Drummer reacts to SOFT MACHINE (John Peel Session 1967)

[@claudeproost1286]

Soft Machine moved from psychedelic dada (album 1 & 2) to outstanding jazz fusion (album 3 onwards), later fusing with members of Nucleus. My favorite Canterbury band, “Third” is desert island material!

[@diverdown631]

I've always heard the name but never checked them out. If you say they moved to jazz fusion, you're speaking my language, and I'll check out their later albums.

[@johnroberts1708]

​@@diverdown631I'd definitely try their (best) two albums, imaginatively entitled Third and Fourth.

[@shemanic1]

John Peel is a legend, he always played some great tunes. Nothing like him anymore.

[@ddthor]

Love Kevin Ayer’s. Joy of a Toy is maybe his best album.

[@davidthrower1553]

Mine is “Whatevershebringswesing”

[@ddthor]

@davidthrower1553 also excellent.

[@donaldanderson6604]

The current lineup is still active and worth checking out, they are absolutely stunning live.

[@JohnLedger-g4i]

Robert Wyatt lived in the same as myself. Unfortunately he was wheelchair bound after falling from a window. A nicer bloke could you meet. Spoke to everyone, not because he was showing off having been famous but he just very human. I haven’t lived there for 20 years but when I see him there is a sign of recognition on his face. Top man.

[@janewells5970]

Fantastic band! Currently touring! Look for them!!!

[@davidthrower1553]

Also check out Robert Wyatts versions of “I’m a Believer” and “Shipbuilding”

[@ddthor]

I suggest June 1, 1974. Live album from Kevin Ayer’s, Nico, John Cale and Eno with Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt and Ollie Halsall. Really fun album.

[@L33Reacts]

thank you i will check that out. sounds like an all star line up!

[@donaldanderson6604]

It's a great album. I got a free copy in a competition courtesy of New Musical Express .

[@nigelbailey4704]

Memories of Sundays at the Roundhouse in London where they were almost the resident band - have loved them ever since. Intetesting fact - they supported Jimi Hendrix on his US tour

[@thescrewfly]

Most of these tracks appeared in studio versions on their first album, which is an absolute psychedelic classic. Esther's Nose Job appeared on a later album. Soft Machine were the pivotal "Canterbury" band incorporating many of the traits that defined the loose family of bands involved: pop and psychedelic sensibilities, complex time signatures, dadaist, ironic and/or surreal lyrics, not adopting American accents and not singing about American topics. Daevid Allen went on to form Gong. Kevin Ayers later employed Mike Oldfield (on bass!) and the inimitable Lol Coxhill. Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers' replacement, Hugh Hopper, had both played with David & Richard Sinclair (Caravan, Hatfield & The North) in the Wilde Flowers. Soft Machine toured the US in 1968 supporting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This line-up (without Daevid) appeared live several times on French television and those videos can be found on KZbin (last time I checked). They are musically impressive and quite strange/charming in a very '60s way.

[@yes_head]

The early footage (the French loved these guys -- and Pink Floyd) is essential to really understanding the early SM 'brand'. Ayers' face paint, Robert stripped to the waist, Mike shredding away... The sound they made wasn't necessarily polished or technically brilliant, but something undeniably powerful is transmitted every time.

[@paulehney4581]

Lol, this one is going to stun a few.

[@rockinronist]

In 1968 Soft Machine went on a US tour with Jimi Hendrix, as his opening act.

[@Manni59]

My favorite album by the band is “Softs”. "Out Of Season", from this LP, is in my personal top 20 of contemporary music. Two other pieces ("Tale Of Talisien" and "Ban-Ban Caliban") are also very, very worth listening to. The LP is absolutely recommended.

[@Alix777.]

Great review L33 ! I'm glad you did this one. One of the first bands I really loved when I got into 70s rock and prog a long time ago. The first album is terrific, it's pure raw psychedelic fusion. The main singer, Robert Wyatt, had a tragic story but managed to reinvent himself after his accident. I recommend his masterpiece solo album "Rock Bottom".

[@L33Reacts]

I'm glad you enjoyed too! This was a wild ride, for sure. I enjoyed it though (obviously). I can't wait to hear something else from them now lol they seem to be the "beginnings" of prog and such...

[@RobinFaichney]

Never thought any YT reactor would do the Softs. The third album is one of my top five ever. This session is NOT the easiest way into them for any non-Brit IMO, too quirky. Though no worse than Capt Beefheart I suppose. Third is IMO sublimely musical, do it please please please! Though the beginning of Facelift might be a bit much for some listeners...

[@corawheeler9355]

I never heard this band ... different, strange, wild, fun ... let's do it some more : )

[@JohnLedger-g4i]

I thought I had tuned into the wrong Chanel when I saw that cute face. And then you turned up !!!!!!

[@DawnSuttonfabfour]

OK cosmic story. When I was a kid 6/7, we lived in a large house subdivided into flats. In one of them lived a guy who was a roadie for Soft Machine. He certainly livened the place up. I remember him well. He was good friends with my mum and his g/f babysat us. I'm pretty sure she met the band, she met quite a few famous people in the 60s. Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend to name but 2. Name dropping over. Night then.

[@davidthrower1553]

You must listen to some Kevin Ayers….John peel said “he had a talent so sharp you can perform eye surgery with it” . Albums “Joy of a Toy”, Whatevershebringswesing”, “Confessions of Dr Dream”, and “Bananmour” to start with. Idiosyncratic and original music from a very underrated genius.

