Ultra-extensive retrospective of Soft Machine’s imperial phase. Over 14 CDs and 3 Blu-Ray discs, Slightly All the Time tells the Soft Machine story from the band’s invention of jazz-rock to the start of its first collapse. Five original albums, ten band members, out-takes, radio sessions, TV appearances and live recordings. It’s all here.
THE STORY BEGINS...
The Soft Machine story was already well-underway when the period covered by Slightly All the Time, Sony Records’ ultra-comprehensive compilation of the band’s glory years, kicked into gear. They actually formed in 1966 when Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin got together in Canterbury. From the outset, the band were pioneers. Firstly as part of the era’s nascent English psychedelic movement, then as the spark that ignited the bonfire that became prog rock.
By the time Soft Machine released its self-titled debut album in December 1968, jazz had already begun to feature alongside the psychedelic fare that the band would perform in their residences at venues such as UFO and Middle Earth. Ayers, Allen and Nowlin had all faded from the Soft Machine picture before the band entered the studio to record its second album, the imaginatively-titled Volume Two – released in September 1969. By this point, Hugh Hopper had replaced Kevin Ayers on bass and the band’s style had moved much closer to jazz fusion. The scene was set…
Experiments with a horn section led to the core membership of Ratledge, Wyatt and Hopper being joined by saxophonist Elton Dean and it was this four-piece lineup that recorded the band’s landmark album, Third, released in June 1970. It’s here where Slightly All the Time takes over the Soft Machine story.
A SEMINAL ALBUM
Third is a seminal album, by anybody’s reckoning and it is, without question, Soft Machine’s most influential work. A double album, with just one track on each vinyl side, it features music the like of which had never been heard before – and seldom has since.
Opening track Facelift (featuring erstwhile saxophonist Lyn Dobson) is an amalgam of two live recordings, taped in Croydon and Birmingham. It’s a wild piece of music, dominated by Mike Ratledge’s manic organ sounds. Jimmy Hastings (brother of Caravan’s Pye Hastings) sits in on flute and bass clarinet on the melodic, jazzy medley Slightly All the Time (the track that donated its title to this compilation), whilst saxophonist Dean takes centre stage for the epic, spacey, Moon in June. Sequentially, Moon in June was the final vocal track that The Softs ever recorded.
Perhaps the most memorable aspect of Third is closing track, Out-Bloody-Rageous, a tune awash with loops of organ and electric piano that seems to take its inspiration from the work of contemporaneous composer Terry Riley.
Third occupies Disc One of this compilation and the album provides much of the material for Discs Two (extended recordings from a May 1970 London studio session) and Three (a pair of BBC Top Gear radio sessions, first broadcast on 31st May 1970 and 2nd January 1971).
ALBERT HALL & ELSEWHERE
The growing significance of Soft Machine was driven home in style when the band were invited to take part in the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall in August 1970. The show was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and was also televised for the BBC’s Omnibus programme. The band’s appearance was generally well-received although not without incident, and it’s captured here, on Disc Four.
The four-piece Soft Machine lineup stayed together to record the next album, Fourth, released in February 1971. By this stage, Soft Machine’s shift towards instrumental jazz fusion was complete. A single album, unlike its illustrious predecessor, Fourth is another Soft Machine gem. The album kicks off with Mike Ratledge’s fast-paced Teeth, a horn-soaked, bass-driven extravaganza but it’s Hugh Hopper in particular who takes the limelight. His stately Kings and Queens and his jazzy Fletcher’s Blemish are both Soft Machine classics. But it is, without doubt, the epic Virtually that delivers the maximum impact. A piece in four parts, it occupied the whole of the second side of the original vinyl album. Woodwind, bass and percussion all play a critical role in a magical, shimmering passage of music.
Disc Five of this set is dedicated to the Fourth album. It’s followed by three discs of live recordings. CD6 features a BBC Radio 1 In Concert set, first broadcast on 21st March 1971. The band perform 11 pieces, including tunes from the Third and Fourth albums and also provide a taste of material they were preparing for their next release. And there’s more of the same on Disc Seven, a concert recorded at Bremen’s Gondel Filmkunsttheater on 23rd March 1971.
