Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Soft Machine
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 1968
Length: 41:30
Rating: 4/5
Canterbury scene legends Soft Machine are one of the most important pioneering prog rock bands and, at the same time, one of the most obscure. Even though their ranks included some of the most gifted British musical minds of the 20th century, they never tasted commercial success, yet they still enjoy enormous respect among all fans of experimental music. Soft Machine, who took their name from the book ‘The Soft Machine’ by William S. Burroughs, kept evolving musically practically nonstop over their relatively short 13-year career (not counting their successors Soft Machine Legacy, where some former members play). These hugely important Canterbury scene figures were pioneers of psychedelic rock, fathers of progressive rock, and a little later also among the first to get into jazz rock fusion.
Soft Machine’s roots reach back to The Wilde Flowers, the band that also gave rise to the equally cult and equally important Caravan. In that incubator of the fathers of prog rock, three future Soft Machine members earned their keep: drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt, the recently departed vocalist/bassist Kevin Ayers, and, sadly also late, bassist Hugh Hopper. After The Wilde Flowers split in 1966, Wyatt and Ayers (Hopper only joined as an official member in 1969) joined forces with guitarist/vocalist Daevid Allen and keyboardist Mike Ratledge. They lasted only a year together, recording a couple of demos and their first and only single in this lineup, titled »Love Makes Sweet Music«. For a short while the original Soft Machine lineup also included a second guitarist, the American Larry Nowlin, who bailed before they ever set foot in a studio.
The original lineup fell apart because in 1967, after the band came back from a gig in France, the British authorities refused to let the Australian Allen (who later founded Gong) back into England, so for the next two years they operated as a trio. Future The Police member Andy Summers also joined as a guitarist for a while, but it didn’t last long, since at Ayers’ insistence he had to go before he could really prove himself. These constant guitarist headaches right at the start of their career probably did the most to make Soft Machine put little stock in the guitar for most of their run, which is why most of their studio output up to 1973, when guitar virtuoso Allan Holdsworth briefly joined them, is guitar-free.
The genesis of their debut »The Soft Machine« (also called »Volume One« on its reissue) goes back to 1968, when they toured the US as the opening act for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. During that tour they stopped in New York, where they recorded the debut in a bit of a rush, and it rightfully counts as a psychedelic rock and proto prog rock classic. Wyatt’s psychedelic vocal ‘mantra-ing’, with Ayers assisting in the background, is the defining feature of the opener »Hope For Happiness«, which makes for a pretty slow start to »The Soft Machine«. That kind of vocal mannerism was hugely popular at the peak of the psychedelic era, i.e. in 1968, and the unlucky Wyatt, who has been confined to a wheelchair since January 1, 1973, was already showing off impressive drumming chops and offering a totally recognizable vocal approach. Together with Ratledge’s organ outpourings and Ayers’ rattling bass lines, they bring a breeze of jazz into the general psychedelic indiscipline, which means the foundations for later jazz fusion exploits were laid right from the very start.
Psychedelic chaos with avant-garde elements and, for the time, innovative bass guitar lines can also be heard on Ayers’ songwriting effort »Joy of a Toy«, which came out as a single too and later became the title of Kevin’s 1969 solo debut. After the scattered, violent-improvisation-soaked reprise of »Hope For Happiness« comes »Why I Am So Short?«, where Soft Machine show off their classic British sense of black humor and self-irony, while the psychedelic orgy »So Boot If At All« is packed with bizarre time changes and wild rhythmic variations, led by drum freakouts that are still fascinating today, the kind they went on to develop and build upon on future studio albums.
On the unusually melodic (by Soft Machine standards) »A Certain Kind«, keyboardist Ratledge shines with a sacral organ sound, while Wyatt shows for the first time on the album that besides psychedelic ‘freakouts’ he was capable of plenty of moving vocal performances too. »Save Yourself« contains a psychedelic take on the popular theme from the comedy series about Batman starring Adam West, which first aired in the second half of the sixties, and offers a somewhat darker look at psychedelia with lots of bizarre keyboard sounds, while Wytatt and Ayers complement each other very well with their recognizable vocal styles. »Priscilla«, where the band’s later improvisational brilliance can already be clearly heard, has superb organ passages and witty jazzy rhythmic touches.
The vocally somewhat whiny »Lullabye Letter« is stuffed with bizarre rhythmic freakouts and a brilliant organ solo that was an early showcase of Ratledge’s exceptional virtuosity. »We Did It Again« features an almost annoyingly repetitive guitar phrase that sounds like it was borrowed straight from the The Kinks (and later Van Halen) hit »You Really Got Me«. The short instrumental »Plus Belle Bas Qu’une Poubelle« has wild guitar and bass improvisations and a frenzied drum march. »Why Are We Sleeping?«, which even goes ‘head to tail’, has fully psychedelic keyboard textures, while Wyatt, helped this time by backing singers from the all-female group The Cake, also tries his hand at poetic narration, among other things. »Box 25/4 Lid« is just a short instrumental closer with a riled-up Ayers bass improvisation.
»The Soft Machine« is a pioneering work and one of the most important albums of the Canterbury scene, and thus of early progressive rock. Even so, amid plenty of already top-notch improvisational freakouts, it was still full of youthful recklessness and stylistic friction as the band searched for a sound of its own. Right after the American tour ended, Ayers announced he was leaving to start a solo career, which caused Soft Machine to fall apart, but they quickly regrouped and invited new bassist Hugh Hopper into their ranks, a former road manager, composer and ex-occasional musician who also contributed to some of the »The Soft Machine« tracks.
Lineup
Robert Wyatt – drums, lead vocals
Mike Ratledge – organ, piano
Kevin Ayers – bass guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Hugh Hopper – bass guitar
The Cake – backing vocals
Production
Chas Chandler and Tom Wilson
Tracklist
1. Hope for Happiness
2. Joy of a Toy
3. Hope for Happiness (reprise)
4. Why Am I So Short?
5. So Boot If At All
6. A Certain Kind
7. Save Yourself
8. Priscilla
9. Lullabye Letter
10. We Did It Again
11. Plus Belle qu’une Poubelle
12. Why Are We Sleeping?
13. Box 25/4 Lid
