Review: Soft Machine: Slightly All The Time (Sony Music/Columbia) 17-disc box set

 

Soft Machine: Slightly All The Time (Sony Music/Columbia)

17-disc box set. 14 CD + 3 Blu-Ray

 

A gargantuan 14-CD, 3-Blu-Ray box set celebrates the classic Soft Machine 1970-1973 recordings for CBS (plus, by way of a bonus, the Allan Holdsworth enhanced line-up in 1974) spanning five studio albums from Third to Seven, ultimately by way of a departure of some of the key members (Robert Wyatt, Elton Dean and finally Hugh Hopper) and a necessary infusion of some ex-Nucleus members, Karl Jenkins, John Marshall, and slightly later Roy Babbington (who had previously guested on double bassist on Fourth), consolidating a jazz-rock feel as opposed to Third's less categorizable yet undeniably jazz-influenced sound.

Bulking out the five studio albums are a further nine CDs incorporating live and studio radio programmes and a hitherto unreleased alternate version of Fifth, plus the Royal Albert Hall Prom concert and three Blu-Rays of various televised concerts. Also included on CD 7 is the March 1971 Bremen concert, previously released as Virtually by Cuneiform Records.

The primary question for hardened Softs fans is the issue of remastering and crucially whether Third obtained any sonic improvement. The remastering of this album was perforce difficult given the sub-optimal technical limitations of the original recordings. The tracks have been improved to some extent, some more obviously than others. Moon In June and Facelift (with its inherent issue of live recordings knitted together) have benefitted from remastering. Slightly All The Time and Out Bloody Rageous arguably rather less so.

CD1

In this new iteration of Third , Hugh Hopper's Facelift is given a proper makeover, where the inherent dynamics, especially the tension and release of the build-up to the dramatic ensemble theme, are noticeably improved. Similarly, in the second half, at ten minutes in, the transition is spectacular. So Facelift, at the very least, is a palpable step up, considering the hybrid track comprised a splicing of two separate concerts.

Slightly All The Time benefits slightly from re-mixing, so the instruments are more balanced. Drums are clearer, bass less dominating yet still fully present. Ratledge's keyboard work is clear but obviously vying with the horns' overdriven distortion, which is probably unsalvageable, but overall, it's as good as it can get. Wyatt's surgically precise, virtuosic drumming shows how much of a mistake it was for the band to effectively constructively dismiss him. Not that John Marshall was a poor substitute - he wasn't - but Wyatt undoubtedly encapsulated the soul of Soft Machine.

Wyatt's Moon In June is vocally clearer, and the whole piece is well-balanced. Listening again, it is a remarkable feat that Wyatt was able to play most of the perfectly competent keyboard for the track despite saying he wouldn't have dared play the instrument in public. Hopper and Ratledge inject an element of turbocharging during their instrumental segment, but it's Wyatt who holds the composition together. A truly memorable artistic statement.

Ratledge's Out Bloody Rageous is about as good as it gets. Whether it's an improvement on the previous remaster is probably moot, but it doesn't sound like it could be much improved. The sound is crisp and clear, reinforcing the belief that this is a truly fantastic composition.

CD2

Recorded “live in the studio” in London a month before the actual studio tracks of Third were recorded, it includes Facelift, Moon In June, and Esther's Nose Job. The personnel comprises the Soft Machine classic quartet, viz Dean, Hopper, Ratledge, and Wyatt. Why it was recorded is unclear, perhaps as a dry run for the recording sessions proper. Facelift is perforce different if only for the sparser instrumentation, although the freer-sounding arrangement follows roughly the same path as the released version. The (almost) instrumental-only and Dean-less section of Moon In June is seamlessly segued from Facelift, and this adds weight to the theory that this was a recorded rehearsal. The piece terminates with Wyatt's echo-infused vocals over an organ drone. Again, a segued link introduces Esther's Nose Job, which includes Dean now playing the vocal line heard on Soft Machine 2. This alternative take affords it a fascinatingly jazzy edge whilst sporadically punctuated by Hopper's stinging fuzz bass. There are also some Wyatt echoey vocals included. Interestingly, there's also an uncredited serene version of Pigling Bland before a return to the previous theme and a suitably rousing finale.

CD3

Three live dates recorded for various John Peel BBC radio sessions (Top Gear and Sunday Concert), which again includes an uncredited version of Pigling Bland. The recording quality of these three shows is good. The first section recorded 4^th May 1970 and the third section recorded 15^th December 1970 were previously released by Hux Records on the double CD set: Soft Machine BBC Radio 1967-1971. The 4^th May session was also earlier released on Clive Selwood and John Peel’s Strange Fruit label.

CD4

The Royal Albert Hall Prom concert of 1970 sees the band playing extremely tightly, albeit with a technical organ glitch at the start but resolved soon enough. The concert must have driven the regular promenaders mad to the point where Out Bloody Rageous seems ironically appropriate considering it kicked off the performance that night. Most of the concert comprised tunes from Third and Volume Two but with the addition of the increasingly-popular Pigling Bland. A release of this concert was previously issued by Reckless Records in 1988 and a double CD of Third was released by Sony in 2007 in which the second CD comprised the Prom concert.

