Soft Machine
Encyclopedia
Soft Machine were an English rock
band from Canterbury
, named after the book The Soft Machine
by William S. Burroughs
. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene
, and helped pioneer the progressive rock
genre. Though they achieved little commercial success, they are considered by Allmusic to be "one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones."
(drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers
(bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen
(guitar) and Mike Ratledge
(organ) plus, for the first few gigs only, American guitarist Larry Nowlin. Allen, Wyatt and future bassist Hugh Hopper
had first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. Wyatt, Ayers and Hopper had been founding members of the Wilde Flowers
, later incarnations of which would include future members of another Canterbury band, Caravan
.
This first Soft Machine line-up became involved in the early UK underground
, featuring prominently at the UFO Club
, and subsequently other London clubs like the Speakeasy and Middle Earth, and recorded the group's first single 'Love Makes Sweet Music', as well as some demo sessions that were released several years later. They also played in the Netherlands, Germany and on the French Riviera
. During July and August 1967, the promoter and manager Giorgio Gomelsky
booked shows all along the Côte d'Azur with the band's most notorious early gig taking place in the village square of Saint-Tropez
. This led to an invitation to perform at producer Eddie Barclay's trendy "", performing a forty minute rendition of "We Did It Again", singing the refrain over and over, achieving a Zen-like quality. This made them instant darlings of the Parisian "in" crowd, resulting in invitations to appear on leading television shows and at the Paris Biennale in October 1967. Upon their return from their sojourn in France, Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom, so the group continued as a trio, while he returned to Paris to form Gong
.
Sharing the same management team as Jimi Hendrix
, the band were rewarded with a support slot on the Jimi Hendrix Experience
's North America tour throughout 1968. Soft Machine's first album - a psychedelic rock/proto-prog classic - was recorded in New York in April at the end of the first leg. Back in London, eventually guitarist Andy Summers
, later of The Police
, joined the group, fresh from his stint with Dantalian's Chariot
(previously Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
). After a few weeks of rehearsals, the new quartet began a tour of the USA with some solo shows before reuniting with Hendrix
for a final string of dates in August–September 1968. Summers, however, had in the meantime been fired at the insistence of Ayers. Ayers departed amicably after the final date at the Hollywood Bowl, and for the remainder of 1968 Soft Machine were no more. Wyatt stayed in the US to record solo demos, while Ratledge returned to London and began composing in earnest.
In January 1969, in order to fulfil contractual obligations, Soft Machine reformed with former road manager
and composer Hugh Hopper
on bass added to Wyatt and Ratledge, and set about recording their second album, Volume Two, which launched a transition towards a purely instrumental sound resembling what would be later called jazz fusion
. In May 1969, this lineup acted as the uncredited backup band on two tracks of Syd Barrett
's solo debut album, The Madcap Laughs
. The base trio was late in 1969 expanded to a septet with the addition of four horn
players, though only saxophonist Elton Dean
remained beyond a few months, the resulting Soft Machine quartet (Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge and Dean) running through Third (1970) and Fourth (1971), with various guests, mostly jazz players (Lyn Dobson
, Nick Evans
, Mark Charig, Jimmy Hastings
, Roy Babbington
, Rab Spall). Fourth was the first of their fully instrumental albums, and the last one featuring Wyatt.
All members were highly literate in various musical backgrounds, but foremost was the eclectic genius of Ratledge, who through composition, arrangements and improvisational skills propelled a collective output of the highest standard, in which the vocal charm and extraordinarily original drumming of Wyatt, the lyricism of some of Dean's solos and the unusual avant-garde pop angle of Hopper's pieces all had a major role. Their propensity for building extended suites from regular sized compositions, both live and in the studio (already in the Ayers suite in their first album), reaches its maximum in the 1970 album Third, unusual for its time in each of the four sides featuring one suite. Third was also unusual for remaining in print for more than ten years in the United States, and is the best-selling Soft Machine recording.
This period saw them gaining unprecedented acclaim across Europe, and they made history by becoming the first 'rock band' invited to play at London's Proms in August 1970, a show which was broadcast live and later appeared as a live album.
(a pun on machine molle French for soft machine). He was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard
, but further musical disagreements led to Howard's dismissal after the 1971 recording of the first LP side of Fifth (1972) and, some months later, to Dean's departure. They were replaced respectively by John Marshall
(drums) and, for the recording of Six
(1973), Karl Jenkins
(reeds, keyboards), both former members of Ian Carr
's Nucleus
, and The Softs' sound developed even more towards jazz fusion
.
In 1973, after Six, Hopper left and was replaced by Roy Babbington
, another former Nucleus member, who had already contributed with double bass
on Fourth and Fifth and took up (6-string) electric bass
successfully. This new quartet of Babbington, Jenkins, Marshall and Ratledge recorded the next (and last) three official Soft Machine studio releases. After they released Seven
(1973) without additional musicians, the band switched record label
s from Columbia
to Harvest
. On their 1975 album Bundles
, a significant musical change occurred with fusion
guitarist Allan Holdsworth
adding guitar as a very prominent melody instrument to the band's sound, sometimes reminiscent of John McLaughlin
's Mahavishnu Orchestra, setting the album apart from previous Soft Machine releases, which had rarely featured guitars. On the last official studio album Softs
(1976), he was replaced by John Etheridge
. Ratledge, the last remaining original member of the band, had left during the early stages of recording. Other musicians in the band during the later period were bassists Percy Jones
(of Brand X
) and Steve Cook, saxophonists Alan Wakeman
and Ray Warleigh
, and violinist Ric Sanders
. Their 1977 performances and record (titled Alive and Well, ironically) were among the last for Soft Machine as a working band. The Soft Machine name was used for the 1981 record Land of Cockayne
(with Jack Bruce
and, again, Allan Holdsworth, plus Ray Warleigh
and Dick Morrissey
on saxes and John Taylor on electric piano), and for a final series of dates at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
in the summer of 1984, featuring Jenkins and Marshall leading an ad hoc lineup of Etheridge, Warleigh, pianist Dave MacRae
and bassist Paul Carmichael.
and Richie Unterberger
wrote:
"Soft Machine were never a commercial enterprise and indeed still remain unknown even to many listeners who came of age during the late '60s and early ‘70s, when the group was at its peak. In their own way, however, they were one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones. One of the original British psychedelic groups, they were also instrumental in the birth of both progressive rock
and jazz-rock. They were also the central foundation of the family tree of the "Canterbury Scene
" of British progressive rock acts, a movement that also included Caravan
, Gong
, Matching Mole
, Hatfield and the North
, and National Health
, not to mention the distinguished pop music careers of founding members Robert Wyatt
and Kevin Ayers
and the jazz and jazz-rock explorations of saxophonist Elton Dean
and bassist Hugh Hopper
."
Since 1988, a wealth of live recordings of Soft Machine have been issued on CD, with recording quality ranging from poor to excellent.
In 2002, four former Soft Machine members - Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall and Allan Holdsworth - toured and recorded under the name Soft Works (initially called Soft Ware, debuting at the 2002 Progman Cometh
Festival).
From late 2004 onwards, with John Etheridge replacing Holdsworth, they toured and recorded as Soft Machine Legacy. They released three albums: Live in Zaandam (2005), the studio album Soft Machine Legacy (2006) and Live at the New Morning (2006). Although Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band has continued with British saxophonist and flautist Theo Travis
(formerly of Gong
and The Tangent
).
In December 2006, the new line-up recorded the album Steam in Jon Hiseman
's studio, released by Moonjune Records in August 2007 before a European tour in autumn.
In 2008 Hopper was sidelined by leukemia
and the band continued live performances with Fred Baker
. Following Hopper's death in 2009, the band announced that it would continue with Babbington once again stepping into the role formerly held by Hopper.
, won first place in the Melody Maker
British Jazz Album of the Year award in 1973. Soft Machine was voted best small group in the Melody Maker jazz poll of 1974.
(1981) which had:
with
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band from Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, named after the book The Soft Machine
The Soft Machine
The Soft Machine is a novel by William S. Burroughs, first published in 1961, two years after his groundbreaking Naked Lunch. It was originally composed using the cut-up and fold-in techniques from manuscripts belonging to The Word Hoard...
by William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene
Canterbury Scene
The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...
