BBC In Concert 1972 [Remaster]

Performer: Soft Machine
Producer: Jeff Griffin; Jeff Griffin
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Soft Machine: Hugh Hopper, John Marshall , Mike Ratledge, Karl Jenkins. Audio Remasterers: Miki Dandy; Michael King. Liner Note Authors: Aymeric Leroy; Duncan Heining. Recording information: The Paris Theatre, London, England (1972). Recorded not long before their Six album, this is a nearly hour-long concert for BBC radio from July 20, 1972, in excellent sound. Consisting at this point of Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, Karl Jenkins, and John Marshall, the band mixes material from their Fifth and Six records, also inserting a substantial reworking of a lengthy piece from Third, Ratledge's "Slightly All the Time." The group by this time had taken another step in their evolution from psychedelic rock to somberly ethereal fusion jazz, enough so that this couldn't really be filed, even tenuously, under the "rock" section. As such it won't interest a good percentage of the fans of the Robert Wyatt-era Soft Machine, though it's accomplished for the genre, with more of an improvisational verve than much fusion boasts. These versions do work significant improvisational changes into the compositions, as well as documenting the integration of new member Karl Jenkins (who wasn't part of the group on studio releases until Six) into the band on saxophone, oboe, and keyboards. The eight-page liner notes are unusually good for this sort of archival project, with interesting and sometimes contentious comments from several Soft Machine members. ~ Richie Unterberger

A pioneering British psychedelic group in the late 1960s, Soft Machine eventually developed a unique, forward-thinking brand of jazz-rock tinged with progressive/experimental touches. As the leading light of the "Canterbury scene" (a loosely knit collection of like-minded Canterbury, Kent, England-based bands which also included Caravan and Gong), the combo came to define the jazz-rock genre and was hugely influential to the burgeoning jazz fusion and experimental rock scenes. Soft Machine is also notable as a springboard for the successful later careers of several of its members, including Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Allen Holdsworth, Andy Summers. Originally based around surreal, heady, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic deconstructions of conventional pop song structures, Soft Machine's music eventually morphed into a much looser, more improvisational style that found favor with fans of American acts such as Weather Report and Return to Forever. After the departure of prime mover Wyatt, Soft Machine continued on in various incarnations for several decades, but to much less acclaim.

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