TODAY'S ALBUM: No.3 (28th October 2011)

'Third' 

by Soft Machine
(1970)

Borne out the Canterbury-based psychedelic pop outfit The Wilde Flowers(which, incidentally, is also where the story of fellow prog-rockers Caravan starts) The Soft Machine, as they were initially known, started out as one of main 'Canterbury Scene' groups(the Canterbury scene being a loose affiliation of psychedelic, jazz and avant-garde-influenced groups whose numbers would also include the likes of Gong, National Health and Egg to name but a few). The first two Soft Machine albums blended many disparate elements, with the overall sound best described as a playful, jazz-tinged psychedelic pop style injected with a hefty dose of surreal humour. 'Volume One'(1968) and the imaginatively-titled follow-up 'Volume Two'(1969) displayed a youthful and highly creative group of players who seemed to suffer from the rare affliction of having slightly too many ideas, something that came across in the groups manic and occasionally Zappa-esque songs. However, neither album hinted at what was to come next. Released in 1970, the epic, jazz-heavy, Miles Davis-esque 'Third' proved to be a bold departure for the group, eschewing the bizarre humour, slight pop-edges and avant garde stylings in favour of a powerful, dense and extremely complex jazz odyssey that would set the tone for the rest Soft Machine's ubiquitous career. Whilst 'Volume Two' had featured a fragmented line-up, with just Robert Wyatt(drums, vocals), Mike Ratledge(flute, Keyboards) and Hugh Hopper(bass, saxophone) remaining from the previous year's debut, 'Third' would see talented saxophonist Elton Dean and flautist Lyn Dobson swelling the ranks, whilst a host of guest and session musicians such as Jimmy Hastings(flute, bass, clarinet), Nick Evans(trombone) and Rab Spall(electric violin) would also add their considerable talents to the mix. 
Despite an ongoing battle-of-personalities within the group which saw Wyatt pitted against Hopper, Ratledge & Dean(Wyatt wanted to maintain a 'pop' dynamic; the rest, all classically-trained multi-instrumentalists, wanted to pursue a jazz-fusion direction) the results of these over-crowded sessions were, simply put, outstanding. Featuring just four tracks, all of which break well over the fifteen-minute mark, 'Third' is very much a progressive jazz milestone and a key 'progressive' album from the genre's early days. Each composition resonates with a thick, late-night, jazz-aesthetic, featuring muscular 'jam' sections, dense psychedelic layers and a thoroughly organic sound that equals the likes of 'Bitches Brew' or Herbie Hancock's 'Crossings' for pure, unadulterated, fusion-intoned 'rock'. The sound achieved on 'Third' is, stylistically speaking, miles apart from the playful psych-pop of the outfit's first two albums, a sure sign that the individual musicians were growing rapidly as both performers and creators. Gone, too, was the wacky, spliffed-up humour that peppered 'Volume One' and 'Volume Two', as well as any sign of vocals(bar some brief la-la-la-ing on 'Moon In June'), replaced by an earnest, super-serous but utterly compelling brand of British jazz-rock that garnered both album and group enough kudos to promote them from underground club headliners to Royal Albert Hall performers. Alongside the likes of Nucleus, The Keith Tippett Group and America's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Soft Machine were taking the jazz genre into the 'progressive' era with serious intent. They would produce a series of excellent albums throughout the seventies, all numbered and following on chronologically from 'Third'('Fourth' followed a year later; 'Fifth', 'Six' and 'Seven' continued the trend) yet despite their genuine excellence none would quite match the extraordinarily high watermark achieved here. Sound-wise, 'Third' couldn't be more different from the symphonic rock of Yes, the quintessentially-English folk-inspired fantasia of early Genesis or King Crimson's avant-garde excursions, yet it remains one of the key albums for both the prog-rock movement and the jazz-fusion genre that was emerging at the end of the 1960s, showcasing a dynamic group performing at their very peak.


Key songs: Slightly All The Time, Out-Bloody-Rageous