The Soft Machine

[Eliot Johnson]

Wow.

Great, infleuntial band. I just bought Volumes 1 and 2. Amazing stuff....British Psychedelia at its finest.

If you're at all a fan of Pink Floyd's early stuff like Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Saucerful of Secrets, you simply have to buy this album. And for those of you who don't know, The Soft Machine provided background music for Syd Barrett's solo albums.

The Soft Machine is incredible...one of my favorite discoveries of the year...I like Volumes 1 & 2 better than any Floyd other than Piper and about on par with Barrett's solo stuff.

If you haven't heard them...check 'em out. You won't be disappointed.

[Rob Imes]

What's Volume 1 and 2? I've had the first Soft Machine album on vinyl LP (for around 18 years, gosh time flies) and like it. There was an instrumental on side One that I really liked because of how it showcased Robert Wyatt's drumming. And the song before it was fun, the one with lines like "I like to smoke and drink and ball" and "most of all I like to talk about me."

I tried to get a CD of this album on eBay a couple months back but got outbid...

[Eliot Johnson]

What's Volume 1 and 2? I've had the first Soft Machine album on vinyl LP (for around 18 years, gosh time flies) and like it. There was an instrumental on side One that I really liked because of how it showcased Robert Wyatt's drumming. And the song before it was fun, the one with lines like "I like to smoke and drink and ball" and "most of all I like to talk about me."

I tried to get a CD of this album on eBay a couple months back but got outbid...

I think it's the first two Soft Machine albums...and yeah the song you're talkign about is lots of fun and it's on volume one

Wyatt is an absolutely incredible drummer.

I think i might purchase vol. 3 tomorrow.

[Adam Crocker]

Don't have Volume Two and missed my chance to get it, though I suppose I could get one of the stores in town to order it should I feel sufficiently moved to do so.

(Not that I have actually tried. :p )

Though I can second Elliot on the band if you were in to Barrett Floyd. Floyd's song structure was a lot more conventional compared to Soft Machine, whose arrangements were very loose, almost like a jam. This was due in large part to Robert Wyatt's unconventional drumming which came straight out of jazz. Mike Ratledge (organ) and Kevin Ayers (bass, and sometimes guitar) kind of followed along. So the sound is a fair bit different, but the overall playfulness and child-like insanity of the Barrett's approach is right there.

Plus you have to buy it for Wyatt's drumming alone.

Speaking of which, have you ever heard any solo Wyatt Elliot?

[Eliot Johnson]

Don't have Volume Two and missed my chance to get it, though I suppose I could get one of the stores in town to order it should I feel sufficiently moved to do so.

(Not that I have actually tried. :p )

Though I can second Elliot on the band if you were in to Barrett Floyd. Floyd's song structure was a lot more conventional compared to Soft Machine, whose arrangements were very loose, almost like a jam. This was due in large part to Robert Wyatt's unconventional drumming which came straight out of jazz. Mike Ratledge (organ) and Kevin Ayers (bass, and sometimes guitar) kind of followed along. So the sound is a fair bit different, but the overall playfulness and child-like insanity of the Barrett's approach is right there.

Plus you have to buy it for Wyatt's drumming alone.

Speaking of which, have you ever heard any solo Wyatt Elliot?

Nope, I haven't heard any of Wyatt's solo work, though I stumbled across some at the CD store the other day...something like a collection of his Mid-Eighties work? Worth Buying? They didn't have anything else by him.

I'm kinda interested in AMM and Gong now, too....