CD5

This is the studio album of Fourth which still comes a close second to Third in its richly inventive compositions, mostly penned by Hopper. There's the added depth brought about by the additional horn section and notably by the soon-to-be full band member Roy Babbington on double bass.

CD6

Soft Machine & Heavy Friends. This is the BBC Radio 1 John Peel concert that was previously released by Hux Records in 2005 under the title Soft Machine & Heavy Friends - BBC In Concert 1971. The set opens with Elton Dean's group playing Blind Badger. The second number, Neo-Caliban Grides, features the classic Soft Machine quartet. An extended set opening with Out Bloody Rageous features the Softs plus "heavy friends" Roy Babbington, Mark Charig, Paul Nieman, Neville Whitehead and Ronnie Scott. The rest of the concert features the classic Softs quartet.

CD7

This captures a concert at Gondel Filmkunsttheater recorded in Bremen, Germany, on 23^rd March 1971 by German Public Radio Bremen, a couple of weeks after the Peel concert. It was previously released in January 1998 under the title Virtually by Cuneiform Records. It features the classic Softs quartet and covers tunes from Third to Fifth, plus Dean's Fletcher's Blemish and Neo-Caliban Grides.

CD8

These BBC sessions were previously released by Hux Records on Soft Machine BBC Radio 1967-1971, the first three tracks here were recorded on 1^st June 1971, the second and third sets appeared on Hux's Soft Machine BBC Radio 1971-1974 recorded on 15^th November 1971 and 11^th July 1972, The 1972 date now featured Jenkins and Marshall. The oddities here are, from the first set, Wyatt's plaintive solo vocal rendition of Hopper's Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening and from the second set - with Howard in and Wyatt out - a spontaneous improvisation piece entitled Welcome To Frillsville.

CD9

The original studio version of Fifth takes up half of CD9 with Howard on tracks 1-3 and Marshall on tracks 4-7. The other half is populated by the previously unreleased alternative Fifth tracks which include Untitled Blow, a coda following Pigling Bland of Esther's Nose Job, a "take 2" of All White and a Marshall drum solo plus alternative takes of All White and As If.

CD10

This is taken from a BBC Radio 1 In Concert show recorded on the 20^th July 1972 and features the new line-up with Jenkins and Marshall. It includes tracks from Six and was previously released in 2005 by Hux Records under the title Soft Machine BBC In Concert 1972.

CD11

The whole of CD11 is occupied by the studio version of Six which was released as a double LP with the first record a live one and the second recorded in the studio. It should be mentioned that this album rocketed the album into first place in the LP of the year category in the Melody Maker British jazz polls of 1973. Also in that poll, Ratledge, Marshall and Jenkins won top places in their respective instrument categories. In the top small group category Soft Machine came second to (ironically) Nucleus.

CD12

Seven was the final album the band made for CBS before being signed to EMI. It was also the last album recorded as a quartet. However, the line-up had changed once more with Hopper departed and being replaced by Softs alumnus Roy Babbington on bass guitar.

CD13

This was another BBC recording by the Seven album quartet. Recorded for a BBC Radio 1 John Peel session on 30^th October 1973 it was previously released by Hux Records on Soft Machine BBC Radio 1971-1974.

CD14

Montreux Jazz Festival 4^th July 1974. This recording is a ring out the old and ring in the new affair (quite literally at the beginning of the set) albeit with quite a bit of old still extant. Covering Softs albums from Fifth to the not yet released Bundles (Harvest, 1975), this live recording is arguably the icing on the cake for this box set since it introduces the brilliant guitar virtuoso Allan Holdsworth into the Softs line-up transforming it into a quintet. Although the recording at times suffers from Ratledge's keyboard distortion from The Man Who Waved At Trains through to its reprise - more or less rectified by track 11 (Riff II) - it's still a valuable document testifying to the success if this band. Forensically assessing Holdsworth’s outstanding virtuosity is most fun here, the inevitable conclusion being that he was the non plus ultra guitarist of the age and remains so to many. Whilst this was the first time Soft Machine played the Montreux Jazz Festival the audience was poignantly reminded by the compère at the end of the performance's encore that Jenkins and Marshall had played the Festival in 1970 when their previous band Nucleus won the Festival's top prize. (See also Blu-Ray Disc 17 below).

