Reviews (page 3 of 7)
I'm really enjoying this! Facelift: first 5 mins are pretty boring but then explodes into some amazing prog rock Slightly All The Time - jazz! Amazing instrumentation. Probably my favourite on the album Moon In June - only track with vocals, sung by Robert Wyatt. Goes on a bit long, but so does the album. Nice track. Out-Bloody-Rageous - amazing song title. first 40 seconds are basically just silent though. And then the next 5 mins meander through nothing, until once again exploding into some amazing prog jazz! Really loving this track as well. Changes pace and slows down half way while still keeping it interesting The album could be at least 30 mins shorter and it would be better. But still, it gets: 4.25
Soft Machines third movement (like bowel) is all fluff with no guff. The "jazzy bits" are all lovely and that, but it takes so bleedin long to get to the point that I no longer care. Not in the mood, good day to you.
A bandmate who was into Prog showed me this in high school. Prog is usually pretty rough to listen to but this is hard even for prog. this is probably closer to Avant-garde jazz. If you're not into prog or avant-garde jazz i wouldn't say it is a must listen. But it might be a fun experience if you're curious and have the ability to tolerate non diatonic harmony. When the music briefly slips into diatonic harmony it can be satisfying in a sense. Music technical aspect aside and being in more touch with my more regular music side.... This sucks majority of time and is very hard to appreciate if you aren't a person who are stuck in avant garde. Facelift is the worst one so if you get through that one the rest of the album is more pleasant
viste cuando estas cayendo en un episodio de demencia o cuando empezar a sentir el ataque de pánico? asi se siente este album.
Nothing inspiring or shitty🤷
A long but cool album. Another that I've never heard of and enjoyed!
Only 3 playable songs, was ok
Better than Coldplay
nicht schlecht aber mal wieder langweilig, unnötig lang, nur instrumentals und manchmal ein bisschen lost
Not a boring album but I'm bored. Does that make sense?
Had to pause the first listen as the first minutes are a bit difficult. On second attempt though it calmed down and I even low-key enjoyed some of the noodling. Ultimately it’s unlikely to be any more than background music for me
Only had access to Disc 1 on Spotify, so only had to endure 2 hours of this stuff. Gets pretty interesting later, but c'mon, you cannot start an album off like that. It's just dissonance at the beginning, and it turned me off for the entire duration.
molto figo, pezzi belli pezzi meno dei brani
Sprawling exploratory strange psych jazz from the most shroomed out dudes in village England where getting off your gourd and noodling on your bass are by miles the best way to spend your time.
Enerverande
De var för upptagna med att se vilka ljud de kunde göra för att överväga om de borde göra dem. Blev något bättre efter första låten, så räddas ändå från absolut bottenbetyg.
Vad gör ens detta här? Andra halvan var slightly osämst så jag är väldigt snäll med mitt betyg nu.
Haha va. Näe. Även om tredje låten hade bra bitar!
5/10
Another two groups disambiguated for me: Soft Machine and Soft Cell are different bands.
Primary jazz prog!
From contextual clues alone you can know nearly everything you need to know before the electric thrum swells and the first recognizable, plinking notes drop. The name of the band is Soft Machine, which is a reference to the less infamous but still cut-up William S. Burroughs 1961 novel The Soft Machine. It's an avant-garde, counter cultural reference of the time but also one that signals a certain impulse within the band. The album cover is a minimalist departure from the overt psychedelia and hippie aesthetics of their first two records. The letterforms are geometric sans-serif with a hint of streamline moderne or late-stage art deco that emphasizes aerodynamic curves. More noticeably they are architectural as well, rendered in a plan oblique perspective that projects from the page. We get a taste of both structure and solid form through line and shadow — showcasing the vertical extrusion. One might say there is a "soft brutalism," helping the listener understand there's a break here. A band moving away from its earlier direction and into a fusion of jazz and rock. John Hays, the album's cover designer, was no slouch — I've added one star to this review all for him — he's signaling what we need to know about the simply, aptly titled: Third. And we're not done: the vertical darker orange lines printed in give the album's orange field a texture while also reinforcing the letterforms and providing a greater sense of a 3D surface than just a color field alone would. And the orange itself? While it may be "safety orange," it's a bold choice, as it foregrounds the move away from the flowery vibes of the hippie scene while it also functionally demands attention. You can take all this in before the skronky stabs begin to emanate from the record... and maybe now you're like 7 mins in and you might feel like the music has just started. But have patience, because when you finally land on the Moon in June the voices might surprise you.
Meh
Yup, it’s jazz.
jazzy
the haters really do be out for this one, it kinda slaps Will I listen to again: 95%
Not only is this not prog, it's not bad - it's in fact very good. Closer in kind to authentic jazz rock, or jazz fusion, w/ a bit of free-jazz a la Archie Shepp, Soft Machine's Third does what it sets out to do, which is not to invent an entirely new language but to push rock music, especially the psychedelic brand, into a respectable & technically proficient underground. Admittedly, it does lose its jazz origins on 'Moon In June,' but I'd take that track over a slog off any record by Yes, King Crimson, ELP. On most days, I'd even take it over a less inspired number by Cream. The only failings of the record, as I listen to it, are the organs and flutes, those tedious and soft instruments I cannot help but associate w/ the worst of Brit idiocy: Jethro Tull, Uriah H.
This is just noise?
Type shi my aunt will play on the speakers on Thanksgiving instead of the audio for the football game
Very few nice parts among mostly not so nice noise
I don't even like live albums of bands I like. I'd hate to be the kind of person who finds this enjoyable.
This one was tough for me. Yeah, I get the technical skill and why some people think it's the peak of prog rock, but those 18 minute long tracks like "Facelift" felt more like a test of my sanity than actual songs. Like, four songs spanning an hour and a quarter? Come on! It often just felt self indulgent, getting lost in boring drones and repeats that make you zone out before the side's even over. But, it wasn't a total bust. After the weird intro, there were some cool moments in "Slightly All The Time" and "Moon In June" where the jazz fusion stuff actually worked. It's an adventurous, mind-bending trip if you're patient enough, but for me, the good stuff was buried under too much boring stuff.
