I'm exploring them for the first time. They are blowing me away. I really like Six, Seven, and Bundles. I don't like the first album at all. Third seems cool, but I need to listen to it more. They are difficult to follow, but that's part of what I love about them. I like puzzling, enigmatic artists, as long as there is a payoff in the music. This stuff is really cool. What's their story? I'm relatively ignorant about them. I know they came out of the UFO scene, and were close cohorts with The Pink Floyd. Why did the group's lineup change so much? Where do you partition different contributors' primary influence within the band? I mean, is there a Ratledge period, a Jenkins period, and so forth? How do you demarcate the group's complicated history? Was the group conceived as a fluid collective that the founders envisioned transforming over time? Or were their stages of conflict within the band that explain its shifting membership? I love arriving at groups and artists like this that feature intriguing histories and vast, protean discographies. It's fun.
Highly recommend the bio Out Bloody-Rageous! book is out of print and rather pricey, though a kindle version is out now https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Machine...=8-1&keywords=soft+machine+out+bloody+rageous
I guess now they are calling the band Soft Machine again. John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Roy Babbington, John Marshall is the advertised lineup.
Just got around to watching the `Dutch Woodstock' movie. The Softs were playing at night. They must have been huge to go on stage at that point!
An interview with Larry Nowlin: A mystery unveiled : original Soft Machine guitarist Larry Nowlin (1)
I haven't bought all the studio albums by any band in one single day since 1983 (when I first got into The Doors - my all-time favourites), but that's just what I've done today! Ironically perhaps, I've discovered them through Karl Jenkins and I actually like "Bundles" and "Softs" more than any of the other albums at this point in time. That might conceivably change over time though. What a "revolving door" band, if ever there was one! They make The Byrds look like the Fab Four! Over here Karl Jenkins' unique brand of cross-over, neo-classical / ethnic / pop music with orchestration and choirs is mega-popular today.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Land Of Cockayne album yet. Not sure how it's regarded by other SM fans, but Holdsworth and Jack Bruce are great on it.
It's generally dismissed by all. I like it so I'm tempted to "work backwards" when all the discs arrive so I start with the weakest album and work my way back into the so-called "classic period", which just so happens to coincide with my favourite years of rock music anyway. As it's the 50th Anniversary of SM debut album it's a good time to begin listening to them properly for the first time ever.
Interesting commentary on past Soft Machine's alumni reunions from Leonardo Pavkovic, the owner of MoonJune Records: Leonardo Pavkovic: Nothing is Ordinary