There is no shortage of collections of archive material by the Soft Machine and some of them are pretty good (especially the ones released on Cuneiform). But this Hux double-CD compilation is the mother lode. You just can't beat BBC recordings for good sound quality and meaningful "alternate versions." This first volume covers the group's early years up to the departure of drummer Robert Wyatt, starting with a session from December 1967, when the Softs consisted of Kevin Ayers, Mike Ratledge, and Wyatt. Early demo and live versions of dubious quality of "Clarence in Wonderland," "Certain Kind," or "Hope for Happiness" are in circulation (see Turns On, Vol. 1, for instance), but these recordings are far more superior. A session from 1969 features Wyatt, Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Brian Hopper in a torrid medley of "Facelift" and the "Mousetrap" suite, but the jewel of the first disc is indisputably a full-band rendition (Ratledge, Wyatt, and Hugh Hopper) of "Moon in June," one of very few times it was performed as such (the studio version was mostly put together by Wyatt overdubbing all parts). Disc two presents sessions from 1971 with Elton Dean added to the regular lineup. The last track is another "Mousetrap" sequence seguing into "Esther's Nose Job," performed by the short-lived septet lineup (with a brass section formed by Dean, Lyn Dobson, Marc Charig, and Nick Evans). This is the closest thing to a studio recording existing by this particular group and it is well-worth the price of admission. If you are a relative newcomer to the music of Soft Machine and are looking to expand beyond their studio releases, start here before moving on to more obscure live sets.
Soft Machine - BBC Radio 1967 - 1971 (02:07:45)
1-1 Clarence In Wonderland 2:57
1-2 We Know What You Mean 3:11
1-3 Certain Kind 3:38
1-4 Hope For Happiness 4:37
1-5 Strangest Scene (Aka Lullaby Letter) 4:55
1-6 Facelift / Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise 11:54
1-7 The Moon In June 13:02
1-8 Instant Pussy 3:19
1-9 Slightly All The Time / Out Bloody Rageous / Eamonn Andrews 19:12
2-1 Virtually 9:58
2-2 Fletcher's Blemish 12:11
2-3 Neo-Caliban Grides 7:34
2-4 Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening 2:46
2-5 Eamonn Andrews / All White 7:11
2-6 Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise / Esther's Nose Job 21:11
Soft Machine - BBC Radio 1971 - 1974 (01:19:56)
Combined with Hux's previous Soft Machine BBC anthology, the two-CD BBC Radio 1967-1971, this set (also two CDs) finishes a complete retrospective of the group's BBC sessions. All but two of the tracks on BBC Radio 1971-1974 ("As If" and "Drop," from a November 1971 session) were previously unreleased, and all are in fidelity equal to that heard on the typical studio album. This compilation is considerably less exciting than BBC Radio 1967-1971, largely because it postdates the lineups including Robert Wyatt and/or Kevin Ayers, which produced the band's best work. Still, it does reflect the completion of their journey from a weird psychedelic pop group (as they were in 1967) to a wholly instrumental jazz-rock one, at times much heavier on the jazz than the rock, in one instance (the synthesizer-drum duet "North Point") going beyond jazz into purely avant-garde experimentalism. Four lineups are heard on these four sessions, keyboardist Mike Ratledge being the only constant, but the sound is actually fairly consistent cerebral fusion with a touch of progressive rock, particularly when Ratledge's idiosyncratically buzzing organ comes to the fore. At times the material actually goes outside of free jazz territory, especially on the 1971 session when Elton Dean was still part of the lineup. Otherwise, it's very much of a piece with the albums from which many of the songs hail (Fifth, Six, Seven, and Bundles), the instrumental proficiency and electric jazz-rock verve not wholly compensating for the loss of wit and humor in the post-Wyatt lineups.
1-1 As If 7:45
1-2 Drop 6:56
1-3 Welcome To Frillsville 10:33
1-4 Fanfare / All White / MC / Drop 11:13
1-5 Stanley Stamp's Gibbon Album 3:33
1-6 Hazard Profile (Part 1) 4:56
2-1 Sinepost 1:47
2-2 Down The Road 7:34
2-3 North Point 3:00
2-4 The Man Who Waved At Trains 5:41
2-5 Hazard Profile (Parts 1-4) 16:57
