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Soft Machine

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Biography

about|the rock band|the band's debut album|The Soft Machine (album)|the William Burroughs novel|The Soft Machine|other uses|The Soft Machine (disambiguation)Infobox musical artist | name = Soft Machine| image = Softmachine70-Promo4.jpg| caption = Group photo circa 1970:
Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper| image_size = | landscape = Yes| background = group_or_band| origin = Canterbury , England, United Kingdom| genre = Canterbury scene , jazz fusion , progressive rock , psychedelic rock | years_active = 1966–1984| label = ABC Records|ABC Probe Records|Probe , Columbia Records|Columbia , Harvest Records|Harvest , EMI | associated_acts = Caravan (band)|Caravan , Pink Floyd , Matching Mole , Nucleus (band)|Nucleus , Gong (band)|Gong , Soft Works , Isotope (band)|Isotope , Adiemus , Soft Machine Legacy , Soft Heap (band)|Soft Heap , Soft Head , Soft Bounds | website =| notable_instruments =| past_members = See: #Line-ups timeline|Line-ups timeline Soft Machine were an English Rock music|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."

History


Beginnings, Psychedelic, Jazz fusion


Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969) were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt (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. http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr/softmachine/chrono.html Soft Machine chronology at http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr calyx.perso.neuf.fr 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 (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 "Link-interwiki|en=Nuit Psychédélique|lang=fr|lang_title=Nuits psychédéliques", 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 (band)|Gong .

Sharing the same management team as Jimi Hendrix , the band were rewarded with a support slot on the The Jimi Hendrix Experience|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. Andy Summers , One Train Later , Thomas Dunne Books, 2006. ISBN 0-312-35914-4. 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 (The Soft Machine 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 section|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 (Soft Machine album)|Third (1970) and Fourth (album)|Fourth (1971), with various guests, mostly jazz players ( Lyn Dobson , Nick Evans (trombonist)|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.

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. http://www.cosmik.com/aa-may03/soft_works.html Cosmik.com

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 Third (Soft Machine album)#2007 re-issue|live album .

Post-Wyatt era


After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt left (or was fired from Richie Unterberger|Unterberger, Richie : http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/wyatt.html 1996 Robert Wyatt interview at http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/ Perfect Sound Forever (online music magazine)) the band in 1971 and formed Matching Mole (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 (album)|Fifth (1972) and, some months later, to Dean's departure. They were replaced respectively by John Stanley Marshall|John Marshall (drums) and, for the recording of Six (Soft Machine album)|Six (1973), Karl Jenkins (reeds, keyboards), both former members of Ian Carr 's Nucleus (band)|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 (album)|Fourth and Fifth and took up (6-string) bass guitar|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 (Soft Machine album)|Seven (1973) without additional musicians, the band switched record label s from Columbia Records|Columbia to Harvest Records|Harvest . On their 1975 album Bundles (album)|Bundles , a significant musical change occurred with Jazz fusion|fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth adding guitar as a very prominent melody instrument to the band's sound, sometimes reminiscent of John McLaughlin (musician)|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 (musician)|Percy Jones (of Brand X ) and Steve Cook (bassist)|Steve Cook , http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr/mus/cook_steve.html Steve Cook biography at calyx.perso.neuf.fr 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 (album)|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.

Legacy


In Soft Machine's Allmusic biography, authors Dave Lynch 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 (band)|Caravan , Gong (band)|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 Allmusic|class=album|id=r644018|pure_url=yes Astarita, Glenn: Soft Works' Abracadabra album review at Allmusic (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 . http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php? id=15399 About Soft Machine Legacy at All About Jazz They released three albums: Live in Zaandam Allmusic|class=album|id=r817870|pure_url=yes Soft Machine Legacy: Live in Zaandam at Allmusic (2005), the studio album Soft Machine Legacy Allmusic|class=album|id=r844234|pure_url=yes Soft Machine Legacy (album) at Allmusic (2006) and Live at the New Morning Allmusic|class=album|id=r847663|pure_url=yes|label= Live at the New Morning: The Paris Concert at Allmusic (2006). Although Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band has continued with British saxophonist and flautist Theo Travis (formerly of Gong (band)|Gong and The Tangent ).

In December 2006, the new line-up recorded the album Steam Allmusic|class=album|id=r1184127|pure_url=yes Lynch, Dave: Steam review at Allmusic http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php? id=26601 Astarita, Glenn: Steam review at All About Jazz http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php? id=26685 Jones, Nic: Steam review at All About Jazz 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 Thelonious Baker|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. http://www.johnetheridge.com/softmachinelegacy/index.htm Soft Machine Legacy at johnetheridge.com

Influence


The hip hop duo Reflection Eternal was inspired by Seven (Soft Machine album)|Seven and they took samples from "Carol Ann" for the song "Memories Live" on their album Train of Thought (Reflection Eternal album)|Train of Thought http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/14047/Reflection%20Eternal-Memories%20Live_Soft%20Machine-Carol%20Ann/ Who Sampled.

Awards


The album on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, Six (Soft Machine album)|Six , 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.

Biography


Graham Bennett's Soft Machine biography, Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous , http://books.google.com/books? id=JVCZsK9bAh0C& pg=PA7 Graham Bennett's Soft Machine biography, Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous . Excerpts on http://books.google.com books.google.com 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.

