Soft Machine

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For the book by William S. Burroughs, see The Soft Machine.

The Soft Machine was a pioneering British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz band from Canterbury, England, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Awards
2 Discography
- 2.1 Albums
- 2.2 Singles
3 References
4 External links

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Biography

The Soft Machine emerged out of an earlier band called the Wilde Flowers (a reference to Oscar Wilde). The Wilde Flowers included, at various times: Brian Hopper (guitar, saxophone, flute), Hugh Hopper (bass), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (vocals), Richard Sinclair (guitar, vocals), Pye Hastings (guitar, vocals), David Sinclair (keyboards) and Richard Coughlan (drums). These last four formed another successful Canterbury band, Caravan.

The Soft Machine was formed in 1966 by Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (keyboards). This line-up recorded the group's first (and only) single, as well as some demo sessions that were released several years later. In 1967, upon their return from a performance in France, Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to England, so the group continued as a trio. In 1968 they toured the USA, opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. During this tour, they recorded their first album in New York. The following year, when it came time to record their second album, Ayers was unavailable and was replaced by Hugh Hopper.

In this early period the group played in a psychedelic rock style, featuring Wyatt's singing on most of their pieces. But late in 1969 they expanded the trio to a septet with the addition of four horn players. Though only saxophonist Elton Dean remained beyond a few months, this marked a shift to a much more jazz-oriented approach, with extended compositions and much less vocal material. Their 1970 album Third was unusual for its time in that it was a two-record set, with each of the four sides featuring one long composition. Only one of these compositions featured Wyatt's singing. Third and its immediate follow-up, Fourth, featured the basic quartet of Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge and Dean with various guests, mostly horn players.

After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt left the band in 1971 and formed Matching Mole (a pun on machine molle, the French for soft machine). He was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard, but further musical disagreements led to Howard's dismissal and, some months later, to Dean's departure. They were replaced respectively by John Marshall (drums) and Karl Jenkins (reeds, keyboards), both former members of Ian Carr's Nucleus. In 1973, Hopper left, and in 1976, Ratledge, the last remaining original member of the band, was also gone. Other musicians in the band during the later period were bassists Roy Babbington and Steve Cook, guitarists Allan Holdsworth and John Etheridge, saxophonist Alan Wakeman, and violinist Ric Sanders. Their 1978 performances and record (titled Alive and Well, ironically) were the last for Soft Machine as a working band. The Soft Machine name was used for the 1981 record Land of Cockayne and for a few live shows in 1984, but these featured Jenkins and Marshall with groups assembled just for those performances.

Since 1988 a wealth of live recordings of Soft Machine have been issued on CD, with recording quality ranging from excellent to poor.

In 2002 four former Soft Machine members - Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall and Allan Holdsworth - toured and recorded under the name Soft Works. In 2005, with John Etheridge replacing Holdsworth, they toured and recorded as Soft Machine Legacy. Both of these groups performed some pieces from the original Soft Machine repertoire as well as newer material.

Graham Bennett's Soft Machine biography, Out-Bloody-Rageous was published in September 2005.

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Awards

The album on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, 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.

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Discography

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Albums

The Soft Machine (ABC/Probe, 1968)
Volume Two (ABC/Probe, 1969)
Third (Columbia, 1970)
Fourth (Columbia, 1971)
Rock Generation Vol. 7 (one side only, 1967 demo recordings) (BYG, 1972)
Rock Generation Vol. 8 (one side only, 1967 demo recordings) (BYG, 1972)
Five (Columbia, 1972)
Six (Columbia, 1973)
Seven (Columbia, 1973)
Bundles (Harvest, 1975)
Softs (Harvest, 1976)
At the Beginning (1967 demo recordings previously on Rock Generation records; also issued as Jet-Propelled Photographs) (Charly, 1976)
Triple Echo (3 record compilation, 1967-1976) (Harvest, 1977)
Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris (Harvest, 1978)
Land of Cockayne (EMI, 1981)
Live at the Proms 1970 (Reckless, 1988)
The Peel Sessions (recorded 1969-1971) (Strange Fruit, 1991)
BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert 1971 (Windsong, 1993)
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert 1972 (Windsong, 1994)
Live at the Paradiso 1969 (Voiceprint, 1995)
Live In France (recorded 1972; also issued as Live in Paris) (One Way, 1995)
Spaced (recorded 1969) (Cuneiform, 1996)
Virtually (recorded 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)
Floating World Live (recorded 1975) (MoonJune Records, 2006)