Soft Machine-Fourth

Soft Machine was formed by members of the 60’s band The Wilde Flowers, whose ex- members also formed Caravan, and Daevid Allen who left after the first record to form Gong. Those two bands,Soft Machine and Caravan, were the first purveyors of what would be called The Canterbury Scene. This is the fourth album from Soft Machine from early ’71, still with original members Robert Wyatt,Hugh Hopper,and Mike Ratledge. This album is completely instrumental and vocalist and drummer Robert Wyatt left after this album to form his own band Matching Mole. Elton Dean played sax on this record. The music on this record is more Jazz than any of their previous albums with the opening track “Teeth” sounding like what Frank Zappa was playing at the same time.Side two is taken up with “Virtually” in four parts. This is the best on the record and Mike Ratledge’s organ is heard more often on this track. After many personnel changes the band is still active today with no original members.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *