lyn Dobson on Soprano Sax & Flute,Jimmy Hastings also on Flute & Clairnet.With such amounts of instrumentation allows Soft Machine to take lengthy solos and create intriguing harmony's without the feeling of repetition.

The first track "facelift" is perhaps their most radical with Mike Ratledge & Robert Wyatt playing a long erratic discordant introduction with their organs soaked in effects before leading into a complex theme with horn harmony's reminiscent of Ornette Coleman then leaping into an upbeat main theme,which becomes the songs focal point for impressive solos by Ratledge & others.It's also features feedback & reverse tapes loops played at various speeds over an already complex arrangement and ends with the main theme slowed down to half the speed.The whole album is certainly one hell of trip with sections of songs recorded live and others within the studio really explains its unpredictability and chaos.This is perhaps why the album doesn't lack in energy and why the musicianship is excellent.Robert Wyatt only vocal performance on the album with third song "Moon In June" acts as the bridge between Soft Machine's second and Third.Which is something that could of been on albums before,though still upbeat it brings a little calmer edge to the album in comparison to the rest of the album allowing the listener time to recuperate and prepare for the next ride.

Another highlight performance is bassist Huge Hopper whom with such crazy sounds & arrangements Huge really holds each song together & provides a solid rhythm section and perhaps the only sound of sanity in the album.

Certainly one of Prog Rock's,Fusion's,Canterbury's most important albums and the beginning of Soft Machine's venture into deeper jazz territory.Check it out at all costs.