THE SOFT MACHINE

I've read several reviews that underrate this album generally considered "historical". I'm not surprised of that. "Third" is not an easy record. It requires years of training before one guy would have the listening skills to enjoy it. Let me make an example: take whatever easy-listener you know and put in his/her ears "Bitches Brew". The kindest thing you can hear from him/her will be that it is a inconsistent soup of stuff unworthy to be called "music". I love "Third", especially the underrated Mike Ratledge's "Slightly All the Time" that I personally consider one of the highest peaks of the so-called "Canterbury Sound". Generally, of the four tracks people praise only Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June", the prototype of the second generation of Canterbury Sound, that of Hatfield and the North, National Health and other less known bands. It's not my case, though I like very much Wyatt. I tell you a bit of my life. When I was fifteen I buyed "Ummagumma", convinced to have in my hands a record like "Dark Side" or "Wish You Were Here". The shock was great. The same was the first time I listened to "Third". Years passed, I began to appreciate jazz, firstly Bird & Dizzy, after Monk, Mingus, Davis and so on, till I arrived to John Coltrane. After that, I had the occasion to approach again "Third" (and "Fourth" "Six"...). And "Third" was so clear to me, so understandable, that even I thought it was "easy". Almost ten years of listening and music training passed between the first time I listen terrified to "Third" and the time I enthusiastically bought the CD.

A quote from comedian and musician Bill Bailey: "The thing about playing jazz, you can play any old chord you like. Any old nonsense really - and people go 'yeahhh nice...'. But most of jazz sounds like a surrealist car alarm".

Unfortunately for me this just about sums up the first track of this album, Facelift. I'm sure many will say its on a level above my own comprehension of music, but its almost 20 minutes of out-of-tune or out-of-time jamming that just doesn't seem to go anywhere. This is a shame, because I actually quite like the second track on the album, Slightly All the Time, which does at least seem to have some structure and is loosely at my level of acceptability for jazz rock. Then we have a song that includes vocals from Robert Wyatt, which unfortunately will always grate on my unrefined ears, before Out-Bloody-Rageous, which is more of a jam like Facelift, but 'cleaner' and better... for ten minutes. It then strips back into a more surreal and experimental second half. The sad thing it I think I would have enjoyed this track far more if I hadn't already endured the marathon of the first three.

Well worth trying out if you're in the mood, but personal tastes mean I have no idea how anyone can rate this an essential album.

Ok, I am in the lower amount of fans who enjoy Soft Machine. I do not enjoy this album, I found that this album was very messy, didn't have a solid atmosphere, and it shared elements of First Circle by Pat Methany... and I'm talking about Forward March. I apologize but I was not a fan of this overly experimental and non-structured album, it didn't show much emotion and it just seemed more like a huge mess of an album to me. Nothing here stood out, for me, If I want to listen to a Soft Machine album, I'll turn elsewhere, such as Bundles. Sadly, this just didn't do anything for me.

Ok, for those who are upset about this review, please site my review on Larks for this review to make me sense. I made sure that I was more clear, and hopefully it will clear things up.

In the 1970's Soft Machine were one of those bands who developed and changed their music - and some listeners just didn't like it. Some didn't like them after Kevin Ayers left, some after "Third", some after Robert Wyatt's departure. Around the time of this album some reviewers thought they were "past their best", "trading on past glories" and press views of this and the following Harvest albums were often lukewarm.

Looking back, this is a well composed, well played and (to me at any rate) very enjoyable album, in line with what bands such as Nucleus and Isotope were offering. The next album, "Bundles", featuring the late, great Allan Holdsworth, continued this trajectory and remains one of the most special British jazz-rock albums of that decade. At the time, some people weren't impressed with that either.

In 2020 these albums are still available and perhaps are more appreciated than ever - they deserve to be anyway.

Wow, what an eye-opener! This archival release offers up a live set recorded by Soft Machine in the gap between the "Six" and "Seven" albums. That places it in a time period which is a little contentious among followers of the band; Robert Wyatt is out, as is Hugh Hopper (though he guests in a bonus feature on the DVD performing a little something from his "1983" solo album), and Roy Babbington, Karl Jenkins, and John Marshall are all in.

In other words, at this stage only one founder member of Soft Machine is left, and he's increasingly taking a back seat in terms of the compositional direction of the band, which is increasingly dominated by the new members, all of whom are ex-members of Nucleus. A shift in the band's overall sound is only to be expected, and for some fans - especially those who prize the psychedelic aspects of the Machine's early output - it isn't really Soft Machine any more, just a Nucleus side project with Mike Ratledge along for the ride.

Regardless of how you feel on that front, though, there's no denying that this live set is absolute dynamite. Yes, it's very much in the jazz fusion side of Canterbury and might be just a shade over the borderline into straight-ahead fusion of the Nucleus school, but it's really goddamn good fusion!

Since the set was recorded for television, you get the best of both worlds here: the release combines the energy and rawness of a live performance with the sound quality of a professional studio. The upshot is a release which really captures the capabilities of the lineup, and to my ears sounds better than the rather polished, mild-mannered studio albums the band were putting out at this time.