, and helped pioneer the progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
genre. Though they achieved little commercial success, they are considered by Allmusic to be "one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones."
Beginnings, Psychedelic, Jazz fusion
Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969) were formed in mid-1966 by Robert WyattRobert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
(drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
(bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...
(guitar) and Mike Ratledge
Mike Ratledge
Michael Roland "Mike" Ratledge is a British musician. Ratledge was part of the Canterbury scene and a long-time member of Soft Machine.-Biography and career:...
(organ) plus, for the first few gigs only, American guitarist Larry Nowlin. Allen, Wyatt and future bassist Hugh Hopper
Hugh Hopper
Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
had first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. Wyatt, Ayers and Hopper had been founding members of the Wilde Flowers
Wilde Flowers
The Wilde Flowers were a popular music group based in the vicinity of Canterbury, England. The group was active between 1964 and 1967 but never released any records during its existence; however it led to the formation of two other groups that became well-known and influential: Soft Machine and...
, later incarnations of which would include future members of another Canterbury band, Caravan
Caravan (band)
Caravan are an English band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success over a period of several years from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the Canterbury scene, blending...
.
This first Soft Machine line-up became involved in the early UK underground
UK underground
The Underground was a countercultural movement in the United Kingdom linked to the underground culture in the United States and associated with the hippie phenomenon. Its primary focus was around Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill in London...
, featuring prominently at the UFO Club
UFO Club
The UFO Club was a famous but shortlived UK underground club in London during the 1960s, venue of performances by many of the top bands of the day.-History:...
, and subsequently other London clubs like the Speakeasy and Middle Earth, and recorded the group's first single 'Love Makes Sweet Music', as well as some demo sessions that were released several years later. They also played in the Netherlands, Germany and on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
. During July and August 1967, the promoter and manager Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky is a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter and record producer. He owned the Crawdaddy Club where The Rolling Stones were house band, and he was involved with their early management. He hired The Yardbirds as a replacement and managed them. He was also their...
booked shows all along the Côte d'Azur with the band's most notorious early gig taking place in the village square of Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez is a town, 104 km to the east of Marseille, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. It is also the principal town in the canton of Saint-Tropez....
. This led to an invitation to perform at producer Eddie Barclay's trendy "", performing a forty minute rendition of "We Did It Again", singing the refrain over and over, achieving a Zen-like quality. This made them instant darlings of the Parisian "in" crowd, resulting in invitations to appear on leading television shows and at the Paris Biennale in October 1967. Upon their return from their sojourn in France, Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom, so the group continued as a trio, while he returned to Paris to form Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
.
Sharing the same management team as Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, the band were rewarded with a support slot on the Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
's North America tour throughout 1968. Soft Machine's first album - a psychedelic rock/proto-prog classic - was recorded in New York in April at the end of the first leg. Back in London, eventually guitarist Andy Summers
Andy Summers
Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...
, later of The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, joined the group, fresh from his stint with Dantalian's Chariot
Dantalian's Chariot
Dantalian's Chariot were a British psychedelic rock band that formed in 1967. Led by keyboardist and bandleader Zoot Money, and also featuring Andy Summers , they are best remembered for their single "Madman Running Through the Fields", and for their live performances, which featured early...
(previously Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band was a British rhythm and blues, soul and jazz group formed in England in early autumn 1961.-History:An early line-up had Zoot Money as vocalist and Al Kirtley on piano but in the band's best-known form Money himself played Hammond organ. Bassist/vocalist Paul Williams...
). After a few weeks of rehearsals, the new quartet began a tour of the USA with some solo shows before reuniting with Hendrix
Hendrix
Hendrix may refer to:* Hendrix ** Jimi Hendrix, musician* Hendrix , a lunar impact crater that is located on the Moon's far side* Hendrix, Oklahoma* Hendrix College, a private college located in Conway, Arkansas...
for a final string of dates in August–September 1968. Summers, however, had in the meantime been fired at the insistence of Ayers. Ayers departed amicably after the final date at the Hollywood Bowl, and for the remainder of 1968 Soft Machine were no more. Wyatt stayed in the US to record solo demos, while Ratledge returned to London and began composing in earnest.
