DEDICATED TO YOU, BUT YOU WEREN'T LISTENING

It's hard not to see this one as Keith Tippett's Canterbury album; not only does he draw heavily on Soft Machine members past, present and future (it'd be 2 years before Roy Babbington signed up with the Softs, and Robert Wyatt was just on the verge of leaving) to obtain the personnel for the band (as well as plenty of Nucleus members), the album itself is actually named after a Soft Machine composition. (What's more, Gridal Suite seems to be a nod to the Softs' own Neo-Caliban Grides.) It's a more traditionally jazzy take on the Canterbury sound, with a very able and well-judged fusion of the two musical approaches which puts the Soft Machine's own fourth and fifth albums (fairly transparent attempts to present a side of the band more acceptable to the jazz establishment) to shame.