Search - Soft Machine :: Third (Bonus CD)

Absolutely The Best Progressive Jazz Rock Album!

Jeffrey Sherman | Ojai, CA USA | 09/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This release by Soft Machine is simply the best the many-membered band ever did. It is the zenith of their creativity, verve and execution. This line-up - with drummer, vocalist extraordaire Robert Wyatt, the late saxophone god Elton Dean, multi-keyboard legend Mike Ratledge and the mighty monster of the fuzz bass Hugh Hopper produced some of the most imaginative, melody-laden, downright breathtaking compositions all driven by the compelling rhythm section of Hopper/Wyatt. The band never sounded more experimental, unforgettable and soulful than they did on this album. This particular release is further enhanced by the inclusion of a second disc - the live recording done at their famous Proms appearance. It is noticeably enhanced by a far better EQ than the original Reckless Records CD of some ten years or more ago.



A must-own for any true fan of not only Soft Machine BUT of the entire genre of Progressive Jazz Rock which they helped create.

"

This album is GLORIOUS

Elliot Knapp | Seattle, Washington United States | 10/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"More correctly, this review's title should be "This remaster is glorious." I've been a fan of The Soft Machine Vols. 1 & 2 for quite a while, and I've owned Third for over five years, but I never really "got" it until I purchased this recent remastered reissue. The sound is so much improved that it really transforms the album, giving the music a vitality that simply isn't there in the early 90's reissue. Listen to this reissue and you'll understand why this is the grandest statement that the Soft Machine would ever make, and one of the top albums ever produced by any of the prolific Canterbury bands.



How can this music be accurately described? It's tough--"jazz-rock" and "fusion" don't come close to doing this genre-cracking music justice, not to mention the undesirable connotations brought on by both terms. A listen to the instrumental sections of the Soft Machine's second album will give you a hint at where the band was going, but here the band stretches out into much more complex, wild, terrifying, manic, and otherworldly areas with their sounds and improvisation. Really, the opener--"Facelift"--sums it up the best. Mike Ratledge's liquid organ sounds fade into audibility, then are suddenly replaced by the most dissonant, audacious fuzz organ sounds ever produced. Sinister horns start to edge their way into the mix, and it's over 5 minutes into the song that the horns combine with the keyboard and bass to state the composition's main themes. On the older issue of this album, the sound is muddier--like you're listening to the band from the very back of a poorly-constructed hall, and everything sounds distant and alien. With the new mastering the instrumental separation is crisp and it's much more apparent (and easier to visualize) that the music is being made by just a few guys in a room, and it's all the more intimately foreboding for it! The band ominously states the piece's themes, shifts to another theme at a faster tempo (reminds me of a demonic twist on the Price is Right music), then gives way to some really tasty improvisation from Ratledge and Elton Dean, the sax player. "Facelift" was recorded live, and bristles with energy, but it's not devoid of studio manipulation--there's some pretty trippy looping (Hugh Hopper really dove into this later on his 1984 album, and some freaky backwards music as well.



Much of the rest of the album follows a similar blueprint that "Facelift" establishes--the songs are all at least 18 minutes long and feature some pretty wild improvisation and dark textures and moods, but they're not devoid of the quirks and sense of humor we all expect from the Soft Machine and the Canterbury scene. "Slightly All The Time" kicks of with some winding bass from Hopper and similar grand statements featuring horn/organ harmonies, though it's a bit less scary than "Facelift." The backbone of the composition is hypnotic electric vamps from Ratledge that shift dramatically over different tempos (dig Robert Wyatt's typically incredible drumming throughout), laying a backdrop for some good flute soloing.



Fans of Wyatt and earlier Soft Machine will be pleased with "Moon In June," the last Soft Machine track to feature Robert Wyatt's vocals and witty lyrics. It's a far cry from earlier work, though, as it's dreamy, meandering and not pop oriented at all. The lyrics are hilarious throwaways, though, and Wyatt turns in some mouth-watering drumming and some psychedelic percussive improvisation along with a violin toward the end (which predicts some of his later solo work on Rock Bottom. "Slightly All The Time" closes the album with some really incredible delay/loop keyboards and segues into some more blisteringly fast horn/bass theme statements, passes over some more jaw-dropping tempo shifts and sick instrumental interplay, then fades back out over three minutes of similar keyboard loops.



Overall, Third is completely one-of-a-kind. It manages to combine memorable songwriting and melodies with engaging instrumental prowess in a way unmatched elsewhere by Soft Machine or really any other jazz-rock music, which often tends to be virtuosic to the point of inaccessibility and distinctly lacking in memorable melody. Better yet, the band's decision to produce an album of side-long suites gives them room to stretch out into some really transcendent and psychedelic sounds. The icing on the cake is that there's a second disc in this reissue that includes a live performance of half of this album and a medley of material from Soft Machine Two. The production isn't as clean as the live "Facelift" from the original album, but the playing and sense of experience is impressive--I'm sure Soft Machine were really a band best experienced live. If my words didn't do this album justice, I'm not surprised, hearing this music is believing. Hopefully I at least inspired you to go out and pick this up--make sure to get the new 2-disc remastered reissue."

How to explain? For people who don't know Soft Machine?

Stephen Foster | Seattle, WA United States, via Scotland | 03/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The reviews here so far are all for died-in-the-wool Softs fans, but how to explain, generate interest in, this short-lived lineup's music for someone who is just interested?



Well, it sounds like chaos, but is not. It's carefully arranged. And besides the instruments, the Robert Wyatt lyrics are just too delicious.



And it's not chaos: On the first track, Facelift, at exactly 7:03 in, the general, gorgeous, introductory noise suddenly switches to horns that sound exactly like REALLY horny drakes fighting over a girl-duck, suffused and entirely surrounded by Mike Ratlege's insane organ, and all of that given substance by Robert Wyatt's inventivated drumming, working along beneath them. (Inventivated isn't a word, you say? Listen to his drumming before you say that.)



It sounds like brilliant chaos interspersed with moments of magical cohesion, but these pieces were carefully rehearsed, then laid out so that there was flexibility between the precisely-timed changes for the various dissident, dissonant (and warring) partners to have their individual jollies with the piece. Listen to "Moon in June", which is my favourite track (I don't mean my favourite track on the album: I mean my favourite single piece of music), and wait for the change at precisely 13:50 in, when five minutes of discordant war utterly sweeten, and suddenly the ENTIRE piece makes sense.



"But even on the live tracks, they're doing things that are not possible. How is that possible?"



Well, I'm not sure, but they fer shure took the tapes and ... worked on them, sometimes running them backwards for effect. Deal with it.



There is preciously-little recorded material of Soft Machine in their prime, and this is the MOTHERLODE. If my house was firebombed, I would of course grab my son first (unless he'd really, REALLY annoyed me that day) and grab this album second.

"