KARL JENKINS: RUBBER RIFF

Rubber Riff is above all else two things: firstly, it is a selection of Karl Jenkins compositions performed by Karl and some Soft Machine bandmates in order to be sold on as "library music" - the sort of incidental music intended to be licensed cheaply, usually for use as background music for weather forecasts and cheap adverts and things like that.

Secondly, and more enragingly, it is a nasty little fraud perpetrated by Blueprint, who reissued it in 1994 as a lost Soft Machine album. It is nothing of the sort and was never intended to be anything of the sort; the bland light fusion muzak pieces on here were never intended to be full Soft Machine pieces, they were a side project lashed together quickly in order to make some extra scratch.

As a Karl Jenkins solo album, the music here is anonymous, forgettable, and trite. As a package offered to the CD buying public, it is a scam and an outrage. Do not be fooled. I am no fan of the Karl Jenkins-led incarnation of Soft Machine but even I wouldn't besmirch their reputation by passing this rot off as a Softs album.