Soft Machine - Original Album Classics (5 CD, 2010/FLAC)

 

(1970) Third 

(1971) Fourth 

(1972) Fifth 

(1973) Six 

(1973) Seven 

Soft Machine - Bundles (Remastered And Expanded Edition, 2022, 2 CD) [FLAC]

A remastered 2CD edition of the 1975 album Bundles by the celebrated Jazz / Progressive group Soft Machine. The album was the band’s first for EMI’s Harvest and featured a line-up of Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Karl Jenkins (oboe, piano, soprano sax), John Marshall (drums), Roy Babbington (bass) and Allan Holdsworth (guitar).

An accessible collection, Bundles showcased Holdsworth’s considerable guitar playing talents and opened a new chapter for the band. The album attracted much praise, especially the stunning five-part piece 'Hazard Profile’. Following the release of Bundles in March 1975 the band embarked on a busy touring schedule, but they soon faced the blow of Allan Holdsworth departing suddenly to join The New Tony Williams’ Lifetime.

Holdsworth was replaced by John Etheridge, and Soft Machine toured extensively for the remainder of 1975. A fabulous concert at Nottingham University on 11th October 1975 and featured much of the material featured on the album, along with early renditions of some pieces which would be recorded for the band’s 1976 album Softs.

- Allan Holdsworth / acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars

- Mike Ratledge / Fender Rhodes, Lowrey organ, AKS synthesizer

- Karl Jenkins / oboe, soprano saxophone, acoustic & electric pianos

- Roy Babbington / bass

- John Marshall / drums, percussion

With:

- Ray Warleigh / alto & bass flutes (12)

 

 

Soft Machine discography [1968-2018]

 

Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre. Though they achieved little commercial success, they are considered by Allmusic to be "one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones."

Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969) were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (organ) plus, for the first few gigs only, American guitarist Larry Nowlin. Allen, Wyatt and future bassist Hugh Hopper had first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. Wyatt, Ayers and Hopper had been founding members of the Wilde Flowers, later incarnations of which would include future members of another Canterbury band, Caravan...

 

 

Soft Machine - BBC Radio 1967 - 1971 / BBC Radio 1971-1974 (4 CD, 2003/FLAC)

 

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.