In January 1969, in order to fulfil contractual obligations, Soft Machine reformed with former road manager
Road manager
In music industry, a Road Manager is a person who works with small to mid-sized tours...
and composer Hugh Hopper
Hugh Hopper
Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
on bass added to Wyatt and Ratledge, and set about recording their second album, Volume Two, which launched a transition towards a purely instrumental sound resembling what would be later called jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. In May 1969, this lineup acted as the uncredited backup band on two tracks of Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
's solo debut album, The Madcap Laughs
The Madcap Laughs
The Madcap Laughs is an album by British singer/songwriter Syd Barrett, released on 3 January 1970. It was his first solo album after being replaced in the band Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour.- History :...
. The base trio was late in 1969 expanded to a septet with the addition of four horn
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
players, though only saxophonist Elton Dean
Elton Dean
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....
remained beyond a few months, the resulting Soft Machine quartet (Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge and Dean) running through Third (1970) and Fourth (1971), with various guests, mostly jazz players (Lyn Dobson
Lyn Dobson
Lyn Dobson is a British musician, noted as a jazz-rock flautist and saxophonist. He appeared with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Manfred Mann in the mid 1960s and then with Soft Machine and Keef Hartley as well as playing on albums by Nick Drake and John Martyn.After the 1970s he worked in...
, Nick Evans
Nick Evans (trombonist)
Nicholas "Nick" Evans is a Welsh jazz and progressive rock trombonist.- Career :He worked in the Graham Collier Sextet , Keith Tippett Group , Soft Machine , Brotherhood of Breath , Centipede , Just Us , Ambush , Ninesense , Intercontinental Express , Ark Nicholas "Nick" Evans (born 1947 in...
, Mark Charig, Jimmy Hastings
Jimmy Hastings
James Brian Gordon 'Jimmy' Hastings , is a British professional musician associated with the Canterbury scene....
, Roy Babbington
Roy Babbington
Roy Babbington is a rock and jazz bassist. He became well known for being a member of the Canterbury scene progressive rock/jazz fusion band Soft Machine.-Biography:...
, Rab Spall). Fourth was the first of their fully instrumental albums, and the last one featuring Wyatt.
All members were highly literate in various musical backgrounds, but foremost was the eclectic genius of Ratledge, who through composition, arrangements and improvisational skills propelled a collective output of the highest standard, in which the vocal charm and extraordinarily original drumming of Wyatt, the lyricism of some of Dean's solos and the unusual avant-garde pop angle of Hopper's pieces all had a major role. Their propensity for building extended suites from regular sized compositions, both live and in the studio (already in the Ayers suite in their first album), reaches its maximum in the 1970 album Third, unusual for its time in each of the four sides featuring one suite. Third was also unusual for remaining in print for more than ten years in the United States, and is the best-selling Soft Machine recording.
This period saw them gaining unprecedented acclaim across Europe, and they made history by becoming the first 'rock band' invited to play at London's Proms in August 1970, a show which was broadcast live and later appeared as a live album.
Post-Wyatt era
After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt left (or was fired from) the band in 1971 and formed Matching MoleMatching Mole
Matching Mole was a short-lived UK progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene best known for the song "O Caroline". Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album The End of an Ear...
(a pun on machine molle French for soft machine). He was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard
Phil Howard
Phil Howard is an Australian jazz drummer best known for his brief stint with the jazz-rock group Soft Machine. Howard arrived in London from his native Australia in 1969, joining the band Caparius led by saxophonist Clive Stevens, alongside guitarist Peter Martin and bassist Neville Whitehead...
, but further musical disagreements led to Howard's dismissal after the 1971 recording of the first LP side of Fifth (1972) and, some months later, to Dean's departure. They were replaced respectively by John Marshall
John Stanley Marshall
John Stanley Marshall, better known as John Marshall, born 28 August 1941 in Isleworth, Middlesex, is an English drummer. He was a founding member of the jazz rock band Nucleus and has worked with various other jazz and rock bands and musicians, among them J.J...
(drums) and, for the recording of Six
Six (Soft Machine album)
Six is a 1973 instrumental album, originally released as a double LP by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene...
