Heck yeah, that bowed acoustic bass solo by Babbington is killer on DTR! My first album I owned by the Soft spot! The album flows very well! Nettle Bed has a great some great AKS synth by Ratledge. Carol Ann would qualify for early New Age. DIS (Marshall's piece) is the oddest track with percussion and backwards tape effects. Some trivia, Nettle Bed was issued as a single in Italy!
Do you know what Leonardo is referring to when he mentions the stuff that happened in Allan's final year?
I can't get enough of Fourth at the moment. I've had Six & Bundles for years but never really got round to the Wyatt stuff. Kings & Queens is just a phenomenal piece of music. The whole LP is.
I'm no huge fan of the Jenkins era, but this is a great piece with some great atmosphere. One of my favorites on the album.
I do remember reading a vitriolic interview or Internet post by Allan about Leonardo not long before Allan passed (after various people on the Internet took Allan's word as the whole truth and also started writing bad things about Leonardo, Gary Husband shared a statement more in Leonardo's favor, and I think confirmed that Allan had some struggles with the bottle at the end). I don't know much about what the story was there.
It's a shame these guys still have to tour to pay the bills, both Marshall and Babbington are close to 80. Etheridge is no spring chicken either. Sadly, the band has never been a huge money maker.
Wyatt is certainly not the pinnacle of drummers, but I appreciate his free spirit when he plays. His style is rather unique, in a good way.
He occasionally played with his bare hands, ala Joe Morello, and Bonzo. He sometimes used a double bass kit as well.
The new Softs (Babbington, Marshall, Etheridge, Travis) playing a medley of Tarabos LBO Hazard Profile!
Another Wyatt quirk is that he would often turn the snares off on the snare drum. He mentioned once that he did this for the entire Matching Mole Little Red Record.
So to preface, it's not a stretch to consider most SM releases as relatively obscure to many folks these days, but to carry on with my assessment of lesser-known live releases from the later Wyatt era (i.e., those other than Noisette, Grides, Backwards and Virtually), give these some due consideration (all can be found for reasonable money from typical SM sources (e.g., Wayside) or Amazon/Barnes & Noble, etc.): Live in 1970 - a note here regarding SM release naming conventions is appropriate. By Live in 1970, I don't mean Live 1970 (which I believe is the 8/13/70 RAH Proms show that's currently available on the bonus disc in the re-release of Third - which I haven't warmed too very much, so let's leave that aside for now), nor do I mean Live in the 1970s. This is a 4-CD release that comprises two shows: 1) 1/31/70 in Breda, Netherlands (discs 1+2; otherwise available as Breda Reactor); and 2) 4/20-25/70 in Soho, London at Ronnie Scott's (discs 3+4; otherwise available as Somewhere in Soho). I can't state this for certain, but I believe that the Live in 1970 4-CD release is of slightly better sound quality (not top-shelf, mind you, but finding this stuff is a godsend as long as it's listenable, and this certainly is). In any case, the show from 1/31/70 from Breda is generally hotter than the compilation of tracks from Ronnie Scott's., but both shows feature some blistering playing. The Breda show includes Lyn Dobson, which is a nice addition from the late '69 incarnations. Live at Henie Onstad Arts Centre 1971 - 2/28/71. This one smokes; 2 single-track CDs (~40 min + ~55 min) and a CD-ROM (sort of an ancillary afterthought, but hey) if you still have one of those coffee holders that pops out of a computer nyah. Sound is very close to excellent. Indispensably awesome. I bought this on Amazon immediately after reading a one-star review from someone who is clearly an early softs (and Wyatt vocals fan), entitled "Soft Machine dying." The kicker was "Don't waste time or money on this dross." As I am just the opposite, I knew I'd love it and I do. I learned that day that one can use negative reviews much more reliably than one can use positive reviews. It may be a sad reality, but it appears that it's easier to vehemently disagree with someone than it is to vehemently agree with someone. Soft Machine & Heavy Friends - This is an interesting confrontation. Some Softs to be (and some who sort of already almost were) come together for a rousing pseudo-jam session. Roy Babbington, Phil Howard and Mark Charig plus Paul Nieman, Ronnie Scott and Neville Whitehead. More excellent sound here. This and Henie Onstad are the only SM CDs that get 5 stars across the board (Noisette is very close). Alive in Paris (DVD) - 3/2/70. This one deserves mention as it's one of the rare, full video releases of this era (there's a DVD in Grides that presents a Bremen studio performance from 3/23/71 that's completely different from the material on the Virtually CD). Lyn Dobson is again present and while the recording is average to pretty good, the video is shot unconventionally and makes for a great period piece. This post was designed to highlight some options, not to dissect the music, per se. I'll need another year to differentiate different versions of Eamonn Andrews, et al. from one another. But hopefully this helps someone somewhere. Nest post (some time in 2020, I hope): The two BBC compilations and Drop. Some Phil Howard love...
Thank-you. A good-sounding account of listening to the period in question. Agree about negative reviews on Amazon – I always read those and avoid the long and reverential explications.
As an aside, there's one more release from this period that I didn't mention - it was taped by Brian Hopper in the audience on 4/26/70, just a day after the Ronnie Scott's run that's on discs 3 and 4 of Live in 1970. On first listen, the recording is horrible (not King Crimson optional download 1972 bootleg horrible, but not a whole lot better), but it grows on one. And whether it's simply ear acclimation or an actual improvement in sound, I can't say. But I will say that this show, available on Facelift (Voiceprint - VP233CD), features a blistering performance that the band itself described as one of their best ever. If this had been properly recorded, it's no stretch to state that it would have been the crowned jewel in the catalog of this era. Listen at your own peril and/or enjoyment. You should be able to find this for short money. Rock Soft hard.