Fuck a 3 minute pop song. If you can get past the first 5 minutes of Facelift the rest of the album really kicks ass. Out-Bloody-Rageous is standout for me. An album with four 18 and 19 minute songs is exactly what I want to discover in this project. I'll be revisiting this and diving into the rest of their catalog. Top notch weird stuff.
It not the music I’m used to, but I kind of like it
I don't enjoy jam bands and this was way too jazzy for my tastes
Taking jazz and dragging it into the seventies with a more modern palette is a noble thing. This is done well, but suffers from not being one of the classics, a bit long and a bit bland so it was difficult to get too excited about it. Good background music
There were parts of this that I liked but because it was split into such long tracks there were no songs that I enjoyed all the way through. I don’t think I would listen again but I didn’t hate it tbh, just wasn’t massively my thing. Fav song: Out-Bloody-Rageous Least fav: Slightly All The Time
I thought I would never have to hear Robert Wyatt again- I was unfortunately wrong. Specific rating- 1.3 Fav song - out bloody rageous Least fav- moon in june
These guys were just having a fun little (long) jam together- absolutely no need for it to be recorded or sold though. Felt like a lot of effort to get through it all. Favourite song: Out Bloody Rageous Least: Facelift
What I liked: there was a lot of cool jazz moments in this !!! What I didn’t like: everything else holy crap what a bad prog album. I love a bit of experimental stuff but this ain’t it chief
This album is so annoying because it teases in great elements of jazz-rock that actually sound really cool, only to go into 20 minutes of boring prog. It's funny, though, because the start of Moon In June sounds like a prog version of Split Enz before completely losing the plot. This has all of the fundamentals of a great album, but fails completely.
Interesting. I didn’t think I would like it by the second side it’s grown on me. Definitely a good thing to play for background music during work or cleaning
No standouts
Perfect description of this album in another review here: "it's mostly great, in theory." I think this is really good. Probably. No denying that the musicianship is off the charts, and the blend of prog rock and free jazz makes perfect sense. I guess it's just a bit too avant-garde for my taste. Probably one that deepens and ripens with every single listen, but it certainly doesn't encourage more past the first. Still, I enjoyed this.
3.4 It's pretty good for 1969, come on. I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but 4 long experimental pieces, infused with synth, jazz, a bit of soft rock, etc. The fidelity isn't the crispest but I can let that slide. I only know these guys due to Robert Wyatt appearing on this list, and I prefer his solo stuff, but nice to see where he came from. Main criticism would be the length, but I think that was their point so it's hard to grumble too much.
Yeah okay, this is not terribly exciting (kind of boring) but tolerable ambient waffle, interspersed with cool almost free-form jazz, ⭐⭐⭐, wish it was more jazz and less ambient waffle 😂
It's a little long winded at times, but there is some really nice music on the album. 3/5 Might listen again
i just didn’t like it at all and had no interest to keep listening.
Perfect
Boring but still good 3/5
Blind album and artist. This album no from me jazz dog.
juste un méli mélo de sons, comme si ils pensaient que ça allait être intéressant à écouter, nul..
bizzare mais pas désagréable
Sympa des vibes d'instrus des Doors
Okay.
It's not you, it's me. I have a hard time sitting through 18+ min songs. I am sure this is great to someone and when it was originally released.
Absolutely everything wrong with 70s/80s prog rock summed up: stupidly long pretentious crap without form or function that exists solely because some people wanted to record themselves noodling on a guitar. The jazz parts were okay but nothing special or standout and then it went back to more mind-numbingly boring and dull prog. Compare to something like Yes, where it's stupidly long guitar noodling but it's great fun to listen to.
The first four minutes of freeform, electronic noise-noodling made me want to toss my phone off the roof of my office. The subsequent 71 minutes and 19 seconds sort of assuaged that feeling, but it never really went away. I just don't think I'm a fan of noise-free jazz-psych or whatever this is. If I'm going to listen to noise, I want it to be brutal, loud and cathartic (i.e., early Swans). If I'm going to listen to free jazz, I want saxophones motherfucker (a la Ornette Coleman), not Keith Emerson noodling on an early Casio with a butterknife. And, if I'm going to listen to psych, well then goddam it, it better have some droning guitars at a minimum. So yeah, I didn't find this music challenging or enjoyable or groundbreaking, I just found it annoying.
This was headed right for the 1 star pile, but the last two songs had moments that made me feel something. Moon in June had psych/prog rock vibes that even if I didn't out right like creeped me out a bit. The last one made for an enjoyable 8 minutes that started slow and overstayed it's welcome.
I only listened as long as it took for our dog to wake up, bark, run around the house, and demand to be let out. And to figure out that this is like the parts of King Crimson albums that I skip past to get to the good stuff. Not for me, even though there are good grooves from time to time.
1/5 - Would rate very highly on my list of 1,001 albums to listen to after I die.
Too machine-y
Jazzy prog rock jamz
Why were the songs so long
Wtf was this?! I just can't with these types of albums, sooooo fucking weird
Was quite daunted by this. A double LP - 4 sides and only 1 song per side, each song at about 18-20 minutes long. And mostly instrumental prog rock jazz fusion. Didn't get to listen in one go but had a song at a time with gaps in-between. Hard to associate Robert Wyatt, who I know as a singer songwriter mostly through his haunting version of Shipbuilding. But this rightly deserves a place on this list - there are few things I've listened to before that sound like this. It's bold, brave and experimental unlike some of the indie filler I've had to listen to. 4 out of 5 stars
There were a few moments in Moon In June that I enjoyed, but overall I'm hoping never to listen to this album again.
Very long songs and song structures. I really enjoyed this album. Very psychedelic and electronic. Really good album!
Not a huge fan of this style of Progressive Jazz Rock. It's either a bit too random and discordant for my liking, or it's a bit boring. I've heard far worse though. Best track on the album is "Slightly All the Time" - ideal if you're stoned.
I'm a big prog nerd, but I always found the Canterbury scene not very easy to access. Similar fusion and jazz-rock of Miles Davis and others seemed easier in that respect. That goes also for this Soft Machine album which has great elements in four very, very long and challenging tracks. Nothing you'd listen to too often!