(1973), Karl Jenkins
Karl Jenkins
-Other works:*Adiemus: Live — live versions of Adiemus music*Palladio *Eloise *Imagined Oceans *The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace...
(reeds, keyboards), both former members of Ian Carr
Ian Carr
Ian Carr was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator.-Early years:Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr...
's Nucleus
Nucleus (band)
Nucleus were a pioneering jazz-rock band from Britain who continued in different forms from 1969 to 1989. In their first year they won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock, and performed both at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Gate jazz club.They were...
, and The Softs' sound developed even more towards jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
.
In 1973, after Six, Hopper left and was replaced by Roy Babbington
Roy Babbington
Roy Babbington is a rock and jazz bassist. He became well known for being a member of the Canterbury scene progressive rock/jazz fusion band Soft Machine.-Biography:...
, another former Nucleus member, who had already contributed with double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
on Fourth and Fifth and took up (6-string) electric bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
successfully. This new quartet of Babbington, Jenkins, Marshall and Ratledge recorded the next (and last) three official Soft Machine studio releases. After they released Seven
Seven (Soft Machine album)
Seven is a 1973 album by the British progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene...
(1973) without additional musicians, the band switched record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s from Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
to Harvest
Harvest Records
-References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7...
. On their 1975 album Bundles
Bundles (album)
Bundles is a 1975 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine.On Bundles, only keyboardist and founding member Mike Ratledge is left of the early Soft Machine line-ups...
, a significant musical change occurred with fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
adding guitar as a very prominent melody instrument to the band's sound, sometimes reminiscent of John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
's Mahavishnu Orchestra, setting the album apart from previous Soft Machine releases, which had rarely featured guitars. On the last official studio album Softs
Softs
For softs as commodities, see Commodities.Softs is a 1976 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene....
(1976), he was replaced by John Etheridge
John Etheridge
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....
. Ratledge, the last remaining original member of the band, had left during the early stages of recording. Other musicians in the band during the later period were bassists Percy Jones
Percy Jones (musician)
Percy Jones is a Welsh bass guitarist, and was a member of jazz fusion band Brand X, from 1974 to 1980, and a reformed version which lasted from 1992 to 1997...
(of Brand X
Brand X
Brand X was a jazz fusion band active between 1975–1980 and 1992-1999. Noted members included Phil Collins , Percy Jones , John Goodsall and Robin Lumley ....
) and Steve Cook, saxophonists Alan Wakeman
Alan Wakeman
Alan Wakeman is an English saxophonist, known for his work in Soft Machine during 1976, appearing on the album Softs. He is a cousin of the keyboard player Rick Wakeman....
and Ray Warleigh
Ray Warleigh
Raymond 'Ray' Kenneth Warleigh , is a leading UK-based alto saxophonist and flautist...
, and violinist Ric Sanders
Ric Sanders
Richard 'Ric' Sanders is a British violinist who has played in jazz-rock, folk rock, electric folk and folk groups, including Soft Machine and Fairport Convention.-Biography:...
. Their 1977 performances and record (titled Alive and Well, ironically) were among the last for Soft Machine as a working band. The Soft Machine name was used for the 1981 record Land of Cockayne
Land of Cockayne
Land of Cockayne is the final album by the band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band contained none of its original members. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty....
(with Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
and, again, Allan Holdsworth, plus Ray Warleigh
Ray Warleigh
Raymond 'Ray' Kenneth Warleigh , is a leading UK-based alto saxophonist and flautist...
and Dick Morrissey
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
on saxes and John Taylor on electric piano), and for a final series of dates at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club which has operated in London since 1959.The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was managed by musicians Ronnie Scott and Pete King. In 1965 it moved to a larger venue nearby at 47 Frith Street...
in the summer of 1984, featuring Jenkins and Marshall leading an ad hoc lineup of Etheridge, Warleigh, pianist Dave MacRae
Dave MacRae
David Scott MacRae is a keyboardist from New Zealand, noted for his contributions in jazz and the Canterbury scene....
and bassist Paul Carmichael.
