Soft Machine, The

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL

Soft Machine's collective skill is hyper-complex and refined, as they are extremely literate in all fields of musical study. Fourth is the band's free purging of all of that knowledge, woven into noisy, smoky structures of sound.

Their arcane rhythms have a stop-and-go mentality of their own that sounds incredibly fresh even though it is sonically steeped in soft and warm tones. Obviously there is a lot of skillful playing going on, as the mix of free jazz, straight-ahead jazz, and Gong-like psychedelia coalesces into a skronky plateau.

PERSONNEL:

• Hugh Hopper - bass
• Mike Ratledge - organ, piano
• Elton Dean - alto sax
• Roy Babington - double bass
• Mauk Charig - cornet
• Nick Evans - trombone
• Jimmy Hasting - alto flute, bass clarinet
• Alan Skidmore - tenor sax

Autumn, 1970, London

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• 01. Teeth
• 02. Kings And Queens
• 03. Fletcher's Blemish

• SIDE B
• 01. Virtually Part 1
• 02. Virtually Part 2
• 03. Virtually Part 3
• 04. Virtually Part 4