Psychedelic jam band with some really interesting jazz influences and some not so interesting prog behaviours. Honestly, on second listen to Facelift, I thought it was really interesting and well done, especially the second part of it. But overall my your mileage on this album with depend on how much you're able to deal with jazz and prog rock. I like jazz, but even for me 18 minute songs is a rough ask for anything but the best. And prog, well I like some songs but I am certainly not an aficionado. I've listened to some Yes and King Crimson, and Soft Machine they are not. Honestly you can jettison Moon in June entirely and I wouldn't miss it at all. Overall, not great, though certainly not bad. It's just... tiring. It's not an easy album to get anyone to listen to a four song album that lasts almost an hour and a half. Maybe if I was in the mood for it I would have liked it more. The instrumentation after all is astounding. But that'll take a while to get back into the mood to listen to this again. The highlight is Facelift (though I have yet to decide whether to add it to my highlights playlist).
I enjoyed.this more than I usually enjoy meandering prog jazz.
This would be a five if the vocals and lyrics were better on moon in June. That’s very nearly a one for me, but the other songs are great. There are sections of Moon in June that are great. The beginning of Face lift sounds like what early French black metal artists would experiment with. Crazy to hear that sound here.
I'm sensing a theme with the Robert Wyatt-related albums where I find them interesting and I'm glad I've heard them, but can't really see myself listening to them again. He's basically the patron saint of my three-star reviews.
2/10
I thought I would like this more than I did. Soft Machine comes up in all those books about the Psychedelic 60s and early prog rock but this was apparently a departure from all that. More jazz fusion than psych or prog. I like a lot of jazz fusion and prog but this was really rough. The tracks were just too damn long. Facelift was just too much even at 9 minutes instead of 18 minutes, it would have been too long. Slightly All The Time sounded like jazz from a Chicago or Miles Davis record and I really enjoyed it other than the length. Again half the length and maybe it would have been better. Moon in June was interesting musically. It felt like multiple tracks linked together instead of one unified composition but the vocals were nothing special and either recorded poorly or gibberish? The song got seriously weird and annoying for the last quarter. Plus, you guessed it, too damn long. Out-bloody-Rageous was better but still too long. Reminded me at times of Brian Eno and other times of early 70s Zappa. That track did make me want to seek out more of their music though so good job I guess?
01) Facelift - 1,5 02) Slightly All the Time - 2,0 03) Moon in June - 3,0 04) Out-Bloody-Rageous - 2,5 TOTAL: 2,25 (23/100) Current ranking:
Ummm... Ok. Feels like you had to be there. It's got some good beats and some good moments. It's just so fucking long that I don't think that any of the songs will be in the rotation at any point.
What was that hot garbage? Ok, maybe hot garbage is a little harsh. In the right mood that might work… but I was not in the mood to go all experimental prog jazz today. Only a 1 😬
The first song was a mess. Completely incoherent. The second song was a more straightforward jazz number. Can lyrics save this album? Song three says no. Slightly more intelligible than the first song, but the lyrics don’t do anything good for it. God, it’s still not over? Why isn’t this a Goose jam instead? Ok, the last song (“Out-Bloody-Rageous”) actually kind of slaps. 5/10 What Even Was That
I'm not mad that I heard this record, but it's very much something that is put on in the background while you are entertaining or doing something else, at least the first half. Not something you need to pay particularly close attention to which is unfortunate. They are clearly talented musicians. Unfortunately the vocals are terrible. And I do not say that lightly, I think I would rather listen to a toddler scream over this than what we got here. Fortunately that's only on one (20 minute!) track and there's almost 40 minutes of music until they kick in. So it seems they knew better, which is nice.
Not my style
First listen, won’t listen again
First track was a bit much for someone not on psychedelics, but I think if they made some Fantasia style visuals I could vibe with it. Second and fourth tracks I was into. Third track, the vocals bothered me too much. I’d give it like a 3.5 for listenability.
Would give it 5 stars if it had "Blues Before Sunrise"
jazzzzzz
Why are these songs 18 minutes Ok but why is this kinda the perfect vibe rn. Never thought I’d enjoy jazz rock
It felt a little too groovy for me
This sounds like four people tuning up at once and just agreeing not to stop.
What did I just listen to?? It sounded like two whales f*cking. That was an assault of my senses. I’m seriously considering bringing up charges. I have no doubt that this is the album they play in Git-mo when the terrorists are being water-boarded. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Well that was wholly unnecessary, now wasn’t it?
Starts off pretty scary, that first track was something else. The rest of the album was actually good. This type of experimental jazz seems like it's an acquired taste, and not something I particularly like, but it was interesting and mostly enjoyable.
Трохи суперчливі враження. Деякі композиції, чи скоріше їх частини, сподобались. Там де гурт заходить практично повністю на джазове поле - чудово. Там, де починають згадувати, що вони прог-рок гурт, мучати гітару та видати на ній цей скрежет, який чомусь вважається класною фрі-джаз фішкою для електрогітари, - не дуже подобається. І шматки з вокалом мені теж не дуже. Загалом досить цікавий та все-таки переважно приємний досвід.
3.5 Гурт, який був для мене заскладним у часи найбільшого захоплення прогом, зараз здається набагато більш зрозумілим. Подобаються оці фрі-джазові референси і так далі. Не та музика яку будеш слухати кожен день звісно, але варто витраченого часу.
I respect what it's doing, but jeezus is this hard to listen. I feel like this would be better served as OST of something rather than a standalone music.
I’m intrigued by this artist though I don’t understand why this album specifically was included. After the first track it settles into a more ambient jazz mode that is relatively tolerable. But I just don’t see the bigger picture or project here
Might find it aceptable with the appropriate number of listen but why bother ! There's enough music which sounds good on first listen ! If it wasn't for the guitar, it would have been a 1
The first track is too much and put me off. The second and third tracks do have an infectious vibe though. Worked well as working music
Not for me. 1/5
Malort is also complex and challenging. That doesn't mean it's tasty.
C’était très bien ! C’est un album très ambitieux qui propose une instrumentation très riche avec des titres longs et complexes, presque entièrement instrumentaux. Il fait aimer les très longs morceaux qui partent dans plein de direction, ce qui est mon cas, donc ça sera un 4 !