Frankly, I think it's a bit of a shame that Soft Machine's post- Wyatt lineups never quite managed to produce a studio album on the level of this set; had they done so, I think their legacy would be far less contentious. As it stands, I have to say that this is the best post-Wyatt Soft Machine release I've ever heard.

If one had never heard the previous albums with their quirky beginnings in psychedelia one might enter into the world of Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, Robert Wyatt, and Elton Dean thinking that these guys are 1) serious jazz musicians and 2) great masters of their instruments. The only problem is: There is very, very little here that feels or sounds like Canterbury style music--a little in "Kings and Queens" and Virtually part 3." That's it. While Dean's saxes will become more refined and creative in his more free-form future, the playing here of Robert Wyatt is the first and only time that I found myself thinking that "this is a really impressive musician." Ratledge and Hopper are really good and the addition of double bass from NUCLEUS founder Mike Babbington is awesome. Also, I still think it rather unique and brave of the band to go without a guitar player.

1. "Teeth" (9:15) Jazz! Free jazz! At least, from the saxophone. From the opening notes this song presents the band as a jazz band with little or no ties to its previous incarnations. It's too bad as this is not one of the album's better songs--even the recording mix is "off." (15/20)

2. "Kings and queens" (5:02) slow and melodic with the gentle waves of keys, toms, and cymbals to support. Ratledge is brilliant in his support and Wyatt and Hopper and Dean are impressive as well. (8.75/10)

3. "Fletcher's blemish" (4:35) pure free-form jazz in which the musicians exhibit some great control and, surprisingly, cohesiveness. (8.5/10)

4. "Virtually part 1" (5:16) jazz, pure and simple, with some nice structural experimentation. The barebones-ness of this piece gives each instrumentalists plenty of space in which to shine. (8.5/10)

5. "Virtually part 2" (7:09) enter the Lowrey organ--the last vestige of the Canterbury sound--and multiple tracks given to Elton Dean for his two instruments. Great instrumental performances--especially true of Robert Wyatt--but nothing very special melodically or emotionally. (12.5/15)

6. "Virtually part 3" (4:33) sees a step back from pacing and walls of sound as the drums check out and everybody else goes into "tuning mode." The electric bass of Hugh Hopper takes the lead while everybody else offers a kind of gentle support. It's actually kind of pretty music despite the fuzzed bass up front. (8.75/10)

7. "Virtually part 4" (3:23) smoother and more cohesive, even melodic. My favorite section of the album and the one that allows me to keep this album in the list of Canterbury favorites. (9.5/10)

Total Time: 39:13

3.5 to a Low four stars; a nice jazz album for its time but not a very glowing representative of the Canterbury Scene.

Although it's considered a 'Canterbury Scene' album, Third could adequately described as largely a jazz-prog album with some avant-garde tendencies. If Soft Machine produced this exact album, but were based in West Germany, we'd call it 'Krautrock' and discover connections between Soft Machine and Can or Faust or Brainticket. But more on that in a moment.

Third is my introduction to Soft Machine, so I have to take at face value the claim that it represents a substantial transition from Volume Two, which they'd released nine months earlier. Nonetheless it's tough to miss the transition between the first and second sides of Third, a double album with one track per side. Side One, 'Facelift,' is a studio-treated live piece recorded in January 1970, while the rest of the album was recorded at IBC studios in London in May and June.

The only difference in personnel between Side One and the remainder of the album is the inclusion of saxophonist / flautist Lyn Dobson; otherwise the core lineup is drummer / vocalist Robert Wyatt, bassist Hugh Hopper, keyboardist Mike Ratledge, and saxophonist Elton Dean. It's not the musicians, or the instrumentation, or even the fact that "Facelift" is (largely) a live recording that separates it from the other tracks. Maybe the best way to say it is that "Facelift" has an entirely different attitude from the rest of the album, and that it's a more experimental and harder attitude than I associate with Canterbury. In fact, I'd say it's akin to a Krautrock attitude. But this dissipates after the nineteen-minute first side; Sides Two ("Slightly All the Time") and Three ("Moon in June") are more like the jazzy and folky prog that I associate with the Canterbury sound. A more experimental approach returns on the final side ("Out-Bloody-Rageous").

The high point, in my opinion, is 'Slightly All the Time,' a jazzy instrumental suite. However, I have to confess an admiration for the studio-as-instrument aspects of 'Out-Bloody-Rageous,' even if that track, from a compositional standpoint, is both drawn-out and unfocused. It's a bit of a cliché, but Third would probably have been a four-star LP had someone like Holger Czukay or Frank Zappa been entrusted with editing it down to a 'single album.'

My last criticism is the relatively low sound quality. I downloaded my copy from freegal.com, and it's unclear to me which edition I have. Apparently there are some releases of Third on which the sound has been 'cleaned up.' But I have to concur with those who have remarked on the lo-fi sound.