Discography


Studio albums


  • The Soft Machine (album)|The Soft Machine (ABC/Probe, 1968)

  • Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)|Volume Two (ABC/Probe, 1969)

  • Third (Soft Machine album)|Third (CBS, 1970)

  • Fourth (album)|Fourth (CBS, 1971)

  • Fifth (album)|Fifth (CBS, 1972)

  • Six (Soft Machine album)|Six (CBS, 1973)

  • Seven (Soft Machine album)|Seven (CBS, 1973)

  • Bundles (album)|Bundles (Harvest, 1975)

  • Softs (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)Allmusic|class=album|id=r49712|pure_url=yes Lynch, Dave: Rubber Riff review at Allmusic

  • Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris (Harvest, 1978)

  • Land of Cockayne (album)|Land of Cockayne (EMI, 1981)


    • Live albums and compilations


  • Rock Generation Vol. 7 (one side only, 1967 Demo (music)|demo recordings ) (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.

  • Third_(Soft_Machine_album)#2007_re-issue|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 Bremen 1971) (Cuneiform, 1998) Richie Unterberger|Unterberger, Richie: Allmusic|class=album|id=r333056|pure_url=yes Virtually review at Allmusic

  • 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 (2& nbsp;cd 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 Records , 2006)

  • Middle Earth Masters (CD Recorded 1967) (Cuneiform Records, 2006)

  • Drop (with Phil Howard , recorded 1971) (MoonJune Records, 2008)Allmusic|class=album|id=r1466221|pure_url=yes Lynch, David: Drop review at Allmusic

  • Live at Henie-Onstad Art Centre|Henie Onstad Art Centre (recorded 1971) (Reel Recordings, 2009) http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php? id=34394 Kelman, John: Live at Henie Onstad Arts Centre 1971 review at All About Jazz

  • NDR Jazz Workshop (Hamburg, Germany, May 17, 1973) ( Cuneiform Records , http://cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/softmachine.html Cuneiform Records: Soft Machine releases 2010)

  • ''At The Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (vinyl re-release of Somewhere In Soho - 2lp)(2011) (Lilith Records)


    • Singles


  • " Love Makes Sweet Music " / "Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin'" (Polydor UK, 1967)

  • " Joy of a Toy (song)|Joy of a Toy " / "Why Are We Sleeping? " (ABC Probe USA, 1968)

  • "Soft Space (part 1)" / "Soft Space (part 2)" (Harvest UK, 1977)


    • Line-ups timeline


    Timeline_Soft_Machine_(band)
    This timeline does not include the last Soft Machine studio album Land of Cockayne (album)|Land of Cockayne (1981) which had:
  • Karl Jenkins – keyboards, synths

  • John Marshall – drums, percussion

    • with
  • Jack Bruce – bass

  • Allan Holdsworth – lead guitar

  • John Taylor (bass guitarist)|John Taylor – electric piano

  • Ray Warleigh – alto saxophone, bass flute

  • Dick Morrissey – tenor saxophone

  • Alan Parker (musician)|Alan Parker – rhythm guitar

  • Stu Calver – backing vocals

  • Grapefruit (band)|John Perry – backing vocals

  • Tony Rivers – backing vocals


    • References


    reflist|2

    Further reading


  • Bennett, Graham: Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous . London: SAF Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-946719-84-5 http://www.safpublishing.com/store/system/store.htm Biography


    • External links


  • http://calyx.perso.neuf.fr/softmachine/ Soft Machine section at Calyx website

  • http://www.disco-robertwyatt.com/images/soft_machine/index.htm Soft Machine - First period with Robert Wyatt

  • http://www.music-city.org/Soft-Machine/discography/ Soft Machine discography

  • http://www.macgraphic.co.jp/ich/ Collapso - Canterbury Music Family Tree

  • http://rac.neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk/tourdate/SMdates.htm The Soft Machine - A Chronology

  • http://www.faceliftmagazine.co.uk Facelift Magazine - exploring the Canterbury scene and beyond

  • http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/softs/ Strongcomet:

  • http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/wyatt.html Interview with drummer/singer Robert Wyatt

  • http://www.btinternet.com/~stephen.yarwood/elton.htm Elton Dean - interview for http://www.faceliftmagazine.co.uk Facelift Magazine

  • http://www.safpublishing.com/store/system/store.htm Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous biography

  • http://www.hughhopper.com Hugh Hopper site (hosted by Burning Shed) including link to the Hopper Archives

  • http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/softmachine.html Soft Machine page at Cuneiform Records

  • http://www.noisette.nl Noisette - The ultimate Soft Machine experience, music, pictures, movies, facts

  • http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp? id=633 Soft Machine at progarchives.com

  • Allmusic|class=artist|id=p5473

  • http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php? id=15399 Soft Machine at http://www.allaboutjazz.com allaboutjazz.com


    • Soft Machine|state=uncollapsedRobert Wyatt|state=collapsedUK underground
    Category:Canterbury scene
    Category:Columbia Records artists
    Category:English progressive rock groups
    Category:Harvest Records artists
    Category:Jazz fusion ensembles
    Category:Jazz-rock ensembles
    Category:Musical groups established in 1966
    Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1984
    Category:Psychedelic musical groups

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    Copyright Citations

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    Soft Machine Photo by: www.progarchives.com



          

    		  
       
     
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