Well. That was interesting. (In polite Midwestern Mom voice)
It's a lot calmer than I thought it would be, each song has its meaning and sense for each member, a good production and new listening experience.
This mostly sounds like the montage music from a 70s TV show or movie. It’s fine background music but I’m not finding it very interesting. 2 stars since it’s better than some of the other albums we’ve been hearing lately.
It’s a really long record. I’m not convinced in this case that quantity helps make up for lack of quality. It’s a kind of dull jazz rock album and I know there are better albums out there in this genre.
not my style but not terrible.
8/10
Really liked the noisy parts; didn’t care much for the jazzy bits.
Eh a little forgettable. Nothing really stuck out
Seriously? Another English prog rock band? And its a fucking double album? I'm done with these man, and I love prog rock. There are entire countries that aren't represented on this list that have probably centuries of music better than this album
I listened to it twice, which is a commitment. Both times the album faded to the background very easily and for the most part stayed there. There are some enjoyable stretches of the album, and the whole thing is pretty interesting, but I’d have to give it several more spins before I could determine if it’s a “grower” or not, and who has that kind of time with 1000 other albums to listen to???
Bitches Brew with a tiny bit of Swans in it
Kudos to the review that mentioned to skip the first song on first listen, it's a rough entry point.
I saw someone else say DO NOT START with track 1 and yeah. Don’t do it. Besides that, it’s a pretty good time. Not as good as I got my hopes up for upon reading “Psychedelic, Jazz” but good
1.5
Any Album that has you listen to over 5 minutes of screeching is a 1 star album I do not care what the rest is or could be its an awful album.
Horrible. Hated every second of it. Listened to it right before bed and it gave me such nightmares I think I might have chipped a tooth from clenching.
Super long songs that sounded like guys jamming in their garage. Too many weird sound effects as well. Not for me.
With these ’70s prog albums, I constantly fail to understand why seemingly 50–80% of the LP’s content is aimless musical wankery. So far, I’ve come up with a few possible explanations. A. There is some now-forgotten prog-rock law, similar to the Danish Dogme films or the German Beer Law, that says it’s not considered actual prog if the songs were written before entering the studio. B. This being pre-internet, the UK public had, for some reason, never heard genuinely talented improvisational musicians; perhaps the shipment of U.S. jazz records sank to the bottom of the ocean. C. This was some sort of inside joke within the prog scene... they were trying to outdo each other by seeing who could get away with the most wankery before someone finally called them out. D. Lots and lots and lots of drugs.
This was a real gem. It was far more jazz than I expected and managed to get a good balance of chaos and structure. I also enjoyed the fact I got a phone call halfway through one of the tracks - the call cut out and it jumped straight back into the track and it totally messed with my head.
I didn’t listen to this in the best setting. A reasonably busy office turns out is not conducive to listening to soft machine. Sounded a bit messy which, in a different context, might have just sounded experimental and avant garde and possibly more enjoyable as a result. Struggled to get much from it by the end. Sounded like it was trying to play both prog rock and jazz at the same time but not really playing either brilliantly well and committing more to either would have helped.
Just a strange groove.
There was one song I enjoyed but 18 minutes for one song is insane if I don’t love it
Wandering, rambly jazz rock
Absolutely unbearable
Really really weird prog jazz stuff. I have respect for creating this in the time it was made. But the atonal sax really destroyed any joy I could find in the music, when the dude started "singing" I was really starting to get annoyed. A fever dream of an album
A real attack on the senses very experimental
tavidan jangis krachunis xma iyo mara mere damevasa
I'm adding that album to my sitting quietly and reading playlist
Just because you can produce a double album with only 4 tracks it doesn’t mean you should.
Not very good. Seems like half of this 75 minute album is orchestral warmup tuning & just plain noise. This wholly eclipses any of the potentially worthwhile music. An agitated, annoying & unfulfilling listening experience.
NOPE...Hated it!
Thought I was near the end just to realize I was only halfway through the second track. It's just too much.
It took 7 minutes for something resembling music to start. I do like the flute It’s very jazzy in chords and progression, Not bad 3/5
Ambient and interesting
Really ungood. I can't believe I made it through.
It wasn't *bad* per se, but I didn't need 70+ minutes of it either.
Facelift - 3/5 Slightly All the Time - 4/5 Moon in June - 2.5/5 Out-Bloody-Rageous - 4/5 It's decent enough jazz rock, but it's certainly a slog to get through. The ambient bit in the first track nearly turned me off, but I stuck around to the end and it was a decent listen. Not my preferred flavor of jazz fusion but good nonetheless. Overall: 3.5/5 Favorites: Slightly All the Time
Pretty good, I found it to be jazzy and easy to listen to. Not boring.
Someone needs to find these master tapes and burn them. Nothing about this was worth hearing. But I am committed to listening to entire albums hoping to find another red great music I've never heard, so I keep an opened mind to the extent of being patient when an album opens up with no apparent direction in hopes it'll get better. Again, another selection did not. I'm only around 25 days in and the majority of choices given to me have been absolute failures....as this had. How any record company could invest money in manufacturing a product not worth wiping your ass with is beyond me. I would give this negative stars id I had the opportunity.
180126 21:20 3.5
Tough one to rate. I actually liked a lot of it. But it does what I don't love about prog too much: long long album with long long songs that were fun for them to play but not necessarily for us to listen to
Jazz rock, interesting sounds, would I play again?
Some fantastic motifs and jazz lines in there loved the 9/4 groove on the second track when it got going in , and numerous other great bits of Jame but all in all the album was like a big Jam nothing jumping out at me too much to think to listen to it again and again A 2 for me
Absolutely loved it, life changing this is on my lovemaking playlist now
I'm a big prog guy and enjoy soft machine but having this as an album you just listen to before you die? Nah. Starting with an 18 min live jam then the following 3 tracks are jams too is just a lot to take in. I do enjoy parts of it but it just feels like recorded jams than planned and thought out songs, plus not much thought put into this as a coherent piece of art. I mean on this list comparing it to Marvin Gaye's what's going on, which really thinks about song transitions is just incomparable. Can't rate this high in the context of this list, its just repetitive and the jams get dull. Maybe if you smoke a joint or have the album on in the background of a party you're throwing while drinking wine and eating your fancy canapés. Sorry prog fans but this is not an album you must hear before you die, I'd say most should avoid it.
