Return of a legend

[Balladeer]

 Soft Machine "Open Doors"

any comments?

[rostasi]

Well, I'm not that sure I'd call it a "return" since, for decades, various versions of the band have been releasing things every two or three years. Somewhat embarrassed to say that I've been getting all of those releases whenever MoonJune sends me updates (which is pretty often), but I honestly think that they've been floating on the "soft" part of their band name for too many years. Etheridge is the earliest band member (from '75 on) and they rolled in Babbington for this date and this is farewell to the retiring Marshall (whose gotta be in his 80s?), so unless they can get in some new, young, energetic, creatively thinking new musicians, I just don't get why they keep this up. Gotta wonder if this is it.

They try to bring in tunes from the early albums, but the elements that made tunes like, (for example, on the latest) "Joy of a Toy," "Penny Hitch," and "Backwards" stand out compositionally are totally lost in the eighth-hearted attempts at playing them. It's pretty sad when you give the appearance that a young covers band could do a whole lot better with your own material than you can. Still, I buy them out of a weird "duty" mixed with the many-headed hydra of deep nostalgia.

Edited July 1, 2023 by rostasi

[Balladeer]

Thanks for your considerations, rostasi. Of course you are right, strictly speaking it is  not  a "return". And musically I  can understand your reservations. Yet I find this albums hippiesque nostalgic vibe quite charming.
I like both,  old and new songs.  IMO it´s already one of the  remarkable albums of this year if only for its jazz-rock retro sound 
and my admiration for those artists involved.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Balladeer

[Niko]

I was at a Soft Machine concert in 2019 or so and thought that the overall level of nostalgia was higher than what I'm used to from jazz concerts, like an elderly stranger approaching you about how his band opened for Zappa in some village in Brabant (or sth like that, pretty amazing no doubt), other strangers chiming in... And the concert was not bad at all

[sidewinder]

I saw them live about a week ago - it was very enjoyable. The band announced that Marshall and Babbington had now taken a very well earned retirement, with their places taken by Asaf Sirkis and Fred T. Baker (which is the lineup I saw). Both Sirkis and Baker, highly experienced in their own rights, fitted in well.

Edited July 5, 2023 by sidewinder

[mjzee]

My favorite edition of the band was the quartet who recorded SM 6 & 7.  It was nice to see Karl Jenkins participate in the King's Coronation ceremony - he wrote a piece for it.

To me, Mike Ratledge was the heart of the band.  I lost interest after he left.

In a way, Soft Machine is emblematic of the Grandfather's Axe paradox: is it still grandfather's axe when the handle's been replaced 3 times and the head's been replaced 4 times?

[rostasi]

1 hour ago, mjzee said:

In a way, Soft Machine is emblematic of the Grandfather's Axe paradox:
is it still grandfather's axe when the handle's been replaced 3 times and the head's been replaced 4 times?

Yup. Interesting that they went back to their original Soft Machine name right after Daevid Allen died. Seems to me that their previous handles were closer to the truth - a cover or extension of the original, but if you're going to be a cover band, then, at least, bring some life back into it instead of sleepwalking your way thru what you remember from the old albums. Again, I listened to "Penny Hitch" on this and the drums are woefully off-kilter wrong and almost ghost-like in their (near) presence. The keyboard riff that's so crucial to the original is completely lost in a mush of marsh-mellowness while the tune somnambulistically fades like a tottering guy with a walker shuffling into a dense fog. You kinda want to wake the ol' guitarist up too. Honestly, if it wasn't an attempt at SM, I probably wouldn't be listening to it at all. I might've just heard it as S&M.

Edited July 5, 2023 by rostasi

[mjzee]

I generally don't complain about older artists - everyone has to make a buck, old age isn't for sissies, and I recall Hugh Hopper's health woes.

The real problem is that new music kinda sucks.  If there was a healthy crop of new music coming out, we wouldn't be so obsessed with reliving our pasts.

[rostasi]

I understand the part about older people and their sometime needs to be creative, but I don't understand the need to be enslaved by the old ways of doing things.
These guys might be capable of creating another slower, less precise form of the music that they love without being tied to an old band's repertoire.
One example is a new band called House of All. Guys in their 60s who used to be members of The Fall.

I'll disagree with you on your take on new music. It's an incredible time to be alive with a HUGE - actually overwhelming - amount of great new music worldwide.
Yes, I love a lot of past people and bands, but I can live the past, present and, hopefully, the future comfortably as well.
On tonight's show, I'm featuring mostly lesser-known 70s prog bands for two hours, but on other nights I feature segments of "New Sounds, New Releases" - 
some of which have yet to be officially released. People's creativity has been unleashed in major ways this century and I'm loving it.