Legacy
In Soft Machine's Allmusic biography, authors Dave LynchDave Lynch
Dave Lynch was an Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League .Lynch, a full-forward from Christian Brothers Old Boys, averaged 3.9 goals a game for Richmond, but could only amass 20 senior appearances in his eight years at the club. He began in 1922 with...
and Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger
Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...
wrote:
"Soft Machine were never a commercial enterprise and indeed still remain unknown even to many listeners who came of age during the late '60s and early ‘70s, when the group was at its peak. In their own way, however, they were one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones. One of the original British psychedelic groups, they were also instrumental in the birth of both progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and jazz-rock. They were also the central foundation of the family tree of the "Canterbury Scene
Canterbury Scene
The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...
" of British progressive rock acts, a movement that also included Caravan
Caravan (band)
Caravan are an English band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success over a period of several years from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the Canterbury scene, blending...
, Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
, Matching Mole
Matching Mole
Matching Mole was a short-lived UK progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene best known for the song "O Caroline". Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album The End of an Ear...
, Hatfield and the North
Hatfield and the North
Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter.-Career:...
, and National Health
National Health
National Health were a progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band included members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, the band also included guitarists Phil Miller and Phil Lee and bassist Mont...
, not to mention the distinguished pop music careers of founding members Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
and Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
and the jazz and jazz-rock explorations of saxophonist Elton Dean
Elton Dean
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....
and bassist Hugh Hopper
Hugh Hopper
Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
."
Since 1988, a wealth of live recordings of Soft Machine have been issued on CD, with recording quality ranging from poor to excellent.
In 2002, four former Soft Machine members - Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall and Allan Holdsworth - toured and recorded under the name Soft Works (initially called Soft Ware, debuting at the 2002 Progman Cometh
Progman Cometh
Progman Cometh Music Festivals were two Canterbury scene music concerts held at the Moore Theatre in Seattle Washington in 2002 and 2003.-Friday, August 16th:* 7:00pm Glass * 8:30pm Hughscore* 10:00pm Pip Pyle's Bash! - world debut!...
Festival).
From late 2004 onwards, with John Etheridge replacing Holdsworth, they toured and recorded as Soft Machine Legacy. They released three albums: Live in Zaandam (2005), the studio album Soft Machine Legacy (2006) and Live at the New Morning (2006). Although Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band has continued with British saxophonist and flautist Theo Travis
Theo Travis
Theo Travis is a British saxophonist and flautist.Travis received his degree in flute and saxophone from the University of Manchester and has worked among others with Robert Fripp, Gong, Porcupine Tree, The Tangent, Bill Nelson, Bass Communion, No-Man, Steven Wilson, David Sylvian, Harold Budd,...
(formerly of Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
and The Tangent
The Tangent
-Formation:Originally formed by keyboardists Andy Tillison and Sam Baine of Parallel or 90 Degrees and The Flower Kings guitarist Roine Stolt, bassist Jonas Reingold, and drummer Zoltan Csörsz. The septet was completed by renowned saxophonist David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator and...
).
In December 2006, the new line-up recorded the album Steam in Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman is an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher.-Career:...
's studio, released by Moonjune Records in August 2007 before a European tour in autumn.
In 2008 Hopper was sidelined by leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
and the band continued live performances with Fred Baker
Fred Thelonious Baker
Fred Thelonious Baker is an English guitarist and bass guitarist from Tibshelf, Derbyshire. He is known for playing in Phil Miller's Canterbury scene band In Cahoots....
. Following Hopper's death in 2009, the band announced that it would continue with Babbington once again stepping into the role formerly held by Hopper.
Biography
Graham Bennett's Soft Machine biography, Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous, was published in September 2005. In 2006 the book won an Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.Awards
The album on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, SixSix (Soft Machine album)
Six is a 1973 instrumental album, originally released as a double LP by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene...
, won first place in the Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
British Jazz Album of the Year award in 1973. Soft Machine was voted best small group in the Melody Maker jazz poll of 1974.
Studio albums
- The Soft MachineThe Soft Machine (album)The Soft Machine, as reissue also titled "Volume One", is the debut album by the British psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene....