Get the fuck out of here with four nearly 20 minute long songs of poorly arranged and mastered noodling.
insufrible, 16 minutos cancion por cancion
Reminds me of sitting through a av exhibit at a modern art museum.
Yeah this one definitely wasn’t for me. I’m not having a good run of albums at the moment.
unbelievably badly
Each song just meanders for 20 minutes, restarts itself multiple times, and barely progresses past the mid-point. Nothingburger album.
Can’t wait to read the reviews. Gnarly, coherent, painting in and of a tornado, chunks of musique concrete and horn hurled into the sky. A fast-tempo keyboard big riff blasted out on “Facelift” is the kind of Broadway “ta da” moment I associate with early 70’s prog, lovably annoying. There’s a fair portion of that fusion cheese across the record, but the second half gets moodier, more abstract, better.
Here's a band I should know but really don't, at all. Perhaps the anti-Yes, primarily laying down a groove and then embellishing it for each 18 minute prog segment. Avant-jazz? Generally gives me a headache with prolonged exposure, but Robert Wyatt's one was quite lovely. 9yo Eminem fan: "makes my ears bleed".
What begins as an ominous voicemail machine morphs into jazz, into prog rock, into a weird derivative of blues, and back to jazz. I don't really know what this one was, but it was worth the listen.
Started off poorly and quite annoying in places, but there were parts in here that I enjoyed.
Starting weird and I was thinking this could be a long listen, however really enjoyed it. Close to 4.
Can't believe they had the opportunity to have multiple 20 minute songs and they choked 4 times. I had no idea what was going on in this album, and I liked it. Moon in June is the weakest of the collection - could have otherwise been a 4
Unpleasant
Really struggled with this one. I think the genre is just not for me. I enjoy a lot of post-rock, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai etc - agenre that was certainly influenced by this stuff.
very good. feel like it has more secrets to reveal to me.
wow, space travel in audio form
Only had one listen through, so not thoroughly acquainted but i really enjoyed my single spin. the "one song per side" format is smart. gotta cop da wax
If you can make it through Track 1, it barely improves.
Me siento mal. Me obligué a mi misma a escuchar hasta el final todo, incluso lo que no me gustaba pero con este album la tuve re difícil.
There’s fun prog, and then there’s that.
Opening: You know music? Yeah. Do the opposite of that. It does however improve. Then someone starts "singing" and oh my god why. Then more atonal noise and finally some actual good jazz. This is a mess.
too experimental for me - didn't get it
Too long
al parecer van a sacar otro album este año y me siento muy emocionada, al principio me costó trabajo sentir algo porque sonaba _lejos_... ya para la segunda rola estaba tripeandolo mucho
Weird but vibey.
I enjoyed it, the samples were in places a surprise.
Sitting through 75 minutes of noise gave me a lot of time to think about what I wanted to write here. But having a lot of time on your hands does not mean you are going to know what you want at the end. The first song made me want to quit doing this list. The second song was interesting. The third sounded like some former college jazz musicians who are now middle-aged dads got together in a garage and tried mushrooms for the first time. Fourth song too for that matter.
My only other jazz rock album that I've heard is Pain to Power by Maruja, and this is a very different type of jazz rock album than that one. That leans much heavier on the rock, and this leans much heavier on the jazz. And I think jazz albums just aren't really my thing.
Forgot this was even on, just kind of blended into the background.
I just couldn’t get into it. 1.5 star
Horrible!
They had no business making those songs so long. 1.5 stars.
Gear: Fostex TH610 Artwork: 🔠📄🟧 Production (Remastered 2009): 🥩📺😬/🎧😘🤌 Music: 🛸🧭😵 Rating: 👁️🗨️👁️🗨️(👁️🗨️)/5
Ich habe mir wirklich Mühe gegeben, diesem Werk eine Chance zu geben, aber leider war das ein Schuss in den Ofen. Wer hier musikalische Raffinesse oder wenigstens ein bisschen Harmonie erwartet, wird bitter enttäuscht. Das hat so viel mit Musik zu tun wie die Bibel mit dem Weihnachtsmann an Ostern – also rein gar nichts. Die Komposition wirkt zusammengewürfelt, als hätte jemand wahllos Töne in einen Mixer geworfen und gehofft, dass dabei etwas Hörbares herauskommt. Die Texte? Entweder kryptisch ohne Tiefgang oder so platt, dass man sich fragt, ob sie aus einem Generator stammen. Selbst mit viel gutem Willen bleibt da nicht viel hängen – außer vielleicht ein leichtes Ohrenzucken.
I'm gonna be honest, that first track started and I thought this album was heading straight to being a 1 or a 2. However, as that song continued and went into song 2 I started to enjoy this album more. It didn't swing all the way to a 4. I think some of the solos go on for way to long and it's an album that I know I would enjoy more if I was listening to it high, but a 3 is a score I didn't think it would achieve when I first started playing this album.
Not for me
Um. There may be something of significance but I’m not sure, something related to prog I think. Very noodly.
"We're not going to do a freeform jazz exploration in front of a festival crowd." -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap. "Hold my beer." -- Mike Ratledge, Soft Machine
I really enjoyed the album. I found it to be far-reaching, ambitious, organic, a bit untethered, intellectually challenging. But that isn't all. It was unusual, and groundbreaking in its context of the late 60's/early 70's. Like Tago Mago by Can, this album exists in its own space, seemingly without contemporary Rock influences. At the same time, it floats in and out of various influences like free jazz, avant-garde classical, psychedelic rock, and (contradicting myself) rock as well. Like this review, the album is long. It consists of four pieces, one on each side of a two album set. Each piece has its own cycle. These compositions remind me of classical, which is why I referenced that form earlier as an influence. The structure of the music is more classical than the actual instrumentation, which is the familiar drum/bass/guitar/keyboard of any other rock band of the time. Whitin each piece are parts, and often a reprise, like an Opus consisting of several parts. Most classical music that I've heard does this. And Soft Machine explore uncommon time signatures you don't find in popular rock music, or really classical. Jazz? perhaps Take Five by Dave Brubeck. But Soft Machine go hard in the paint on the 5/4 and 7/8 stuff. They also juxtapose patterns in the rhythm section that I'm still trying to figure out/. Is it 9/8 and 4/4 back to back? Or is that 10/8? Again, intellectually challenging. So these things - the relationship to classical music and playing fast and loose with the time signatures are the defining elements of Prog hereafter. King Crimson was attempting things like this at the time, and "Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June" could be a Genesis song. Nonetheless, Prog rock as we know it now starts here. It's not particularly well mixed. The drums are really flattened and pushed to the right channel for a lot of it, the keyboard can become shrill and overwhelming. Even with those faults, this is still an intriguing piece of work with some depth and artistic risk-taking that helps define the genre.