Blu-Rays

Blu-Ray Disc 15

Of the Blu-Rays one of the most captivating on Disc 15, is the French ORTG TV film of the making of Fourth at Olympic Studios, London. Fourth with all its complex time signatures and labyrinthine themes was criminally underrated since it reflected the Softs trajectory into unequivocal jazz. Similarly fascinating is the BBC documentary Anatomy Of Pop, surely a misnomer of a title since the piece on which it is focused was Elton Dean's avant-jazz Neo-Caliban Grides also included on Dean's eponymously titled debut solo album for CBS. Just listening to the spoken interludes of the musicians is illuminating, even to the extent of Robert Wyatt's intelligent attempts to put their music into a contemporary "pop" perspective. Both these documentaries are, sadly, truncated, but the insights still remain vital. The final film on this disc, a Brussels concert from January 1971 made for Belgian television in colour also features Dean's Neo-Caliban Grides plus numbers from Third, Fourth and Pigling Bland from Fifth. The film gives a real sense of a classic Softs line-up concert, complete with the decidedly rock-influenced banks of (loud!) speaker stacks.

Blue-Ray Disc 16

The penultimate Blu-Ray opens with a Radio Bremen Beat Club television session visually slightly marred by an insistent psychedelic backdrop. Musically it’s unfailingly fascinating from the austere Neo-Caliban Grides to the more flowing Out-Bloody-Rageous. Following Wyatt's echo-infused vocal improv the set concludes with Eamonn Andrews quickly resolving into All White.

Next is a German television programme of the band at the Berliner Jazztage in November 1971, probably one of the few gigs with Phil Howard on drums and its inclusion marks the demarcation between the classic line-up and the Jenkins/Marshall one. This film benefits from being a straightforward live in concert take without the psychedelic "enhancements". There's a more visceral feel with dynamic closeups and a bird's eye audience viewpoint. Starting with Neo-Caliban Grides the set evolves to incorporate more of the numbers that would populate Fifth including All White, Drop, As If and the now ubiquitous Pigling Bland. Dean and Howard inject a noticeable amount of freedom to the tunes and there's more of Dean playing electric piano than on the previous videos. In between As If and Pigling Bland, Howard offers up a solo entitled Dark Swing with the drummer deploying brushes and later beaters in a feisty manner. This interlude presents an opportunity to gauge Howard’s abilities which were considerable but ultimately, he was clearly not the right fit for the Softs despite his undeniably powerful style. Concluding with a truncated Esther's Nose Job this marked the end of an era.

Fast forward to January 1973 and a French television clip in moody black and white featuring The Soft Weed Factor, a short LBO and Gesolreut, with Dean and Howard out and Jenkins and Marshall in.

The final segment concludes with a BBC programme from February 1973 entitled Full House introduced by actor Joe Melia, which offers some band member interviews including Ratledge demonstrating echoplex and fuzz infused organ. Numbers played here are Gesolreut, Fanfare and All White.

Blu-Ray Disc 17

The final Blu-Ray opens with a one-hour German television concert Jazz Workshop from May 1973 covering tracks from Sixth including Fanfare and All White through to Riff II. This quartet now featured Roy Babbington on six string Fender bass guitar. It is divided into two halves, first with the quartet only. The second set is augmented by "heavy friends" Art Themen on tenor and soprano saxophones and electric guitarist Gary Boyle (late of Brian Augur and Mike Westbrook) who, in another twist of fate, was to join with Hugh Hopper in forming the jazz rock outfit Isotope. This video was previously released by Cuneiform Records in 2010 on the double CD/DVD album entitled NDR Jazz Workshop, Hamburg, Germany May 17, 1973.

The second video was recorded with the quartet at the Bataclan, Paris in May 1973 for ORTF television's Pop Deux show. The set comprises Riff, Down The Road, Gesolreut and an elegant Chloe And The Pirates.

The final part of this Blu-Ray is the Montreux Jazz Festival concert from July 1974 (see above). This video was previously released under the title of Switzerland 1974 by Cuneiform Records. It's a killer because any film of Holdsworth in seemingly effortless full flight is essential viewing. Unusually for a music film of this period it is in stereo which is a bonus. Also, the Blu-Ray makes more sense to the listener than the audio alone since, for example, on The Floating World, Holdsworth's wordless vocals, Marshall playing glockenspiel and Babbington's long, labyrinthine six string bass solo are all visible. Additionally at all times it's easy to see why John Marshall was such a stupendous drummer as demonstrated by his solo on LBO.

It's a measure of how Third - the most commercially successful of all Softs albums - is revered that the packaging throughout this box set intentionally reflects Third's ingenious orangey-brown wrapping paper design. This motif is repeated throughout the accompanying 66-page book, CD sleeves and even on the Blu-Ray discs' idents. There's also a generous scattering of the famous CBS "Walking Eye" logo.

The book is excellent and in its 12" LP style hardback format, quite heavy. Progmeister author and journalist Sid Smith has contributed a lengthy erudite and informative essay and within the hardback book are numerous colour and black and white photographs and faithful reproductions of the original album artwork. Kudos should also go to Mark Powell who expertly compiled, researched and coordinated this box set.

Overall, this is a magnificent tribute to Soft Machine representing their most creative period and the one which garnered their most loyal following. The physical design of the box is clever and appropriate. Highly recommended.

 

Roger Farbey 3 November 2026