1. Kite Runner
2. Ratlift
3. Twelve Twelve
4. F & I
5. Fresh Brew
6. New Day
7. Fur Edge
8. Theta Meter
9. Grape Hound
10. Strange Comforts
Elton Dean – Alto sax, saxello, Fender Rhodes,
gong
John Etheridge – Electric guitar
Hugh Hopper – Electric bass
John Marshall – Drums, percussion
Soft
Machine is a British band with a venerable
history. Originating in the 1960s at a school
in Canterbury, its members at various times
included Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Karl
Jenkins, Allan Holdsworth, and the four people
who got together for this reunion in 2005.
It was a historic occasion, because the album
was Elton Dean’s last studio recording before
he died in February 2006. I remember another
historic occasion, in 1970, when Soft Machine
was the first-ever jazz group to play at one
of the Promenade Concerts at the Albert Hall.
Other events have made the Softs legendary
– like the fact that they took their band
name from William Burroughs’ term for the
human body, and Reg Dwight borrowed Elton
Dean’s first name for his pseudonym, Elton
John.
Things
have certainly changed over the years and,
since Soft Machine disbanded, Dean and Hopper
have kept the flag flying with such projects
as Soft Heap and Soft Bounds. Now we have
Soft Machine Legacy – a quartet which defies
expectations by being much more than a group
playing the band’s old hits. The first track
– Kite Runner – sounds like the powerful
jazz-rock of old but Ratlift is a free-form
piece which starts with an explosive drum
solo from the excellent John Marshall. Elton
Dean plays keyboards here and John Etheridge’s
guitar is a powerful voice which makes him
sound like the leader of the band. In fact
Etheridge dominates many tracks with his outspokenly
virtuosic playing.
The
guitarist introduces Twelve Twelve
with some meditative single-string work. Elton
Dean joins in on saxello for a complex melody
whose twists and turns are hard to anticipate.
Elton’s solo takes flight with oriental-sounding
arabesques, while John Marshall thrashes the
drums with unstoppable impetus. Etheridge’s
guitar solo is more down-to-earth, leaning
on the solid basis laid down by bass and drums.
F & I is an improvised duet between
Elton on Fender Rhodes and Etheridge’s free-flowing
guitar. The free atmosphere continues with
Fresh Brew, a tribute to Miles Davis
on which Elton’s saxello produces an ethereal
sound rather like Miles’s trumpet.
New
Day brings us back to the more familiar
Softs’ style, with dynamic blowing from Dean
and masterful guitar from Etheridge. Fur
Edge is frankly a bit of a mess, as Elton’s
sax skitters around above Marshall’s busy
drumming. Theta Meter similarly sounds
incoherent and directionless. However, Grape
Hound has more substance, with Hugh Hopper’s
sturdy bass laying down a guttural beat. The
final Strange Comforts opens with surprisingly
gentle guitar, and it stays in that lyrical
vein – a comparatively placid track after
what has gone before.
This
album shows Soft Machine still experimenting
adventurously – though sometimes very noisily!
Theo Travis has taken Elton Dean’s place in
the group. We haven’t heard the last of Soft
Machine yet.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Moonjune MJR 008