Interesting listen. One of those that just seems to tread along for a bit, like most prog rock records. Although this was a bit more jazzy than the rest. Not really unpleasant overall, but I preferred the instrumental tracks over the one vocal track.
Was an okay album! Good prog rock but maybe another album by them will pique my interest.
I understand why this is on the list, but too osycodic for me, and I like Zappa.
And here we are again at the point where a very low rated album is going to get 5 fucking stars. This is Jazz Rock, this is just like Frank Zappa shit, and this has Robert Wyatt on here so from that alone we're talking 5 stars. I can see where the first bit of Facelift (live) it can be a bit jarring I'm sure to someone who might not be into this kind of music but once it kicks it kicks and the flute at the end is French Kiss good, 18:45 of pure joy. Slightly All The Time on the vinyl release (according to discogs) contains "noisetee" in the middle sadly that is not listed on the any of the CDs so one would not know when it begins or ends, it's also not part of the official track listing for the album.
I had previously heard about this album, with the mind-boggling song lengths and all its glory. The album is quite warm and cozy and colourful. The songs have a LOT of parts to them. I think this might work better as a re-lsiten. Highlight Song/s: Slightly All The Time
A little noise, a little jazz, a little avant garde minimalism, all prog. Though I like their first two albums a bit more, this is bold stuff, and holds up well alongside other prog rock and jazz fusion of the era. 3.5⭐️
A journey through intricate soundscapes woven with synths, percussion, organ and horns. I’m glad I heard it, but I doubt I’d be inclined to revisit it. It’s just not in my wheelhouse.
Das war in der Tat ein sehr innovatives Album. Mich hatte es damals sehr beeindruckt. Muss man sich heute noch unbedingt gehört haben!
If I could give this negative stars I would
8/10 Favourite: Out-Bloody-Rageous Least favourite: Facelift
Jammy Jazz Rock, highly experimental with bad sound quality. Some parts are genius, some worse with naive, dull melodies. You have to be in the mood...
This is pretty good; Robert Wyatt’s voice is an acquired taste. The longer instrumental jams are better
To say that this album was a chore is to do a disservice to chores. It was long an laborious without any sense of cohesive musicality. At time it sounded like a cat walking over a keyboard but somehow even worse than that. Do not listen
unlistenable prog jazz crap.
I find what they're doing here to be pretty cool, especially for the time. I'm more used to seeing the mix of jazz and rock from the jazz side of things so it was cool to see it the other way around. I thought the saxophone work was really great, the band is obviously very tight and coordinated and often has a great vibe going for it. I think it could've used a bit of trimming down though, I have no problem with longer projects on paper but it needs to earn it's length. It felt more meandering then 'taking me on a journey'. I also think it really didn't need vocals on that third track, they were kind of weak. Also there were some ROUGH transitions between sections of the songs, especially in the first track. 3.25/5
really long
this was painful to listen to
Was very worried during the first song, but the jazz eventually got decent. I love prog, but this was not my thing
Wow, this was a journey. Obviously a lot of it is very strange, I do find it compelling the way they will meander in noise/dissonance and ambience for minutes, then collect themselves for a very co-ordinated musical moment, then fall apart again. It's one thing to take a few grams of shrooms and do some mindless psychedelic exploration, but this takes calculation and predetermination. It was a fascinating listen for this reason, but the stretches of strange weren't quite balanced out by the orchestrated moments for it to feel like a compelling piece on the whole.
This one comes and goes. I like parts of it...
Th song lengths were off putting but I enjoyed some of it
Terrible prog
This was the most baffling album I’ve had to rate so far. At times, I was so ready to give it a 1, but then I got hit by some really beautiful stuff. Then it turns to what sounds like half of the ensemble of a King Crimson song spliced and mashed around. Overall, it was still way too long to listen to some experimental nonsense, but there’s great stuff in here as well.
so weird and funky but a really interesting experimental work. I don't think I would listen on the day to day but it's good background and its sounds like my brain when I'm doing work or need to
The lead track is garbage, but it got better as it went. Not at all for me.
Wow, what an album. I wouldn't be surprised if this album wasn't very well rated here, it is a particular taste, but... luckily it matches with mine, so it's a clear 4.5-5/5. The musicianship is incredible, it's clearly an improvisational album by masters of their craft. An avant-garde/progressive/schizophrenic album and I've enjoyed every single second.
The first song sounds like something that would be playing inside of an avant garde art gallery with some weird video playing on loop. Tough to get past that one but I didn't hate the rest of the album. Would've been a 2 but +1 point for a really dope album cover
This is like an album made of only the bad parts of pink floyd. Also making it four 20 minute tracks somehow makes it less accessible than it already was. Feels like a band only pretentious people would admit to liking, now and when they were contemporary.
“Oh, we’re doing that?” -Me, 2 minutes into the first track (is it a song?) on this album. Got better as it went on with some more horns/melody and they are definitely talented musicians, but 20 minute songs still mostly not my thing. You could do worse for background music while you work.
Nothing special
Proper weird album but I think I liked it. Third track was phenomenal
I tried to listen to this twice on an airplane and turned it off twice. I then put it on to drown out noise during a hospital visit and that didn’t make it better. Maybe this album entered my life during the wrong time, but it’s not hitting.
