Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Soft Machine
Label: CBS
Released: 1971
Running time: 39:13
Rating: 4.5/5
»Fourth« was the last act of the classic lineup of prog rock legends Soft Machine, who in their most celebrated phase were drummer Robert Wyatt, keyboardist Mike Ratledge, bassist Hugh Hopper and saxophonist Elton Dean. With »Fourth«, the follow-up to the classic »Third« (1970), the champions of the Canterbury scene cemented their position as the leading lights of English jazz fusion and made their first fully instrumental album. Just like on »Third«, the four musical masters got some seasoned heavyweights to lend a hand this time too, like future Soft Machine member Roy Babbington on double bass, flutist and longtime Caravan collaborator Jimmy Hastings, cornetist Mark Charig and trombonist Nick Evans. The latter two are best known among prog rock fans as former King Crimson collaborators. They appeared together on the band’s album »Lizard« (1970).
»Fourth« is marked throughout most of its tracks by a powerful woodwind and brass section working hand in hand with a fantastic rhythm tandem in the shape of the Wyatt/Hopper duo. That was backed up by Ratledge’s varied, mostly melodic keyboard arrangements. Compared to the often wildly improvisational »Third«, things got a touch ‘calmer’ on »Fourth«, which makes this album a little easier to get into even for fans of the more melodic flavors of jazz fusion, though some of the improvisational breakouts still border on free jazz. They’d soon start drifting away from that, and every subsequent Soft Machine album sounded more accessible and a bit more melodic than the last, without the artistic integrity of this always up-for-wild-experiments collective suffering much for it, at least not until the last original member left.
The opener, the immensely complex jazz fusion classic »Teeth«, is the best-known »Fourth« composition and the cornerstone of the whole album. The wind arrangements keep shifting here at a dizzying pace, from subtle to unhinged, while the rhythm section’s versatile work is still more than thrilling today. Even though Dean’s saxophone doesn’t stand out here among the heap of woodwinds and brass as much as on some of the band’s later albums, it was already one of the key ingredients in the development of the classic Soft Machine sound.
»Kings and Queens« has a slower tempo that sets up a somewhat lazy atmosphere, though there’s no shortage of wild improvisations, especially on sax. The more free-jazzy »Fletcher’s Blemish«, which is quite a demanding listen, is soaked in a dark, dramatic mood, built together by frenzied winds and totally unhinged percussion. It’s followed by the immensely complex four-part suite »Virtually«, which, alongside »Teeth«, is the peak of »Fourth«. The mysterious opening part is marked above all by Wyatt’s fervent work on the cymbals and Hopper’s crafty bass improvising, while Ratledge looks after the melodic layer of keyboard textures. In time the wind/brass section joins in, but this time, in none of the four parts of »Virtually«, does it ever descend into total chaos, instead keeping the complex time changes and the improvisational acrobatics on ‘solid ground’. Here and there you can clearly hear the influence of the legendary Miles Davis, who was then a defining force on the global jazz fusion scene. Despite what the start might suggest, the third and fourth closing parts of »Virtually« come off unusually calm, with muffled bass lines, a gloomy sax and ‘weeping’ keyboards creating a distinctly melancholic mood.
»Fourth«, which set the bar pretty high for any comparable release to follow, still ranks among the gems of English jazz fusion today. The transformation into a jazz fusion collective was complete, and there was no trace left of any psychedelic rock elements, so much so that it was hard to believe this was the same band that recorded »The Soft Machine« in 1968. The classic Soft Machine lineup fell apart soon after »Fourth« came out, as Wyatt no longer shared the musical vision of the remaining three and, as a composer and drummer who had to hide his singing talent because of the new, entirely instrumental direction, felt completely boxed in. So he left and founded his own band, Matching Mole, a pun on ‘Machine Molle’, the French translation of ‘Soft Machine’. Just how much Wyatt’s role had shrunk in this period shows in the fact that Ratledge, Hopper and Dean were the sole writers of the »Fourth« compositions. Finding a suitable replacement behind the kit wasn’t easy either, and it only worked out on the second try.
Lineup
Mike Ratledge – keyboards
Hugh Hopper – bass guitar
Robert Wyatt – drums
Elton Dean – alto saxophone
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Roy Babbington – double bass (1,3,4,6)
Mark Charig – cornet (2,3,4)
Nick Evans – trombone (1,2,4)
Jimmy Hastings – alto flute (6), bass clarinet (1,6)
Alan Skidmore – tenor saxophone (1,6)
Production
Soft Machine
Track list
1. Teeth (9:15)
2. Kings and queens (5:02)
3. Fletcher’s blemish (4:35)
4. Virtually part 1 (5:16)
5. Virtually part 2 (7:09)
6. Virtually part 3 (4:33)
7. Virtually part 4 (3:23)