All things considered, Third is a good album. I'm sure Canterbury fans are well aware of this and other albums by Soft Machine and related acts, but anyone interested in jazzy progressive rock or in lighter Krautrock might also want to check this one out.

Whilst I wouldn't say this is quite as revelatory as Hux's previous 2CD set of BBC sessions from The Soft Machine, this compilation does provide a nice overview of their latter-day fusion-oriented era. Consisting of radio sessions recorded after the departure of Robert Wyatt, the sessions take in the span of time from Fifth (note the presence of transitional drummer Phil Howard on the first three tracks) to the threshold of Bundles.

It's over this period of time that the band's musical direction got increasingly influenced by Karl Jenkins - who co- composed a good chunk of Six, the first Softs album he appeared on - but that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned, because Fifth was a comparatively weaker album which found the Softs, having won their battle with Robert Wyatt in terms of rejecting his preferred direction of the group, no longer particularly sure of which way they actually wanted to go. Purists who prefer the early, far more psychedelic-influenced era of Soft Machine and don't care much for fusion won't find much to enjoy here, but if you're willing to regard the post-Wyatt Softs as essentially a different band (I've used the analogy "Nucleus by other means" before) and have a taste for jazz fusion, you may find this a useful avenue to explore.

After two years off, Mike Ratledge, the only remaining member of the original Softs, pulls his previous lineup of former-NEWCLEUS members together for one more time but this time recruiting one more recent NEWCLEUS member into the fold: guitar phenom ALLAN HOLDSWORTH. What an injection of life and power he is! What results is one fine collection of jazz-rock fusion songs--one that is unfortunately often overlooked due to the band's previous history and, to many, disappointing evolution. (I think a lot of people had long given up on buying their new releases--myself included--which is sad as this is an absolutely stellar album.) Many people refer to this album as the Allan Holdsworth breakout album as he would go on to work with many of the jazz fusion superstars in the next couple of years. I believe that this "breaktrhough" is made possible by the amazing cohesion of the Newcleus support crew--Babbington, Marshall, and Jenkins. As a matter of fact, this album, in my opinion, should have a different band name cuz they're not really the Soft Machine (history says that with Bundles Ratledge had given the reins over to Karl Jenkins). They're more Newcleus but not Newcleus. They're really the Allan Holdsworth Debut Project.

Total Time: 41:55

An excellent jazz fusion masterpiece/near-masterpiece on the level of Newcleus, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea/Return To Forever, Tony Williams Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Brand X, but NOT a Canterbury style album.

Some pockets of Canterbury sound fans seem somewhat dismissive of this latest work to appear under the Soft Machine banner, 2018's `Hidden Details'. While it may really be just a further extension of the Soft Machine Legacy group from the last fifteen years or so, three of the four musicians here actually played on Soft Machine's `Softs' from 1976, so if you're a fan of that line- up and era of the legendary group, or you're simply a lover of sh*t-hot jazz-rock/fusion playing in general, there's tons to appreciate here.

One thing that instantly stands out about `Hidden Details' is the way it dips into numerous styles from so many periods of forty five plus-years of Soft Machine music, with the exception of the psychedelic pop early years. Opener `Hidden Details' is a dusty slow-burn smoulder of Roy Babbington's murmuring bass, John Marshall's rambunctious drumming, Theo Travis' lively blaring sax and John Etheridge's splintering runaway guitar snarl. Weeping and gnashing sax tendrils and grinding guitar distortion seductively seep out of `Ground Lift', and `Heart Off Guard' is a stark acoustic lament with sorrowful sax. The shimmering `Broken Hill' has lightly bluesy guitar ringing laced with mystery and unease, and `Flight Of The Jett' is restless ambience.

`One Glove' has a dirty bluesy chugging swagger, `Drifting White' is a sobering late-night electric guitar reflection, and the noisy `Life On Bridges' shambles with sax drowsiness, wailing guitar tantrums and thrashing drum spasms. `Fourteen Hour Dream' embraces the lighter Caravan-like Canterbury approach with its sprightly energy and sweetly trilling flute, and closer `Breathe' is a softly blowing meditation of placid cooling flute and slowly unfurling hazy effects.

Two pieces are reworkings of earlier SM pieces - `Bundles' `The Man Who Waved At Trains' is reimagined with sparkling electric piano raindrops before slinking into a tranquil flute rumination in the tradition of the most chilled Canterbury moments, and a portion of `Third's `Out Bloody Rageous' reveals dreamy Fender Rhodes piano glistenings and electronic spirals before dashing through bustling and infectious sax driven themes

`Hidden Details' never sounds like lukewarm or uninspired rehashes of past Soft Machine moments, and it's even more satisfying that this current line-up are putting out masterful and colourful new music that is equally as vital and valid as anything else in their earlier vast catalogue. Canterbury fans are spoiled to have such first rate musicians still active in both live performances and in the studio, and it's a thrill to discover that `Hidden Details' is one of the standout releases of progressive rock-related music in 2018.

Four and a half stars.