Track 1: The cacophonous intro was not for me, but once the proper song started, it got even worse. The rest of the songs are somewhat less bad, but still sound like they were recorded inside an ashtray. Best left to the sands of time.
Absolutely not. You should have your guitar taken away for producing several 20 minute songs in a row.
Hell no, I'm not that dedicated.
I just don’t get this style of music!
I don't like it very much. Sounds like they wanted to make something original and didn't care if it sounded good.
long AND bad. Perfect recipe for a terrible time. Not terribly offensive but it sure is grating, I'm not sure this was mixed properly at all.
The music is bad but on the plus side the album is really long!
A compact album at 4 songs. Eqch track setting a cracking pace for a 1 hour 15 minute whip through that mere handful of tunes! Havent heard this album. Could be a tough listen. 2 minutes in and it could go anywhere - industrial techno, paychadelic jam band, hard 70’s rock, prog, jazz, it is vast and endless. 3 minutes and still no clue. The tension is building though! Can it live up to the hype? At 6 minutes its a little but jqzz, a little bit prog rock. A bit Zapperish in the wandering and restless melodies with with odd experimental bits, oh and now rocking out on guitar 7 amd a half minutes in. It may live up to the hype. The question now is whether it will kewp my attention across another hour or so. Drummer is a bit restless like Ginger Baker. Actually credits dont show any guitarist on track 1. What was i hearing? 18 minutes is a hefty track. Some interesting parts but my patience and ability to comcentrate wanes. Its experimental and avante guarde in a nice way, a jazzy way. A not hold my interest way. I guess its as good if not better than other prog rock i like - King Crimson, Jethro Tull. I think it will grow on me if i give it the time.
Hey, Soft Machine. I've seen this album cover before, though what I really know these guys from is Gitaroo Man - one of my favourite games of all time. The opening theme for that game is "Soft Machine" by Coil (the Japanese one), which I assume is named after this band. Truth be told, I know next to nothing about these guys as far as their music is concerned. I think I remember reading somewhere that these guys have a bit of a freaky sound, so I'm hedging my bets on either proto-punk or gothic rock. YouTube Music has this album listed as an EP, which is absolutely diabolical. I thought I had a short listen on my hands today. I guess I wasn't entirely wrong in my freaky sound assessment - the opening to the first track was quite abrasive. I'm not entirely sure what causes this album to fall into the "jazz rock" genre, though I can believe that it boils down to this album sounding like a bit of a sonic mess. I'm not gonna lie - I spaced the fuck out while listening to this one. I suppose it made for some solid background noise, though you're kind of setting yourself up for abject failure when your album is comprised entirely of long as fuck songs. Alright-to-listen-to long as fuck songs mind you, but long as fuck songs all the same. Anyways, most of the tracks have a decent, bassy sound to 'em, and I appreciated the warbling saxes. I'm curious to look into Soft Machine's earlier psychedelic works as there is some craft to this album, though much later down the line, I'd imagine. "Slightly All the Time" is alright. I can appreciate a nice, relaxing, subdued sound when I hear one. It has a bit of a noir sound to it as well which is always cool. You can bet your bottom dollar that the rest of the album was a bit of a snoozer, however. Book time. High point for the band. Underrated. That's it as far as the book entry is concerned. Wikipedia says that this album was a huge stylistic shift for the band, performed decently on the charts and has a mild critical acclaim. Sure, I can let this one through. I gotta hold onto my dwindling reserve of replacement albums, after all. I cosign this inclusion.
++: Moon in June, Out-Bloody-Rageous +: Facelift, Slightly All the Time 5,8/10
are you fucking kidding me
Good
Good musik concrete
Interesting avant-garde album, the fusion portions are fun but the more experimental sections go on too long for me.
Coming hot on the heels of The Residents makes for possibly the most challenging double-header yet. That said, Duck Stab puts even this set of fairly out-there, dense and intense, free-ranging jazz-rock explorations into the surprisingly accessible listening category by comparison. So, my initial reaction was 'oh no' but the listen wasn't bad at all.
A bit annoying, loud, listened only to the first 2 songs
A lot of albums called "Third" on here, I think this is my third one. Anyway, the music. Robert Wyatt is an inspirational story. Lost the use of his legs, yet pivoted from drumming full time to finding something else he can do. Sometimes just drumming without any kick. But it is really cool hearing him pre-accident. He was killer on the kit. Has an odd singing voice, but it's also comforting. This may be a bit too long at 4 tracks that are close to 20 minutes, but I mostly enjoyed this trippy ride
Wooooooah very cool album. It was 2 hours but it was engaging from start to finish. It kind of felt like watching a movie.
Sehr krautig
Having live albums on this list will always feel goofy
Jazz rock, I quite liked it
Didn't expect to enjoy this but I did
Add this to the list of some of the most horrendous atrocities mankind has created. War, genocide, famine, slavery, torture, rape, murder, abuse, pedophilia, Captain Beefheart, and now Third by Soft Machine.
This is the kind of poop that gives jazz a bad name - way too freeform, laissez-faire, disjointed, whatever - it's poop and I didn't want to finish it. Leave it to some white brits to ruin jazz for me and waste 75min of my time.
This thing nearly put me to sleep while listening to it. If that was the artists' attempt, then I would give it a five star review. But I highly doubt that it was, so I'm giving it the one star it deserves.
Genre: Canterbury Scene I mean, god damn. Holy shit. A tour de force of jazz fusing with prog rock with some of the most forward thinking rhythms the early 70s had to offer. This thing cranks the entire way through, not necessarily rendered in any sort of palatable way, but it cranks. This ain’t your old lady’s prog. This is Canterbury. Soft Machine’s Third is a heavy listen, 4 18+ minute tracks, all with different elements thrown in. I can’t recommend this enough, but it’s not for everybody. Hope you like jazz! 4/5
a bit too avant for my garde
Weird and surprisingly interesting.
A fine listen
Not good
Are they still warming up?
Who was the audience for this album? I can appreciate improvisation and eclecticism, but this was throwing instruments at a wall and seeing what would stick. Hopeful elements, but they were snippets that never went anywhere.
