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The Soft Machine – Volume Two [2009 Remastered]
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Artist……………: The Soft Machine
Album…………….: Volume Two [2009 Remastered]
Genre…………….: Progressive Rock
Source……………: NMR
Year……………..: 1969
Ripper……………: NMR
Codec…………….: LAME 3.99
Version…………..: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality…………..: Extreme, (avg. bitrate: 254kbps)
Channels………….: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
Tags……………..: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.3
Information……….:
Ripped by…………: NMR
Posted by…………: p-zombie@dev.null on 16/04/2013
News Server……….:
News Group(s)……..:
Included………….: NFO, LOG
Covers……………: Front Back CD
Audio CD (3 Aug 2009)
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Original recording remastered
Label: Polydor/Universal
By the end of 1968 the Soft Machine had parted company with founder and bass player Kevin Ayers. Ayers, who operated at a more leisurely pace and was less jazz inclined than drummer Robert Wyatt and keyboardist Mike Ratledge, had been put off touring, at least temporarily, by the experience of supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience acrioss the USA. But following a brief hiatus the band reformed with former road manager and school friend Hugh Hopper on bass. Joined here by brother Brian – another key figure in Canterbury musical history – on sax, it was Hugh’s vastly developed sense of melody, combined with the aforementioned love of jazz that saw the band enter Olympic Studios with engineer George Chkiantz and record this masterpiece.
Volume Two’s first side begins with Wyatt reciting the alphabet, ending the side’s suite of songs by doing the same, backwards. This mixture of the absurd and the serious that was to eventually tip in the direction of the latter (forcing out the more whimsical Wyatt), provides a wonderful tension that no other band has ever really replicated though many have tried (cf: Hatfield And The North). Fearsome chord progressions (Dedicated To You But You Weren’t Listening), free noise (Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging) and even scatting in Spanish (Dada Was Here): this was no ordinary college band.
Even the infamously po-faced Ratledge was open to a touch of tomfoolery at this point. Pig’s exploration of the role of women’s underwear in the mating ritual is hilarious, while underpinned with a time signature that they virtually patented in later years. As Long As he Lies Perfectly Still is a truly moving tribute to the departed Ayers: Mike Ratledge’s majestic piano chords declaim over his own distorted organ, Wyatt’s swinging cymbals and Hugh Hopper’s monstrous fuzz bass while Wyatt sings lyrics that are equal parts affectionate, silly and mocking.
Volume Two could be said to be the band’s best album. It was a taste of the pre-post modern: relegating lyrics to the role of noise that merely describes what the band’s doing (”In his organ solos, he fills ’round the keyboards, knowing he must find the noisiest notes for you to hear” – Thank You Pierrot Lunaire), or name checking friends of the group (”Thank you Noel and Mitch. Thank you Jim, for our exposure to the crowd. And thank you for this coda Mike, you did us proud” – Have You Ever Bean Green?). No one makes records like this anymore.
Many discerning musicians regard this as one of the greatest albums ever made, but it seems to have flown under the radar of nearly everyone else. It’s a controlled explosion of brilliant musical ideas and stream-of-consciousness verbal wit played with a warmth and vitality which leaves you with a big stupid grin on your face.
The first section, ‘Rivmic Melodies’, Wyatt’s extraordinary arrangement of mostly Hugh Hopper’s tunes, is an incredible achievement, an unstemmed flow of creativity fizzing and bubbling over and seeping into every nook and cranny. At this point their music could have been called ‘Fission’, it was only after years of entropy that the group could take on the ‘Fusion’ label.
The great Hopper’s finest song, ‘Dedicated to you but you weren’t listening’ prefigures all those wonderfully awkward Wyatt songs like ‘God Song’ and ‘Muddy Mouth’ which have become a tradition as distinctive as anything in music. Mike Ratledge’s ‘Esther’s Nose Job’ I find less enthralling, until its climax with ‘10.30 returns to the bedroom’, a blisteringly intense performance which ends with the most thrilling meltdown you’ll ever hear.
To me this is a small miracle of music, a crucible of white-hot diverse talents who could only briefly stand to work together but made it seem easy to fuse unlikely sources into a coherent and joyful whole. Lovely.
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Tracklisting
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1. The Soft Machine – Pataphysical introduction Part I [01:00]
2. The Soft Machine – A concise British alphabet Part I [00:09]
3. The Soft Machine – Hibou anemone and bear [05:59]
4. The Soft Machine – A concise British alphabet Part II [00:12]
5. The Soft Machine – Hulloder [00:54]
6. The Soft Machine – Dada was here [03:25]
7. The Soft Machine – Thank you Pierrot lunaire [00:48]
8. The Soft Machine – Have you ever bean grean [01:19]
9. The Soft Machine – Pataphysical introduction Part II [00:51]
10. The Soft Machine – Out of tunes [02:34]
11. The Soft Machine – As long as he lies perfectly still [02:34]
12. The Soft Machine – Dedicated to you but you werent listening[02:32]
13. The Soft Machine – Fire engine passing with bells clanging[01:50]
14. The Soft Machine – Pig [02:09]
15. The Soft Machine – Orange skin food [01:47]
16. The Soft Machine – A door opens and closes [01:09]
17. The Soft Machine – 10.30 returns to the bedroom [04:13]
Playing Time………: 33:33
Total Size………..: 65.89 MB
NFO generated on…..: 16/04/2013 19:43:06
:: Generated by Music NFO Builder v1.21b – www.nfobuilder.com ::