CH-CH-CHANGES…
Further BBC Radio 1 sessions follow on Disc Eight, which collects appearances on Top Gear and John Peel programmes broadcast in June 1971, November 1971 and July 1972. The appearances provided Soft Machine with the opportunity to premiere tracks from their forthcoming album, fifth.
But a lot had happened during the period since the release of Fourth…
Robert Wyatt had been becoming more and more disillusioned, not least because his vocal contributions were no longer part of the master plan, but also because he felt that his ideas were being disregarded by the other band members. Matters came to a head during the band’s 1970 American tour and, shortly after the release of Fourth, Soft Machine and Robert Wyatt parted company.
Wyatt’s replacement was the Australian Phil Howard, a figure who was known to and admired by Ratledge and Hooper, as he was the drummer in Elton Dean’s ‘other’ band, Just Us. Howard’s improvisational capabilities were the perfect fit and he slotted in nicely. “I believed that every time you step on stage, it’s as if it’s for the last time,” he says. “You go hammer down. Elton understood that and that’s how we played.”
ROAD TESTED
It’s the Phil Howard lineup of the band that feature on the November 1971 John Peel radio session on Disc Eight of this set and, just a few days after that session was recorded, the newly-assembled lineup started work on their next album titled – you’ve guessed it – Fifth.
The recording sessions didn’t go smoothly. Dissention crept into the picture when several of Howard’s compositions failed to find favour with other band members, Mike Ratledge in particular. Indeed, it had originally been intended that Fifth would be another double album but, when Howard’s contributions were given short shrift, the plans were rationalized. A full version of the album was completed with Howard in the drum seat but, along the way, he was replaced by John Marshall and the final version of the album features contributions from both drummers.
Much of the material on Fifth had been extensively road-tested – All White and Pigling Bland are examples. Tracks such as Drop and Hugh Hopper’s MC see the band extending their exploration of jazz-rock’s outer limits but, perhaps, the heart of the album is embodied by Mike Ratledge’s epic As If. Guest Roy Babbington excels on double bass, Ratledge’s Fender Rhodes reaches all parts and Elton’s sax adds the final colour.
MORE NEW FACES
It’s now generally accepted that it’s Phil Howard’s drums we hear on the first three tracks (All White, Drop and MC) of the original album, whilst John Marshall is the drummer for the remaining tracks; As If, LBO, Pigling Bland and Bone. The original version of the album occupies the first half of Disc Nine to this set, with alternative versions (with, for example, Howard’s drums on As If and Pigling Bland) added as bonus tracks.
Fifth was released in July 1972, by which time Elton Dean, believing that the Soft Machinery was in danger of wearing out, had left the band. His replacement, Karl Jenkins – an old acquaintance of Mike Ratledge – slotted in relatively easily. He was familiar with the music and had played in such bands as Graham Collier’s Band and Nucleus, both of which took a similar approach to jazz experimentation as Soft Machine.
BBC Radio listeners were given an early taste of the Karl Jenkins/John Marshall lineup of Soft Machine when they gave a BBC In Concert performance, broadcast on 2nd September 1972. A recording of this performance forms Disc ten to this collection. The setlist for the concert is dominated by material from the Fifth album, with a recollection of Third provided by the inclusion of Slightly All the Time and an hint of what was to come offered by early versions of Riff and Gesolreut.
FINE COMPOSITIONS
Riff and Gesolreut both made their album appearance on Six, the next Soft Machine album, released in February 1973. Six (Disc Ten of this collection) was a double album, with one disc containing live recordings from Autumn 1972 shows at Brighton Dome and Guildford Civic Hall and a second disc of studio recordings.