(ABC/Probe, 1968) - Volume Two (ABC/Probe, 1969)
- Third (CBS, 1970)
- Fourth (CBS, 1971)
- Fifth (CBS, 1972)
- SixSix (Soft Machine album)Six is a 1973 instrumental album, originally released as a double LP by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene...
(CBS, 1973) - SevenSeven (Soft Machine album)Seven is a 1973 album by the British progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene...
(CBS, 1973) - BundlesBundles (album)Bundles is a 1975 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine.On Bundles, only keyboardist and founding member Mike Ratledge is left of the early Soft Machine line-ups...
(Harvest, 1975) - SoftsSoftsFor softs as commodities, see Commodities.Softs is a 1976 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene....
(Harvest, 1976) - Rubber Riff (library music originally recorded for DeWolfe music in 1976 under Karl Jenkins' name - re-issued on CD as a Soft Machine title by Blueprint, 1994)
- Alive & Well: Recorded in ParisAlive & Well: Recorded in ParisAlive & Well: Recorded in Paris is a 1978 release by the band Soft Machine. Mostly recorded live, during at 4-night residency at Paris' Théâtre Le Palace in July 1977, much of the album was later modified in the studio, with the track "Soft Space" being a completely studio recorded track released...
(Harvest, 1978) - Land of Cockayne (EMI, 1981)
Live albums and compilations
- Rock Generation Vol. 7 (one side only, 1967 demo recordingsDemo (music)A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
) (BYG, 1972) - Rock Generation Vol. 8 (one side only, 1967 demo recordings) (BYG, 1972) - This and the preceding entry were combined on subsequent releases, under such titles as Jet Propelled Photographs or Faces & Places Vol.7 (BYG Records). A 1976 release on Charly records was entitled At the Beginning.
- Triple Echo (3 record compilation, 1967–1976) (Harvest, 1977) - Notable for containing both the rare big-band arrangement of Esther's Nose Job and the completely reworked "here at the BBC" version of the Moon in June lyrics.
- Live at the Proms 1970 (Reckless, 1988)
- Turns On Paradiso (Amazing Discs, 1988) (recordings of 1969 - bootleg?)
- The Untouchable (compilation from Bundles, Softs, and Alive and Well) (Castle Communications, 1990)
- The Peel Sessions (recorded 1969-1971) (Strange Fruit, 1990)
- BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert 1971 (Windsong, 1993; also issued as Soft Machine & Heavy Friends by Hux, 2005)
- BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert 1972 (Windsong, 1994; also issued as Softstage by Hux, 2005)
- Live at the Paradiso 1969 (Voiceprint, 1995)
- Live in France (recorded 1972; also issued as Live in Paris by Cuneiform, 2004) (One Way, 1995)
- Spaced (recorded 1969) (Cuneiform, 1996)
- Virtually (recorded by Radio BremenRadio BremenRadio Bremen , Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state of Bremen...
1971) (Cuneiform, 1998) - Noisette (recorded 1970) (Cuneiform, 2000)
- Backwards (recorded 1968-1970) (Cuneiform, 2002)
- Facelift (recorded 1970) (Voiceprint, 2002)
- BBC Radio 1967-1971 (Hux, 2003)
- BBC Radio 1971-1974 (Hux, 2003)
- Somewhere In Soho (recorded 1970) (Voiceprint, 2004)
- Breda Reactor (recorded 1970) (Voiceprint, 2005)
- Out-Bloody-Rageous (compilation, 1967–1973) (Sony, 2005)
- Orange Skin Food (2cd compilation of released live recordings) (Membran/EagleRock, 2005)
- British Tour'75 (Major League, 2005)
- Floating World Live (recorded 1975) (MoonJune Records, 2006)
- Grides (CD/DVD Recorded 1970) (Cuneiform RecordsCuneiform RecordsCuneiform Records is an independent record label based in Silver Spring, Maryland.The label releases a mixture of musical styles, including progressive jazz, modern fusion music, progressive rock, the Canterbury Scene and electronic music...
, 2006) - Middle Earth Masters (CD Recorded 1967) (Cuneiform Records, 2006)
- Drop (with Phil HowardPhil HowardPhil Howard is an Australian jazz drummer best known for his brief stint with the jazz-rock group Soft Machine. Howard arrived in London from his native Australia in 1969, joining the band Caparius led by saxophonist Clive Stevens, alongside guitarist Peter Martin and bassist Neville Whitehead...