Avant- guard art rock, sounding a like recorded in a tin can, at its peak the instrumentals are influential, at worst there are lacking emotion and can sound ambivalent. Vocals drag it down
Man I swear all lesser known prog rock all sounds exactly the same. The first track was so ear screeching my girlfriend came and told me to turn it off - and she likes prog rock more than me. I did enjoy the jazzier elements to this. Slightly All The Time was clearly the best song on here. I can't find myself coming back to that song because I'd rather just listen to 'real' jazz. Fuck this thing went on FOREVER as well.
I would like to give a shoutout to the youtuber 'gaypenis' for producing some of the 'best' micspam to grace the internet. Without that, I would have turned this album off immediately. It's boring. Yes, the band are talented and some parts of these very, very long tracks are good but frankly it is mixed in with so much dawdling shit that it's just not worth it. I don't care that it's a live album, if these guys spent some time in the studio and trimmed up this album it could be great. Instead it's a slog that I won't be listening to again. Highlights: Slightly All the Time (somewhat)
Absolutely awful. If I could give a lower rating than one star, I would.
Slightly All The Time
Interesting and experimental. Not sure if I would recommend, however.
I sort of recognized the album cover from record shops and was astonished it wasn’t some classic rock routine! It was kind of a wonderful listen I was happy to pay attention to once. Once.
Out of my depth with this. I feel like a my opinion carries about as much weight as a Labrador’s review of Apocalypse Now. So…fine and good?
Inspired me to see if they were touring
Good jazz album I guess, not anything I would intentionally listen to but I wildly care if it was on in a restaurant
Experimental jazz / rock. It sounded a bit too random and aimless upon first listen. The musicianship is impressive but I didn't enjoy listening to it.
This is experimental and really out there but I focused on it and just drifted along. It's really well compiled and is not an easy listen but it has a lot in there.
It has it's moments, but those moments aren't worth the rest of the time spent testing the listener.
Weird shit or elevator music. There's nothing in between.
Ok, kind of long but was interesting. 3/5
When the first three minutes of the first song, which lasts for nearly 19 minutes sounds like a toddler learning music by the discovery method then I’m out. Didn’t bother with the other 3 songs or the rest of the first. Didn’t have 1 hour 50 minutes to burn away today. I don’t feel bad about it in any way.
2.5/5
Was not expecting this to be so jazzy after the first prog song. That being said, I'll never listen to this again.
I’m not sitting through 2 hours of psychedelic rock
Fav: Slightly All The Time Least Fav: Moon In June It’s almost cruel for them to have some nice snippets of good sounds sprinkled in between the terrible sounding melodies
First song was proper shite, it takes a serious set of brass balls to open your album with 18 minutes of incoherent noises. Next one was much better but we still didn't listen to all of it. Like if your psychedelic jazz album is going to be 2 hours long it has to be really bloody good and this just wasn't.
Yeah I mean that was ok, just by nature of this kind of music I didn't find it to be hugely memorable. One I can see growing on me, although from a first listen it did feel like a chore to listen to by the end.
Was not really into it. For the must part, just synthetic noise.
Giving this a 3 out of 5, because while I enjoyed the music more than I expected to… the damn album is like 2 hours long. 1 hour in and I wanted to do something else than listen to more.
Kind of a mess. These did not need to be 20 minute songs. In two of the tracks there are sections that are quite engaging and interesting. But there's a reason I hate jam bands. This is mostly directionless, disjointed and self-indulgent. I mean, the musicianship is fine, but does that matter if I tune out 2 minutes in?
Incredible journey of prog rock and jazz fusion. Love it. Will be coming back to it too.
damn i dont care8
p209. 1970. 1 star Oh dear. Four 18+ minute tracks of jazz-prog rock fusion. No.
1/5
Another experimental jazzy piece - lots of fun to listen to!
Another spin of the Robert Wyatt roulette wheel. Unfortunately, this time the ball landed on 00. Sorry, mate - there was simply no recovering from that first track. Oof.
Haha, Third. I get it. It takes a third of your life to get through a third of this album. Fitting, but fuck no.
2.5/5
the original mathrock (I'm assuming :P) -- I haven't listened to this since I was a child definitely sent me back in time. I love acid jazz as much as the next person, which is to say, it's really hit or miss. haha. I'm ready for some zappa. :D
Third? Last.
later
Too soft
Confusing
Seems random but sure
love it but might be a lil TOO MUCH prog
The Third song some is one of the worst things I have ever heard. Chaotic jazz with some genuinely annoying effects. Only 4 songs.. 20 minutes each. 3/10
2/10 - I get it, but it's not good, I can just imagine a bunch of stoners in the 70s listening to this
Couldn't stand it from the first minute, If I wanted to listen to a meat grinder and a car crash at the same time, I'd listen to this. Not for me.
This album might hold the record for most stoned listeners exposed to a flute solo. Or would that be Jethro Tull? If this album was a little less jazz and a little more rock, it might have bumped it up to four for me. Almost my bullshit.
I’ve heard the first two Soft Machine albums, and they’re pretty good, also different than this. I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I know this is the last one with Robert Wyatt, but I might need to look further.
I hated the first track. I liked the 2nd one a bit better and brought my anticipated rating up to a 2. I liked the third song even better and it was pulled up to a 3. And there it stayed.
Its not Zappa, but it wants to be.
Progressive rock has never been my thing. But Soft Machines music is creative and quite ok.
Wild, bold exploration of avant-garde jazz fusion, but I'm not convinced that this album was vital enough that it needs to be heard by future musicians and music fans of which this list serves. Having said that, I'm glad the list turned me on to them, as I'm not sure I would have discovered them any other way. On the other hand, after hearing THIRD, does anyone else feel Angelo Badalementi's LOST HIGHWAY tracks, and chunks of Barry Adamson's LOST HIGHWAY tracks, and his late 80s and early 90s albums were influenced by an appreciation for Soft Machine?
Oh great, another album of obnoxious noise passing itself off as music. And, bonus, it lasts an hour and 15 minutes. Shite.
Nearly unlistenable. First track was just noise. I sat with it for a while thinking it was maybe a "Close to the Edge" type of intro, but no. Just noise. Later tracks the audio quality was so distorted to be unpleasant.