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Product Description
CD Description
NEW REMASTERED CD RELEASE FOR THIS CLASSIC ALBUM
BOOKLET WITH RESTORED ARTWORK, PHOTOS & LINER
NOTES.
BOOKLET WITH RESTORED ARTWORK, PHOTOS & LINER
NOTES.
ESOTERIC RECORDINGS are pleased to announce the long
overdue release of the re-mastered edition of the classic
1976 album SOFTS by the celebrated Jazz and Rock
group SOFT MACHINE.
The album was the band s second for EMI s Harvest label
and featured a line-up of MIKE RATLEDGE (keyboards),
KARL JENKINS (Oboe, Piano, Soprano Sax), JOHN MARSHALL
(Drums), ROY BABBINGTON (Bass) and new member JOHN
ETHERIDGE (Guitar), along with Saxophonist ALAN
WAKEMAN.
An accessible collection that followed the band s first
album for EMI HARVEST, Bundles , SOFTS featured
JOHN ETHERIDGE s considerable guitar playing talents and
would also be the final album to feature founder member
MIKE RATLEDGE.
Unavailable on CD for nearly 15 years, this Esoteric
Recordings reissue has been re-mastered from the original
tapes and fully restores the original artwork.
Product Description
CD Remastered 1976 Album
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By D. COBBIN
Format:Audio CD
I first heard this album in 1986/87 and was blown away, not only by the virtuosity of the musicianship but also the excellent use of space and atmosphere. As a teenage fan of King Crimson, especially the 1972-75 line up (at the time)this album had a huge effect. Powerful riffs in interesting time signatures (such as One Over The Eight) are interspersed with emotive and almost ambient pieces. It certainly pressed all of the right buttons.
John Etheridge's playing on this album is sublime and if you ever want to hear a maestro of all styles then listen to 'Etika' followed by 'The Camden Tandem'. To me this was a development in emotional termms from the previous album 'Bundles' which featured Allan Holdsworth on guitar. It was a shame that the band petered out towards the end of the 70s. However, if you get a chance to hear 'Live in Paris' with the tremendous Ric Sanders on violin I would urge you to do so. Ric Sanders later had more success as chief fiddle player and showman for the enduring and entertaining Fairport Convention (Gladys' Leap album onwards).
Please dust it off and re-release it on CD. It is a tragedy that music of this quality is not readily available when so much dross is!
John Etheridge's playing on this album is sublime and if you ever want to hear a maestro of all styles then listen to 'Etika' followed by 'The Camden Tandem'. To me this was a development in emotional termms from the previous album 'Bundles' which featured Allan Holdsworth on guitar. It was a shame that the band petered out towards the end of the 70s. However, if you get a chance to hear 'Live in Paris' with the tremendous Ric Sanders on violin I would urge you to do so. Ric Sanders later had more success as chief fiddle player and showman for the enduring and entertaining Fairport Convention (Gladys' Leap album onwards).
Please dust it off and re-release it on CD. It is a tragedy that music of this quality is not readily available when so much dross is!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
While the last original member of the band had left a couple of years before, Mike Ratledge still guests on a couple of tracks, this is the first soft machine album to feature John Etheridge, so this is the Babbington Jenkins Marshall, Etheridge and Wakeman line up of the band. The Music is as you would expect exquisitely played Jazz fusion. I find this album possibly more conventional rock than other albums (Not a bad thing). The music flows well and John Etheridge brings a touch of play on guitar that had not really been heard before possibly it's that, that gives the album its slightly more commercial possibly progressive shine.
A very good album from a band who were not what they once were but what they were to become, always evolving with the revolving door of membership.
The mastering on this new issue is rather nice as well not overly loud.
A very good album from a band who were not what they once were but what they were to become, always evolving with the revolving door of membership.
The mastering on this new issue is rather nice as well not overly loud.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Greville Rob
Format:Audio CD
Conventional wisdom has this iconic, cult band, in these its last gasps, more `soft' than `machine', its cheerful experimentalism giving way to increasingly mainstream fare as founding scenesters like Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers decamped to avant-garde offshoots and solo-dom. Despite its title, 1976's 'Softs' has the pedal to the floor at times. The band's second release for hip Harvest, it continues the trajectory of predecessor 'Bundles', marrying bursts of energetic jazz rock with progressive flashings to the contemplative mood-pieces of earlier work. With sole founder Mike Ratledge leaving and almost absent from the sessions, Karl Jenkins' melodic soundscapes (`Aubade') dominate, enlivened by scrabbling interplay between newbie guitarist John Etheridge and a supremely fluid rhythm section in bassist Roy Babbington and drummer John Marshall on the bouncing `Camden Tandem' while `The Tale of Taliesin' has both elements in spades. Worthy of the band, unlike last-gasp 'Land of Cockayne'...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a fantastic album!
This is by far the best of their albums (apart from Bundles which comes a close second). Great playing, great short pieces too, with some great grooves going on and awesome guitar... Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Stephens
5.0 out of 5 stars
Softs
If I had to pick a favourite Soft Machine album it'd have to be Seven or Softs; John Etheridge's guitar playing on Softs is incredible and I must've listened to Carl Jenkins' Out... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Replican't
4.0 out of 5 stars
First Division Instrumental Fusion From Master Musicians
"Groups exist for the use of musicians" so said drummer Bill Bruford. I think that this statement applies here. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2010 by S. Dinsdale
5.0 out of 5 stars
The band's peak album
Strange how Soft Machine's best album has to date been the hardest to get hold of on CD. The album comprises two tracks (originally album sides) which are split into little bits n... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2010 by F. M. Havicon
4.0 out of 5 stars
At last!!!
Been waiting many years for this cd to be re-released (too many scratches on my vinyl copy to bear). Read more
Published on 16 May 2010 by MR
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