OUT BLOODY RAGEOUS (ANTHOLOGY 67-73)

Probably such a good anthology represents the Planet Soft Machine in the best manner, not only for the typical sound of Canterbury, with hints of progressive jazz and pshichedelia... the musicianship is often superb, even though sometimes it's uneven within some harmonic passages!! Never mind, cause their fluid 'Canterbury Style' along with the versatility of this music-genre are enriched with such an eccentric music vision by Robert Wyatt. But I think also of Mike Ratledge's astonishing , even though too much often unconventional keyboards, anyway well 'supported' by means of the avant-garde jazz style, merging later on with the integrated fusion passages.. During their fertile career the harmonic plots and their elaborate musicianship grew uncontrollably, by forgetting sometimes the most genuine music aspects, but this is the typical feature of this genre: you love it or you hate it, in accordance to your personal music tastes and your own impression received by the ensemble of Soft Machine ...besides I don't forgert the Elton Dean's sax and his most balanced music approach, which infected their penchant for maturity...at the end this is an important anthology for all seasons!!