, recorded 1971) (MoonJune Records, 2008) - Live at Henie Onstad Art CentreHenie-Onstad Art CentreThe Henie-Onstad Art Centre is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality, Norway.The Henie-Onstad Art Centre is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately 10 km south of Oslo...
(recorded 1971) (Reel Recordings, 2009) - NDR Jazz Workshop (Hamburg, Germany, May 17, 1973) (Cuneiform RecordsCuneiform RecordsCuneiform Records is an independent record label based in Silver Spring, Maryland.The label releases a mixture of musical styles, including progressive jazz, modern fusion music, progressive rock, the Canterbury Scene and electronic music...
, 2010) - At The Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (vinyl re-release of Somewhere In Soho - 2lp)(2011) (Lilith Records)
Singles
- "Love Makes Sweet MusicLove Makes Sweet Music"Love Makes Sweet Music" was the first single released by the Psychedelic rock group Soft Machine. It is one of the first British Psychedelic releases, predating Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" by a month....
" / "Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin'" (Polydor UK, 1967) - "Joy of a ToyJoy of a Toy (song)"Joy of a Toy" was the first USA single released by the Psychedelic rock group Soft Machine. It was issued to promote the band’s debut album The Soft Machine. The single features edited versions of both songs, in addition to featuring the only known mono-mixes from their debut...
" / "Why Are We Sleeping?" (ABC Probe USA, 1968) - "Soft Space (part 1)" / "Soft Space (part 2)" (Harvest UK, 1977)
Line-ups timeline
This timeline does not include the last Soft Machine studio album Land of CockayneLand of Cockayne
Land of Cockayne is the final album by the band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band contained none of its original members. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty....
(1981) which had:
- Karl Jenkins – keyboards, synths
- John Marshall – drums, percussion
with
- Jack BruceJack BruceJohn Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
– bass - Allan HoldsworthAllan HoldsworthAllan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
– lead guitar - John Taylor – electric piano
- Ray WarleighRay WarleighRaymond 'Ray' Kenneth Warleigh , is a leading UK-based alto saxophonist and flautist...
– alto saxophone, bass flute - Dick MorrisseyDick MorrisseyRichard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
– tenor saxophone - Alan ParkerAlan Parker (musician)Alan Parker is a British guitarist and composer. Parker was trained by Julian Bream at London’s Royal Academy of Music....
– rhythm guitar - Stu CalverStu CalverStu Calver was a British musician who died in October 2000 at the age of 54. He is best known for his work as a backing vocalist with the singer Cliff Richard. Stu Calver had an incredible vocal range, which was remarkable given that he was a cystic fibrosis sufferer....
– backing vocals - John PerryGrapefruit (band)Grapefruit was a London-based British band of the late 1960s. Their brand of music was a typical late 1960s blend of rock, which they often fused with psychedelic effects such as phasers and vocoders, or classical arrangements.-Biography:...
– backing vocals - Tony RiversTony RiversTony Rivers is an English singer, best known for singing with the groups Tony Rivers and the Castaways and Harmony Grass. He also sang on albums by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Roger Daltrey, Shakin' Stevens and Cliff Richard.Rivers went to Raine's Foundation School in Bethnal Green...
– backing vocals
Further reading
- Bennett, Graham: Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous. London: SAF Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-946719-84-5 Biography
External links
- Soft Machine section at Calyx website
- Soft Machine - First period with Robert Wyatt
- Soft Machine discography
- Collapso - Canterbury Music Family Tree
- The Soft Machine - A Chronology
- Facelift Magazine - exploring the Canterbury scene and beyond
- Strongcomet:
- Interview with drummer/singer Robert Wyatt
- Elton Dean - interview for Facelift Magazine
- Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous biography
- Hugh Hopper site (hosted by Burning Shed) including link to the Hopper Archives
- Soft Machine page at Cuneiform Records
- Noisette - The ultimate Soft Machine experience, music, pictures, movies, facts
- Soft Machine at progarchives.com
- Soft Machine at allaboutjazz.com