Soft Machine - An Appreciation

[Barry]

Fantastic retrospective BLND! It'll be my template if I ever attempt such a thing.

~Barry

Glad you enjoyed it Barry. Thank you.

(But what does BLND mean?)

Regards

[jazzpiano]

Look on your upper right - BarryLazyNastyDriver!

[Barry]

Look on your upper right - BarryLazyNastyDriver!

Ah, I understand. Actually the "I'm ..." part of my identity is an ongoing word game or puzzle that Chris (The Grand Wazoo) and I play, though it is open to anyone else to decipher it.

Regards

[farook]

anyone heard this album? i have it on vinyle,loe it,reminds me of sky!

[sparrow]

anyone heard this album? i have it on vinyle,loe it,reminds me of sky!

I have it.. it was their swansong and on it's release it was panned by critics & most fans didn't like it..I like it ..

[Roy S]

you can now get 3 - 7 for £10.99

[Phil Lawton]

Weird, isn't it, how people's tastes vary?

Unlike the OP, my favourite album of all time, by any artist, anywhere, is "Third".

I'm glad Wyatt is limited to one track...I'm not the biggest fan of his voice and rarely play volumes 1 and 2 as a result.

I also muttered a slightly astonished "What?" at the suggestion that 'Out-Bloody-Rageous' is anything but outstanding. It's the best thing ever recorded, my 'desert island' track from my 'desert island' album.

Also worth mentioning that only part of the live track 'Facelift' was recorded in Croydon - other sections were recorded at the now defunct 'Mothers' club in Erdington, Birmingham (as was the live half of Pink Floyd's "Umma Gumma" double album, some 8-9 months previously).

I play "Third" at least once every couple of weeks...the quintessential autumnal album, especially side two's melancholy 'Slightly All The Time' (not mentioned in this thread's opening review, for some reason) and the masterpiece that is 'Out-Bloody-Rageous'. The album has been in my life since I was 12 and has shaped the rest of my musical tastes in one way or another ever since (as well as being one of the main reasons I became a musician).

My main interest in Soft Machine is from "Third" onwards, with the exception of the Alan Holdsworth era-albums ("Bundles" etc) - although AH is a fine guitarist and I own and enjoy his work with other bands (UK, Bruford, Tony Williams' Lifetime and so on), he never really fitted into my own idea of what SM were all about.

"The Land Of Cockayne" is an oddball album - I really like it. Intended as a solo album by Jenkins, but he was persuaded (I think by John Marshall) to make it a Soft Machine release. Some wonderful, polished playing, magnified by some very un-Soft machine-like production - far more slick and American in feel and, in this instance, it works. Jack Bruce is oft criticised for not living up to expectations, but there was, in reality, no space for him to demonstrate any pyrotechnical bass-work.