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Soft Machine - Third (1970)
Cover Front Album
Artist Soft Machine
Length 75:15
Format CDc
Genre Rock
Index 6
Collection Status In Collection
Track List
01 Facelift (live) Hugh Hopper 18:45
02 Slightly All The Time Mike Ratledge 18:12
03 Moon In June Roger Wyatt 19:08
04 Out - Bloody - Rageous Mike Ratledge 19:10
Personal Details
Purchase Date 24/08/2001
Price £5.00
Store HMV
Rating 7
Owner Bean
Details
Spars DDD
Rare No
Sound Stereo
Notes
Date of US Release June 1970

The Soft Machine plunged deeper into jazz and contemporary electronic music on this pivotal release, which incited The Village Voice to call it a milestone achievement when it was released. It's a double album of stunning music, with each side devoted to one composition - two by Mike Ratledge, and one each by Hopper and Wyatt, with substantial help from a number of backup musicians, including Canterbury mainstays Elton Dean and Jimmy Hastings. The Ratledge songs come closest to fusion jazz, although this is fusion laced with tape loop effects and hypnotic, repetitive keyboard patterns. Hugh Hopper's "Facelift" recalls "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson, although it's more complex, with several quite dissimilar sections. The pulsing rhythms, chaotic horn and keyboard sounds, and dark drones on "Facelift" predate some of what Hopper did as a solo artist later (this song was actually culled from two live performances in 1970). Robert Wyatt draws on musical ideas from early 1967 demos done with producer Giorgio Gomelsky, on his capricious composition "Moon in June." Lyrically, it's a satirical alternative to the pretension displayed by a lot of rock writing of the era, and combined with the Softs' exotic instrumentation, it makes for quite a listen (the collection Triple Echo includes a BBC broadcast recording of this song, with different albeit equally fanciful lyrics). Not exactly rock, Third nonetheless pushed the boundaries of rock into areas previously unexplored, and it managed to do so without sounding self-indulgent. A better introduction to the group is either of the first two records, but once introduced, this is the place to go.

Dieses Album kennzeichnet den Anfang von ihrem penchant für lang, von Jazz-beeinflußten Stücken und vom Ende von youthful, madcapära.