Volume Two

Performer: Soft Machine
Engineer: George Chkiantz; George Chkiantz
Producer: Soft Machine; Soft Machine; Filippo Salvadori (Reissue)
Distributor: City Hall

Notes: Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt (vocals, drums); Hugh Hopper (acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, bass); Mike Ratledge (flute, piano, harpsichord, organ). Additional personnel: Brian Hopper (soprano & tenor saxophones). Recorded at Olympic Sound Studios, London, England in February and March, 1969. Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt (vocals, drums); Hugh Hopper (alto, acoustic guitar, bass guitar); Mike Ratledge (flute, piano, harpsichord, Hammond b-3 organ). Personnel: Brian Hopper (soprano, tenor saxophone). The Soft Machine's VOLUME TWO, which was recorded after Kevin Ayers left for a solo career, reintroduces the band in all its eccentric glory. VOLUME TWO is the first Soft Machine album to feature the classic trio lineup of Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt. It is made up of 17 tracks the range in length from 10 seconds to six minutes which are grouped into two side-long suites, "Rivmic Melodies" and "Esther's Nose Job" (the latter's title is courtesy of Thomas Pynchon). The trio's wide-ranging jazz, folk, and pop explorations lend every track its own unique character, with the pastoral acoustic guitar of Hopper's "Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening" running smack into Ratledge's aptly titled "Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging." Yet somehow, the whole thing works, especially on the remarkable first side, a wild series of seamless improvs that points toward the lengthy compositions of the Soft Machine's classic THIRD, a double-album consisting of four side-long compositions.

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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