Soft Machine's collective skill is hyper-complex and refined, as they are extremely literate in all fields of musical study.
Fourth is the band's free purging of all of that knowledge, woven into noisy, smoky structures of sound.
Their arcane rhythms have a stop-and-go mentality of their own that sounds incredibly fresh even though it is sonically steeped in soft and warm tones.
Obviously there is a lot of skillful playing going on, as the mix of free jazz, straight-ahead jazz, and Gong-like psychedelia coalesces into a skronky plateau.
Robert Wyatt's drumming is impeccable -- so perfect that it at times becomes an unnoticeable map upon which the bandmembers take their instinctive direction.
Mike Ratledge's keys are warm throughout, maintaining an earthy quality that keeps its eye on the space between the ground and the heavens that Soft Machine attempt to inhabit.
Elton Dean's saxophone work screams out the most inventive cadence, and since it's hardly rhythmic, it takes front and center, spitting out a crazy language.
Certainly the band is the preface to a good portion of Chicago's post-rock output, as the Softs undoubtedly give a nod to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew experiments, which were going on in the U.S.
at the same time.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TeethMike Ratledge | Soft Machine | Play | 09:15 | 21 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Kings and QueensHugh Hopper | Soft Machine | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Fletcher's BlemishElton Dean | Soft Machine | Play | 04:36 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Virtually Part 1 | Soft Machine | Play | 05:16 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Virtually Part 2 | Soft Machine | Play | 07:06 | 16 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Virtually Part 3 | Soft Machine | Play | 04:33 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Virtually Part 4 | Soft Machine | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 39 mins | 89 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roy Babbington | Bass, Double Bass |
| 2 | Paschal Byrne | Remastering |
| 3 | Alison Calvert | Project Coordinator |
| 4 | Marc Charig | Cornet, Horn |
| 5 | George Chkiantz | Engineer |
| 6 | Elton Dean | Composer, Sax (Alto), Saxello, Saxophone |
| 7 | Lyn Dobson | Horn |
| 8 | Nick Evans | Trombone |
| 9 | Jimmy Hastings | Clarinet (Bass), Flute, Flute (Alto), Wind |
| 10 | John Hays | Art Direction |
| 11 | Hugh Hopper | Bass, Composer, Guitar (Bass) |
| 12 | Campbell MacCallum | Cover Photo |
| 13 | Campbell MacCollum | Photography |
| 14 | Sean Murphy | Executive Producer |
| 15 | Barry Plummer | Photography |
| 16 | Mike Ratledge | Composer, Keyboards, Organ, Piano |
| 17 | Alan Skidmore | Sax (Tenor), Saxophone |
| 18 | Phil Smee | Package Design |
| 19 | Soft Machine | Primary Artist, Producer |
| 20 | Charlie Stanford | Project Coordinator |
| 21 | Robert Wyatt | Drums |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |