Soft Machine - British Tour 1975

I used to think that post-Wyatt Soft Machine was nowhere near as good as the Wyatt era band. I also held that the closer it drew to the loss of even the final original member from the line-up, the worse it became. The evolution of the band could've been summed up with a quote from a Kevin Ayers' song that went like: "Making life easy by making it worse" as the music of SM was being simplified to generic Fusion music which was nowhere near as radical and interesting as the late sixties and early seventies stuff. I thought the studio albums like Bundles and Softs had their moments, but seemed rather underwhelming in some respects. That's studio alright, but what about live?

Well, this live album is thankfully showing an entirely another side to the latter-day Machine. And it is this release thanks to which it is evident that when the Jenkins era band really wanted to, they could display enough power in their performance. Both Bundles and Softs are represented here. This 78 minute set opens with the pairing of "Bundles" and "Land of the Bag Snake" and it already shows that live, these songs could sound more intense than their studio counterparts. While Allan Holdsworth gets most of the respect, I think John Etheridge is as good of a guitarist, if not even more interesting one. Aside his lightning speed solos, his rhythm guitar playing is equally impressive. So, in guitar department, it's all well. "Out of Season" from the upcoming Softs album follows and it's also a bit more energetic than the studio version, even though a bit too long and repetitive. Then comes the early highlight of the album, which is the rendition of keyboardist Mike Ratledge's "The Man Who Waved At Trains" composition. The rendition here sounds a little less jazzy than the studio counterpart, played again with more verve and intensity, with the inspired rhythm guitar playing. It is already apparent that Karl Jenkins has given up on most of his reeds. Not only is his soprano sax on the main melody poorly miked to the point of being nearly inaudible, but also during the solo section, where there used to be an oboe solo; the one who gets the spotlight is...Ratledge instead. He steps up and cranks up a fiery solo for the next four minutes on his fuzzed Lowrey organ. I've always thought Jenkins' oboe solos were too mild and unassertive, so the decision to relegate the solo to the powerful Ratledge organ was fitting. After his solo, Ratledge messes around on his synthesizer, unaccompanied. At this point, he was still cranking up some wild and deranged keyboard sounds, now on synthesizer instead of treated organ or tape loops like earlier. After a minute long "Floating World", another Softs preview, "Ban Ban Caliban" arrives. It's a great one too. Did I mention that on this concert, Ratledge plays more organ than during the earlier Fusion years? Not just solos, but backing as well. On "Ban Ban Caliban", the minimalist and ethereal head is played by soprano sax and wah-ed organ, the textures of these two combined instruments is mind-blowing. Then comes a transitional riff not present on the studio version, which introduces the solo section. On the studio version, there was a sax solo from Alan Wakeman. In his place, Mike Ratledge whips out another fine solo. It really shows that on this concert album, he's nowhere near as invisible as he was on the final studio sessions with the Machine. The comparative lack of reeds and the dual keyboard textures with more prominent Lowrey organ really contribute to tasteful sound picture, which is another reason why this is archival release is so worthwhile. After Ratledge we have a nice guitar solo from Etheridge as well.

Ok, so far so good. Then come the most dispensable ten minutes of the set and that is...you guessed it, the drum solo. Apparently John Marshall had some interesting percussion solo concepts, but 10 minutes is way too long. After that, becomes the powerhouse "Hazard Profile" suite from the Bundles. It's again somewhat different from the studio version. The biggest change is the part five, where the soprano sax melody is dropped and a solo vamp in a different key (C-minor instead of G) is introduced for Ratledge. He starts with synth, then drops it and whips out more fast and furious organ. Another goodie. For what was apparently an encore, "Song of Aeolus" is played, and it's yet another song that would wind up on Softs album. Again this version plods less and in place of cheesy synth strings on the studio version we have some wonderful Ratledge organ comping. Nice one. There is even an earlier version from 1975 with Ratledge taking a fuzz organ solo while Jenkins comped on acoustic piano, which is available on The Floating World 1975. It's also great. "Sign of Five" is a 15 minute guitar led jam that ends the show quite nicely.

And that was it: a show in Nottingham University in October 11, 1975 where it was evident that the Soft Machine could still play it great. It is albums like these which necessitate revisionism of Jenkins era Soft Machine. The warts-and-all energetic performance certainly has stood the test of time better than the comparatively bland and dated studio stuff from mid-seventies Machine. It also might be among the best archival Machine albums not released by Cuneiform.