The impact of Karl Jenkins upon Soft Machine’s music is immediately noticeable. An accomplished composer, he bought along a number of tunes – the aforementioned Riff, its companion Riff II and Stumble, all of which are included on the ‘live’ portion of the album. Elsewhere, The Soft Weed Factor – the track that opens the ‘studio’ section of the album is a showpiece for drummer Marshall. Mike Ratledge’s contributions include a pair of his finest compositions – Stanley Stamp’s Gibbon album and the ethereal Chloe and the Pirates, whilst the final say is left to Hugh Hopper and the baffling 1984.
1984 was certainly an indication of the direction that Hopper’s musical interests were taking him and, in April 1972, just a couple of months after the release of Six, he left the band. Mike Ratledge was now the only remaining original member but, still, the good ship Soft Machine sailed onwards. Bassist Roy Babbington had guested on both the Fourth and Fifth albums and he was the obvious choice to replace the departed Hopper.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Soft Machine had been a staple of the extensive CBS artists’ roster since the standout Third album. However, when the new lineup of Ratledge, Jenkins, Marshall and Babbington gathered in CBS’s Whitefield Street Studios in the summer of 1973, it was to record their final album for the label. And, despite the fact that recording was completed within a mere seven days, Seven (Disc Twelve of this set) stands as one of Soft Machine’s finest achievements.
Chronicler Sid Smith captures the zeitgeist perfectly in the comprehensive essay included in the boxset’s excellent 68-page booklet, when he describes Seven as: “[An album] filled with contrasting shades, textures and conceptual music echoes, making it an especially cohesive release.” John Marshall takes another turn in the spotlight for the explosive Nettle Bed, Ratledge brings a synth into play (for the first time on a Soft machine album) for the melodic Carol Anne and Jenkins and Ratledge combine beautifully on, respectively, sax and organ for Day’s Eye. Block is a Jenkins tour-de-force and Babbington’s double bass solo on Down the Road is masterful.
ENTER ALLAN HOLDSWORTH
And, still, the Soft Machine bus rolled on. Guitarist/saxophonist Gary Boyle had sat in with the band when they appeared on German television in May 1973, shortly after Roy Babbington had joined the band. At the time, opinions were divided over whether the extra firepower was necessary but, by December of that year, it was agreed that, maybe, it was and guitarist Allan Holdsworth was invited to join the band. Holdsworth had been a long-time associate of Soft Machine and his arrival gave the band a considerable boost. Indeed, Roy Babbington has recalled: “Allan seemed to turbocharge it. For me, he was the Coltrane of the guitar.”
Holdsworth wouldn’t appear on a Soft Machine album until Bundles, released in March 1975 and, therefore, beyond the period covered by Slightly All the Time. His contribution to the band’s sound can, though, be savoured on the recordings for BBC Radio 3’s Jazz in Britain, captured on Disc Thirteen of this set and, particularly, on the 4th July 1974 Montreux Festival recording that forms Disc 14 of the collection.
THE STORY CONTINUES…
The three Blu-ray discs that wrap up Slightly All the Time present theatre and television appearances by Soft Machine across the entire 1970-1974 period covered by this boxset. Appearances in France, Belgium, Germany and the UK are all included. And the Jewel in thew Crown? The video of that memorable 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival performance.
Sony Records have really pushed the boat out for this collection. Slightly All the Time is a must-have for anyone who has ever been captured by the special magic of Soft Machine. OK – the asking price of £100 or thereabouts will, no doubt, be the cause of a few sharp intakes of breath – but, think about it… Five of the best jazz-rock albums ever committed to vinyl; a set of live recordings that, even if you heard them at the first time of asking will be revelatory and video recordings of eight classic Soft machine lineups in their pomp. That sounds like good value to me.
The Soft Machine story continues to be written. They’re now up to their 13th album and over 30 members have now passed through the band’s ranks. The current lineup of John Etheridge (guitar), Theo Travis (sax, flute, keyboards, piano), Fred Thelonius Baker (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums) have been together for four years now – that a lifetime in Soft Machine time. And they can still stun audiences with their creativity and musicianship – as they ably demonstrated at this year’s Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. Long may the story continue.
Watch a taster of that milestone Soft Machine 1974 Montreux Festival appearance below:
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