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I have to admit I was not looking forward to listening to Soft Machine's earlier demos. This CD is the collection of their earlier demos and I was listening to it as a soundtrack to the excellent book about Soft Machine (Out Bloody-Rageous) I was reading.

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