Soft Machine

[Hoppy T. Frog]

I wouldn't include Goblin or Stereolab with regards to Soft Machine. Apples to oranges......

Stereolab = Neu! + National Health + Catherine Ribiero/Alpes + Alan Stivell + Doug Yule's Velvet Underground.

I wouldn't include Goblin or Stereolab with regards to Soft Machine. Apples to oranges......

Stereolab = Neu! + National Health + Catherine Ribiero/Alpes + Alan Stivell + Doug Yule's Velvet Underground.

Don't forget their acknowledged debt to The Free Design.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Hoppy T. Frog

[BFrank]

FYI, you can purchase MP3s of Third from Amazon for $3.99

[mjzee]

Just noticed this at Amazon UK. 4 CD box set, limited edition (1,000 copies), June 23 release date:

[GA Russell]

I was a huge fan of Soft Machine back in the day, and bought every album as it came out. But it's my impression that the many live CDs that Cuneiform has released over the years are pretty similar to the original albums.

Can anyone recommend an album or two (other than those recommended above) where something unique is found?

[BFrank]

I saw them at my first ever rock concert in '68. They had a great light show.

The headliner was pretty good, too. [Jimi Hendrix]

[A Lark Ascending]

Just noticed the current version of Soft Machine are doing a concert with Keith Tippett in St Ives in Sept (as part of the folk festival - the mind boggles).

They seem to have done a London gig together.

Be curious to see that.

[GA Russell]

Bev, is there anyone in the current lineup I might have heard of?

Who is the leader?

[A Lark Ascending]

John Etheridge, John Marshall, Roy Babbington from the olden days - more mid-70s than classic era. And Theo Travis who I'm sure you know from recent collaborations with Fripp and Steven Wilson.

More in that mid-70s fusion style than the wonders of the Elton Dean years. Their last album 'Burden of Proof' is very enjoyable - a bitt riffy in places but some nice atmospheric parts, benefiting from Travis' colour on flute.

I'd have liked to have heard them with Tippett. All strong musicians who might just betaken somewhere else by a dedicated impov man like Tippett.

There's a review of a recent concert here:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/manchester-jazz-festival-review-soft-7465887

Edited July 31, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[GA Russell]

Sounds great. I'll look for it.

[mjzee]

[B. Clugston]

Here's more on the Switzerland 1974 release. This is a long way from Robert Wyatt, but I really like this incarnation of the band.

"On July 4, 1974, Soft Machine were invited to perform at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, sharing the spotlight with such headliners as Billy Cobham’s Spectrum, Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This alone was evidence of the band being a dominant presence on the now widely popular jazz-rock scene, which had evolved out of the unique and edgy sound that the band had pioneered a few years before...

http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/softmachine.html

[Guy Berger]

I've been listening to quite a bit of SM over the past few weeks and here's my current read.

First, the original run of albums, at least the early ones, is really great.  Albums 2-4 in particular are wonderful to listen to.

Second, the archival releases I have (Noisette, Virtually) show that as a live unit, they weren't in the same tier as the top American jazz-rock contemporaries that were mining similar terrain (esp Weather Report and the Miles Davis bands).  That's not surprising because the caliber of improvisers/visionaries was so exceptional in the elite American units, i.e. Soft Machine does pretty well if you bracket it with the next tier of Americans.

Also worth adding that they definitely brought something new and innovative to the table.  There are flavors in the SM gumbo that you don't get when you listen to WR or the MD bands.

[felser]

4 minutes ago, Guy Berger said:

I've been listening to quite a bit of SM over the past few weeks and here's my current read.

First, the original run of albums, at least the early ones, is really great.  Albums 2-4 in particular are wonderful to listen to.

Second, the archival releases I have (Noisette, Virtually) show that as a live unit, they weren't in the same tier as the top American jazz-rock contemporaries that were mining similar terrain (esp Weather Report and the Miles Davis bands).  That's not surprising because the caliber of improvisers/visionaries was so exceptional in the elite American units, i.e. Soft Machine does pretty well if you bracket it with the next tier of Americans.

Also worth adding that they definitely brought something new and innovative to the table.  There are flavors in the SM gumbo that you don't get when you listen to WR or the MD bands.

I've always liked them a lot, both studio and live.  Mike Ratledge sounded like no one else.   Their first album is very good for what it is, but is a rock album with Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers out front (though Ratledge gets to do his thing very well).  Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers pushed them in more of a jazz-rock hybrid direction, and the addition of Elton Dean and the other horn players on Third did so even more.  2-4 are a peak (4 is my personal favorite), and Bundles, with Allan Holdsworth, is another peak, but all of their albums from the first one through Live in Paris are well worthwhile.   I like their live stuff quite a bit when the sound quaility is up to snuff, and find it to be something very different than Weather Report/Miles Davis.