Release date: 1978
Label: Harvest Records
Production: Soft Machine
Length: 39:06
Genre: Canterbury scene/jazz rock fusion
Rating: 7.5/10
»Alive & Well« was the first official live document in the history of English prog rock/jazz rock fusion titans Soft Machine. It was recorded during their 1977 show in Paris, when they were already on the brink of (another) breakup, with a lineup that, besides the band’s then-chieftain, keyboardist Karl Jenkins, featured guitar virtuoso John Etheridge, longtime drummer John Marshall, and two newcomers: future Fairport Convention violinist Ric Sanders and former Gilgamesh bassist Steve Cook. The special thing about this live album, and its main selling point, is that it featured ‘live’ performances of tracks that don’t appear on any other Soft Machine album. Jenkins wrote most of the material, with the exception of Etheridge’s “Number Three” and Sanders’ “Surrounding Silence”, and he’d taken over the band’s scepter after the departure of Mike Ratledge, the last remaining original member.
Side one was a suite of seven interlinked tracks, opening with the ambient fairy tale “White Kite,” which, with its synth waves, could just as easily have turned up on a Jade Warrior album. “Eos” has ‘weeping’ guitar passages that keep the melancholy mood going. The first part of “Odds Bullets And Blades” has some funk elements and, if you added a horn section and a few disco rhythms, it could pass for an Earth, Wind & Fire tune. The second part has lively drum fills and complex guitar variations that bring the energy to a full boil.
“Song of the Sunbird” is another ambient fantasy with wistful synth waves, typical of Jenkins, a big classical music fan. “Puffin” is an epic guitar overture to “Huffin” that wins you over with complex polyrhythmic twists, moments where the whole band plays the same motif in sync, and brilliant guitar improvisations. With them, Etheridge, who is also the central ‘star’ of the solo piece “Number Three,” shows clearly that he gets forgotten far too often when people list the best prog rock/jazz rock fusion guitarists.
“The Nodder” has the rhythm section grafting away with heaps of fat bass lines, clever cymbal runs and loads of colorful guitar variations. “Surrounding Silence” is seasoned with Sanders’ mouthwatering violin soloing, which gives the piece a strong folk stamp. Jenkins’ epic closer “Soft Space” features rhythms layered over synth patterns and electronic variations, ruled by lots of gorgeous ambient shades that Jean-Michel Jarre would approve of, and probably our own Miha Kralj too. All in all, it’s more reminiscent of the electronic/ambient music scene of the time, a kind of proto-trance, than of jazz rock fusion in the classic Soft Machine recipe.
While listening to “Alive & Well,” you don’t get the feeling that Soft Machine were about to fall apart (for a while), because the band, playing entirely new material, still sounds like a well-oiled machine. Compared to their super-complex classic era, in this phase, where they occasionally experimented with electronic music and folk elements, they sounded almost like a pop band, but they were still playing good music, which for the first and last time in their story included an interesting addition: the violin. In 2010, a special expanded edition of “Alive & Well” was released, featuring the complete concert recording from Paris, with some performances of pieces originally released on the then-current studio album “Softs” (1976).
review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. White Kite (3:00)
2. Eos (1:22)
3. Odds Bullets and Blades Pt. 1 (2:18)
4. Odds bullets and Blades Pt. II (2:33)
5. Song of the Sunbird (1:24)
6. Puffin (1:18)
7. Huffin (5:12)
8. Number Three (2:25)
9. The Nodder (7:13)
10. Surrounding Silence (4:04)
11. Soft Space (8:17)
Soft Machine:
John Etheridge – electric and acoustic guitar
Karl Jenkins – keyboards
Steve Cook – bass guitar
John Marshall – drums, percussion
Ric Sanders – violin
