Although Robert Wyatt it is mostly known as a drummer, he is actually proficient on several different instruments, including various keyboards and cornet, the latter he plays a beautiful solo on one of David Gilmour's solo songs.
Top, middle is Andy Summers, right? Robert Wyatt looks strikingly like Sting here! Anyway, amazing band. Got everything up to, and including, Softs by them and think the Triple Echo compilation should see a cd release. More to follow!
spinning this CD right now, I like the fact that you have all three soft machine drummers on the same disk!
Of the band's five Columbia Records releases, I believe the Fourth/4 album was the best recorded and engineered, lots of nice fine detail on that album.
Don't think this has been mentioned in this thread yet, but I suppose should be The Soft Machine was a book by William Burroughs and this Beat author was also a friend to Daevid Allen. Daevid basically started the band with his young teenage friend Robert Wyatt. Daevid was also friends with Jimi Hendrix. Daevid has said he did some experiemental recordings with Paul McCartney in 1966, the most holy of Fab years, and these have never been released.. Daevid is only on their first single Love Makes Sweet Music and some of the recorded radio broadcasts of that time. In 1967 on tour in France he was refused reentry into the UK so he stayed behind, left the band, and started the amazing GONG. If you don't have the early Gong records, you need them. Especially the Trilogy.
Not true, there's a whole LP recorded as demos with Allen which has been issued under various names, think mine is called "Jet-Propelled Photograph" on some Gomelsky label, Charly probably. Allen's skills as a guitarist at that point are nothing to write home about. Spot Daevid and Robert Wyatt as extras in this 1964 French movie
yes but what I'm referring to was actual official output by Soft Machine. There's also a cd of pre-Softs material called The Daevid Allen Trio from 1963. I haven't heard the demos but Daevid himself was very aware of his limits as a guitarist, but to give credit where it's due, his friendship with Syd Barrett led him to take Syd's glissando technique experiements and fully flesh them out and this makes his style quite unique. I think he became a better guitarist in time, but he always struck me as an ideas guy rather than Guitar God. ....and after a million guitar gods, I'm really more excited by the ideas guy
Well yeah, he had quite a thrilling free style but maybe not much regard for the more structured stuff. On the Germany 1971 live recording released a few years ago as Drop, there's a 13 minute version of Slightly All The Time which has Phil Howard flailing away all through it. The first 7 minutes or so sound like the other three are waiting for him to rein it in a bit, which he doesn't so they just play it anyway. I do like the Phil Howard side of Fifth though.
Yes, the first side of the fifth album is a classic, very spacey, almost psychedelic, his work on the Elton Dean solo album Just Us was pretty good as well, I do believe Phil Howard's drumming style might've worked with some of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew era stuff.
Robert Wyatt did more with his honey gold minimal drum kit than most drummers could do with large ones! I believe that kit was a gift from Mitch Mitchell if I remember correctly.
Ive been on a Soft Machine kick for the last week, I had to go to the Doctor and made him a copy of the first two albums. I often turn him on to stuff and it will be interesting to hear what his feedback is. I just got the Tripple Echo box, I have wanted it for a while and the version of Moon in June on there is awesome. Has the forum ever done a Soft machine album by album tread ? I can't find anything in the search. That would be great with the Wyatt/Ayers tree branches added in. The family tree paper that came with the Echo box is cool and would be fun framed and up on the wall.