Description

 THE SOFT MACHINE VOLUME ONE & TWO

THE SOFT MACHINE VOLUME ONE
Released: 1968
Format: Mp3@320

A wild, freewheeling, and ultimately successful attempt to merge psychedelia with jazz-rock, Soft Machine's debut ranges between lovingly performed oblique pop songs and deranged ensemble playing from drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt and organist Mike Ratledge. With only one real break (at the end of side one), the songs merge into each other not always smoothly, but always with a sense of flair that rescues any potential miscues. Wyatt takes most of the vocals, and proves himself a surprisingly evocative singer despite his lack of range. Like Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Volume One was one of the few over-ambitious records of the psychedelic era that actually delivered on all its incredible promise.
Recorded in just a few days in New York while Soft Machine were touring America, this debut album is really a reflection of the band's live sets at the time : a collection of psych-flavoured pop songs linked together by instrumental, sometimes improvised, interludes. Although the arrangements don't have the sophistication of later ones, what strikes one when listening to this album is how unique a style Soft Machine had already come up with at the time. Granted, there is some naivety in both the lyrics and music sometimes (some of the songs date from the Wilde Flowers years), but also an impressive maturity as a group of players. The interplay between Ratledge's organ and Wyatt's drums is of an intensity rarely paralleled in Soft Machine's later, more jazz-oriented efforts. Kevin Ayers' contributions are concentrated on the second side, the highlights of which are the absurdly repetitive "We Did It Again" and the Gurdjieff-inspired "Why Are We Sleeping?", both of which have since remained favourites of Ayers' solo gigs.

Tracklist
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. Certain Kind, A
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
14. Love Makes Sweet Music
15. Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'

Personnel
Robert Wyatt ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ drums, lead vocals
Mike Ratledge ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ Lowrey Holiday De Luxe organ, piano (on 13)
Kevin Ayers ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ bass, lead vocals (on 10 and 11), backing vocals (on 7 and 9), piano (on 5)
With
Hugh Hopper ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ bass (on 13)
The Cake ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ backing vocals (on 12)


THESOFT MACHINE VOLUME TWO
Released:1969
Format: Mp3@320


Volume Two by Soft Machine, first released in 1969. A jazz influence is introduced to the humour, dadaism, and psychedelia of The Soft Machine 
The album was inspired by Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free, and consists of two long compositions with "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" and "Dedicated to You" serving as interludes. Acting on a recommendation from Zappa, the band split the main tracks into smaller pieces that were given arbitrary names taken from sound effect tapes in the studio. 
Kevin Ayers' departure after the lenghty American tours of 1968 almost caused Soft Machine to break up. But when Wyatt and Ratledge were offered to play a few gigs to promote the newly released first album in February 1969, they brought in former roadie Hugh Hopper and reformed the band. This new start provided Ratledge with the impetus to really have a go at composing, and the result is his lengthy "Esther's Nosejob" suite, which totals 11 minutes and makes up most of side two of Volume Two. The arrangements are of an unprecedented sophistication, combining Ratledge's keyboards with the dual saxophones of the Hopper brothers (former Wilde Flowers leader Brian later augmented the trio on most of their 1969 gigs), and the music is largely experimental.
Side one is also made up of segued more song-based tracks, most of them Hopper-Wyatt collaborations, bearing the collective title "Rivmic Melodies". They are humorously introduced by a spoken statement by Wyatt presenting them as a collection of songs "from the official orchestra of the College of Pataphysics". Particularly funny is Wyatt's two-part "Concise British Alphabet". The album includes two other songs, "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still", a tribute to former bandmate Kevin Ayers, alluding to his macrobiotic food addiction as well as directly quoting from "Why Are We Sleeping?" and "Lullabye Letter"; and "Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening", a exquisitely weird Hopper song that Wyatt singing suitably oblique lyrics to an unorthodox open-tuning acoustic guitar chord sequence.

Tracklist
Rivmic Melodies:
1. Pataphisical Introduction - Part 1 
2. A Concise British Alphabet - Part 1 
3. Hibou, Anemone And Bear
4. A Concise British Alphabet - Part 2 
5. Hulloder 
6. Dada Was Here
7. Thank You Pierrot Lunaire
8. Have You Ever Been Green? 
9. Pataphisical Introduction - Part 2 1
10. Out Of Tunes 

Esther's Nose Job:
11. As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
12. Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening 
13. Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging 
14. Pig
15. Orange Skin Food
16. A Door Opens And Closes
17. 10.30 Returns To The Bedroom 

Personnel
Robert Wyatt ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ drums, lead and backing vocals
Mike Ratledge ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ piano,
 Lowrey Holiday De Luxe organ, Hammond organ, flute
Hugh Hopper ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ bass guitar, acoustic guitar, alto saxophone
With
Brian Hopper ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ soprano and tenor saxophone