Release date: March 22, 1975
Label: Harvest Records
Production: Soft Machine
Length: 41:55
Rating: 9/10
“Bundles” was Soft Machine’s eighth studio outing, and it brought a big change: it was their first album with a guitarist in the lineup. Back when they formed in 1966, Soft Machine did have a guitarist in the legendary Australian musician Daevid Allen, with whom they managed to record the single “Love Makes Sweet Music” (1967). But Allen, who later founded the international Canterbury scene champions Gong, had to leave in 1967 for a rather banal reason. In 1968, future The Police guitarist Andy Summers took his place for a short while, but because of disagreements within the band he had to go after just a few months.
Soft Machine, who over the following years went from psychedelic rock and prog rock pioneers to an instrumental jazz fusion band, were guitarist-less from then on. Founding member Mike Ratledge and multi-instrumentalist Karl Jenkins, Soft Machine’s two main composers, decided in 1975 that the time had come to bring the guitar back into their sound. They invited the already established guitar virtuoso Allan Holdsworth, who had previously cut his teeth in Igginbottom, Ian Carr’s Nucleus and Tempest. With his arrival, the Soft Machine ranks, Ratledge aside, consisted entirely of ex-Nucleus members, even though “Belladonna”, Nucleus’s only record with Holdsworth, came out as a solo album by Nucleus boss Ian Carr.
“Bundles”, the only Soft Machine studio album with guitar master Holdsworth as an official member, one of the best English jazz rock guitarists of all time, was an even more accessible and melodic affair than its predecessor “Seven” (1973), and the tempo of most pieces was even faster. By this point Jenkins had taken almost complete compositional control of the band, while Ratledge, the last original member, was increasingly pushed aside and contributed just two rather short pieces to “Bundles”. It was becoming clearer and clearer that the band had one keyboardist too many and that somebody would have to go. At the same time, Holdsworth’s guitar, which is all over “Bundles”, took up a lot of the space that Ratledge’s keyboards used to fill.
The nature of most of the material on “Bundles” is perfectly captured by the opening energy booster “Hazard Profile Part 1”, the first part of the “Hazard Profile” suite, which is split into five parts and where Soft Machine show off, for the first time, a sound enriched with muscular guitar passages. Amid wild drum fills, these battle it out nonstop with thick layers of organ. The “Hazard Profile” suite was split into several parts to make it easier to digest, and it’s the centerpiece of “Bundles”, where Holdsworth’s lightning-fingered guitar acrobatics impress the most. The title track, comparable to some of the work of Nucleus and Return to Forever, has a mysterious atmosphere and plenty of complex drum fills from John Marshall, while a melancholy guitar solo adds the cherry on top.
“Land of the Bag Snake”, which is also full of rich atmosphere, is laced with juicy guitar passages from the late guitar virtuoso and subtle keyboard arrangements. Next come two rather short Ratledge compositions, the classic “The Man Who Waved at Trains” and the electric-guitar cataclysm “Peff”, which fit the album’s ‘antique-looking’ cover perfectly in terms of atmosphere. “Four Gongs Two Drums” is Marshall’s solo spot, where, true to the title, he also plays around with gongs. The ambient-leaning closer “The Floating World”, with gentle keyboard arrangements and subtle guest flute from Ray Warleigh, is somewhat reminiscent of some of the work of Jade Warrior, who recorded a self-titled album in 1974.
Allan Holdsworth is the main reason “Bundles” is now counted among the classics of English jazz rock fusion. Despite the fact that “Bundles” was a superb achievement as a whole and one of the best moments in Soft Machine’s discography, with the guitar blended into their sound beautifully, it didn’t win the English prog and fusion pioneers a wider audience. Commercially, it also failed to break them into the ‘top league’ of the most revered guitar-driven jazz fusion in the style of Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return to Forever in their prime. Holdsworth, who came back as a guest musician on Soft Machine’s last studio project, “Land of Cockayne” (1981), left before recording began on the next album, “Softs” (1976), and went on to keep wowing people as a member of Gong, Bruford and U.K. and with an outstanding solo career. His replacement was John Etheridge (ex-Icarus, Darryl Way’s Wolf).
review by: Peter Podbrežnik
track list
1. Hazard Profile Part One
2. Hazard Profile Part Two
3. Hazard Profile Part Three
4. Hazard Profile Part Four
5. Hazard Profile Part Five
6. Gone Sailing
7. Bundles
8. Land of the Bag Snake
9. The Man Who Waved at Trains
10. Peff
11. Four Gongs Two Drums
12. The Floating World
musicians
Mike Ratledge – keyboards
Karl Jenkins- keyboards, oboe, soprano saxophone
Allan Holdsworth – guitar
Roy Babbington – bass guitar
John Marshall – drums, percussion
Ray Warleigh – alto flute and bass flute on “The Floating World”