[@stuarthastie6374]

Dave Allen went down to form Gong. Robert Wyatt the drummer with the high voice took LSD, thought he could fly we got paralysed from the waist down, formed matching mole and sang from a wheelchair, was still making records until recently. I think this has been recorded off a cheap radio. The radio programmes of John peel promoted Prague in the 60s. I bought many LPS from hearing his sessions.

[@damonhines8187]

Matching Mole sounding somewhat like Machine Moelle, French for Soft Machine.

[@ericjurgens6976]

Wyatt was drunk when he fell out of the window. He mentioned that the fall probably saved his life because he was drinking himself to death after he was kicked out of his own band.

[@gidouille]

Daevid Allen was forced out of SM because the authorities wouldn't let him back into the UK. He's not even on any of the tracks played here. Not sure where you got your information about Wyatt, but almost everything you wrote there apart from his being paralyzed is wrong. Wyatt was roaring drunk at a birthday party in 1973, not tripping, and tried to climb out the window on to the roof of Lady June's flat when he fell. According to Wyatt himself, he never smoked weed nor did any psychedelics though both were all around. Matching Mole broke up the year before the accident. Plans to reconstitute the band ended with his accident. He's only done a handful of concerts since the accident and none were with Matching Mole. There was a gig with a select group of friends and colleagues backing him in September 1974, and he did three concerts with Henry Cow backing him in 1975. There have only been occasional one offs since then.

[@stuarthastie6374]

That's interesting​. The body is a soft machine is a quote from William s burrows, as is steely Dan.@@damonhines8187

[@stuarthastie6374]

​@@gidouilleI saw matching Mole in the early 70s are supporting band I think for either Roxy music or Emerson lake and Palmer. The LSD thing was a rumour in the press.

[@fineasfogg1461]

Holy smokes! I am having troubles remember this. I LOVE it. Thanks for this. 🤘

[@L33Reacts]

i'm glad you enjoyed too! this was nuts lol

[@lauraallen55]

What a lineup tomorrow!

[@RobinFaichney]

You should do Robert Wyatt's version of Shipbuilding, very different from this (written by Elvis Costello) but quite haunting...

[@davidthrower1553]

“Clarence in Wonderland”….Kevin Ayers and ‘The Wyattron” in fine voice

[@yes_head]

Correct, this is the very earliest origins of progressive rock. So early some would label it proto-prog. Mike Ratledge basically invented the Canterbury keyboard sound, which came out of the fact that early keyboards had no built-in sustain, so he'd run his Farfisa through a fuzz box and hold notes down as he soloed in order to avoid it sounding too piano-like. This was even more important after Daevid Allen left, leaving them a trio with no guitar. Mike was then the main melodic instrument and only soloist in the band.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Cool band. From psych to jazz.

[@gidouille]

Daevid Allen was out of the band by this time. They'd summered in France and upon returning, Allen, an Australian national, wasn't allowed back into the country. He went back to Paris, later formed Gong and they continued without him. I don't believe he's on any of these tracks. Larry Knowland, sic, isn't on this either.They're a trio, and the only time you hear guitar is when Ayers isn't playing bass. I would recommend listening to their 1969 Peel Session's version of Moon in June, with some of the lyrics being written especially for the recording. It's my single favorite Soft Machine track. Esther's Nose Job is a sidelong suite on Volume Two, the title taken from a chapter title in Thomas Pynchon's novel, V.

[@lynda3860]

there would possibly be no gong or caravan without soft machine, members of each band started in soft machine

[@L33Reacts]

soft machine was the catalyst for a lot of things it seems...

[@yes_head]

You're in the deep end of early prog now, bucko. That additional noise is tape hiss (I'm assuming this is a multi-gen from some reel to reel transfer), which couldn't be completely eliminated, despite the best modern audio technology we have today. With early Soft Machine just think the free jazz of Ornette Coleman meets Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. They were a very popular part of the underground live scene in London in '67. So much so that Jimi Hendrix asked them to open for the early Experience on their European and U.S. tours. Robert Wyatt actually name checks them in the lyrics on the second album.

[@Rich_N_1]

My least favourite incarnation of this band, much as I love Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt. For me the pinnacle was the Jazzier/avant garde music when the album "Third" was released. Of course the absolute nadir was the Karl Jenkins led group, by which time there were no original members left, but it's debatable whether this was still "Soft Machine" and not more akin to "Nucleus", Jenkins' previous band. Fun fact, "Soft Machine" and "The Incredible String Band", (also worthy of exploration), replaced "Pink Floyd" as the "House Band" at the legendary "UFO Club" in London. Members of this band went on to form other bands such as "Gong" and "Matching Mole", rabbit holes in themselves, but for myself I absolutely adore Robert Wyatt's solo album "Rock Bottom" which was truly life changing for me when I first heard it.

[@goonbelly5841]

What!? You cut Esther’s Nose Job?🤣🤣

[@L33Reacts]

xD I had too, It was already 5 songs. i didnt know. i got lucky the ai picked up one as a cover song or this would have been blocked lol!

[@jimholt1888]

​@@L33ReactsLee....have you listened to Camel yet?

[@jimholt1888]

Forget it ... I see you've done one 8 months ago. Return to them at some point. Start with Lady Fantasy.....best of the Canterbury Scene.

[@billhawkins1236]

This must be an acquired listening taste. I admit I got a soft machine album with one of my Columbia record club collections. Fortunately, ut got lost over the years.😂😂😂

[@mikewaise5317]

I seen them in Chicago backing up Jimmy Hendrix