Soft Machine!
The Soft Machine- Volume One 1968
Hey guys, sorry it's taken so long to get around to uploading some more albums! Had a few days' rest. I saw It's Psych's Jon in HMV today which was a nice treat, but it also made it clear I can't delay him from this album any longer!
So here it is, the debut album from one of Canterbury's finest; The Soft Machine! An excellent album, full of nice music, great solo's and at the same time, some really heavy experimental music! One of the great Psych-Prog albums made, up there with one of my favourites, The Nice. Fairly unorchestrated in parts, particulary on great songs like "So Boot If At All". Really do rate this album, it's quite wierd in parts, quite heavy but even if you don't like it on first listen it sure is bound to grow on you!
1. Hope For Happiness
2. Joy Of A Toy
3. Hope For Happiness (Reprise)
4. Why Am I So Short?
5. So Boot If At All
6. A Certain Kind
7. Save Yourself
8. Priscilla
9. Lullabye Letter
10. We Did It Again
11. Plus Belle Qu'Une Poubelle
12. Why Are We Sleeping?
13. Box 25/4 Lid
http://rapidshare.de/files/29514384/The_Soft_Machine_Volume_One.zip.html
posted by Tom S @ 18:39
8 Comments:
hello sunshine,nice lp today do you have some kevin ayers?bye and thanks for post
Cheers, Sunshine!
Our little meeting was nice today, you looked so beautiful!
<3
I have always been a huge fan of Kevin Ayers quirky material, and was thrilled to see him two different times here in San Francisco a few years back. Even if he was so ...ummm, "happy" that he forgot some of the words of the songs, and he kept looking at his watch! LOL...perhaps too much vino before the performance....anyway, this album is a tad quirky as well, and I must admit that I hated it when it came out (yea, I have lived a little) but have warmed up to it's charms
greg w
The Softs had a long and varied career (few other bands have had a 100% turnover in personnel). This was surely their quirkiest effort; by Vol. 2 Ayers was gone and Robert Wyatt was probably the most influential member. Then they added several horn players (only Elton Dean stayed for long) and Third is one of the best jazz-rock fusion albums of all time. Wyatt was soon pushed out and their style became less individual. Mike Ratledge was the last original member, and when he left (around the time the band switched from CBS to Island) Karl Jenkins had taken over the group.
As you can probably tell, I'm fondest of the group around the time of Third and am delighted that so much material from that time is finally coming out, but this is a fine album. Not much like everything else that's classified as "psych" but delightful anyway.
It's strange...the Softs were just about the most 'out there' band in England back in '67, yet nowadays psychedelic fans don't really like them. Pink Floyd were far more conservative and calculating by comparison, yet psych fans (who should be turned on by 'out-thereness') love them. I suppose there's the Syd factor to it, but then again, The Softs as individuals were/are far more interesting and idiosyncratic than the members of the Floyd. I mean...even the drummer is a genius!
I reckon if the Softs had stayed split after the '68 US tour they would be better thought of within the 'psych community'. No jazz-fusion escapades to deal with :-)
Anyway, for what it's worth, my fave Softs album is Vol 2, but my next favourite is one of those jazz-fusion escapades, Bundles from 1975. Still, who says that we can only like one kind of Softs?
BTW, Cuneiform are soon to release a Middle Earth show from '67 in 'fabulous' sound quality, so maybe the Softs psych rep will be restored to it's rightful position.
Meanwhile--Vol 1 is a great place to start and a worthy addition to Tom's fantastic blog :-)
Oh hey Mr Mick! We seems to meet in all the 'right' places! Oh, Pink Floyd, well, they did have two 45s in 'Emily' and 'Arnold' that made them a little more poppish than the Softies, and thus more accessible to gits like me? I have never been a fan of the whole 'noodle doodle' school of jazz rock, as I think you know :), so the later Softie stuff is just too....ummmm.....challenging for a World of Oz-er like myself, doncha know. Even Kevin's stuff didn't really hit me until the Eno - Nico album, then I went back. I remember getting "Joy Of A Toy" when it came out and thinking...."what a load of codswallop!".... but hey......we change, we evolve, and we ....I dunno!
greg w
This post includes the artcover scans??
Thanks in advance
This album is absurdly psychedelic. Thank you for this post.
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