Third

Lijkt op experimentele geluiden wat altijd zondagochtend op tv was..

Thought before listening: I think these guys were Bowie adjacent with a proggy glam rock sound maybe. This is one of those bands that are often mentioned as an influence on bands I enjoy, but I've never actually heard their music. Review: Ok so this has nothing to do with Bowie or glam rock, rather being jazzy psychedelic prog rock. This album is very out there and trippy, and while these tracks are too long for their own good, I'm actually enjoying this quite a bit. I'm not going to add any of these 20 minute songs to the playlist, but I will rate this 3-stars as an enjoyable albeit very odd listen.

yeesh. . .long form cacophonous jazz.

Bastante decepcionante después de haber escuchado el homónimo

Complexe, en apparence dissonant, très construit et réfléchi

⭐️ 16 minutes + per song of instrumental, electronic, machine music. Sounds like people using machines to make their own AI music before there was such a thing.

overall not my thing, but i can see why people like it. although, "slightly all the time" isn't too bad

i find long tracks like this tend to very off a lot of attention but i was kept pretty interested. i find these are songs i wouldn’t go back to but the listen was okay overall. i like the style, progressive jazz-rock sounds pretty good but i think the only thing that puts this down for me is the length of tracks. light 5 i’m giving 2 stars as i wouldn’t want to go back to this album in any time soon.

Moon in June was the only track that kept this from being a one-star review. I'm sure they are masters of the inventive, rock-jazz genre, but I guess it's just over my head. Did not enjoy.

Sounds like the soundtrack to a bad 60’s movie.

Got better as it went on, but even the best song still felt like listening to a King Crimson reject. A very exhausting and long listen. I'm super torn on this one, and I like to believe that I have pretty high tolerance to pretentious prog nonsense.

Okay

The album as a whole I'd describe as spaceship dreams. Someone must have written a PhD thesis in music on this album. What a ride. Will I listen to it again? Eh. If I could cut out the noise sections, maybe. But probably not.

I had never heard of Soft Machine and I like to try to have an open mind with music. This sounded like a cacophony to me, not the kind of jazz that I like.

why? why does 1001 albums keep torturing me with multiple 20-minute songs? i'm a good person. i don't deserve this.

this was... interesting. there were some parts of each song that i thought were really cool and musically captivating. but there were also many, many parts that were not. coupled with the tracks all being nearly 20 minutes long, woof. probably will not come back to this. favorites: (parts of) slightly all the time, moon in june

Just heard it today! As a huge fan of other soft machine albums i was pretty excited and while i didn't care much for facelift every other track was fucking AWESOME. Totally deserves the hype it gets, even though i might still prefer their self titled album for how stupidly varied and innovative it is

its between a 1 and a 2...generally horrible, but not the worst of the worst.

It's one of my favorite albums from the early 1970s. Such a great mix of jazz, rock and electronic music. I got into their first two albums because I was a big fan of psychedelic rock and 'Soft Machine' and 'Volume Two' were two great records from that era. 'Third' made me got interested in jazz fusion and electronic and opened new doors in my world of music. It was unusual for me, a then 22-year-old girl to listen to such music but I'll always be grateful that I discovered this band. Apart from the first few minutes of 'Facelift', this album is such an inspiring listen to me every time I listen to it. The reason is that it never gets boring and I always find some nuances that I discover while I listen to it. I fully understand if it not everyone's cup of tea, but this gets a 5 from me no doubt.

I know I'm going to forget this one 2 Omg the screeching wtf Like nails on a chalkboard I actually can't listen to this 1

3.6 - An interesting timepiece from that post-hippie era in which some rockers were convinced that their next white whale was to fuse rock with jazz. Apparently these early experiments informed the progressive rock movement, which raises red flags for me right off the bat. The best moments here are when the band noodles with electronics and studio toys. For example, I like the single violin, warped and stretched like taffy, on the second half of "Moon in June." And the staccato electronics that bookend "Out-Bloody-Rageous" evoke a mental image of dancing raindrops on a car window. At 78 minutes, this record feels too long but these shape-shifting 4 tracks make for a dynamic listen. As a jazz album it certainly can't compete with the greats but they make up for it with sonic innovation.

Never heard of this group. At first, I thought I heard a Miles Davis sound under some more rock-like instruments. So I suppose it's Jazz Fusion? This experiment did not hold my interests enough to have me revist the album, though I may check for other albums, as bands willing to experiment have my respect.

Man, I can usually get around longer Tracks but this album is one big exception. There are some parts of this that I like, but for something that's so long I need lots of elements to click for me.

Easy to listen to

Less than a minute in and I want to stab them to death. The fuck is this shit?

The first song is 18 minutes long and sounds like Geese fighting but after the fight they decide to have a jam session. Song two is a relatively straight forward jazzy prog rock song, song three is prog rock. Song 4 we are listening to trippy sounds on the moon. The rest of the album was unavailable on spotify. Every song is 18+ minutes which should be a crime. I generally like prog rock but these guys might have taken a little too much acid.

Truly awful. Four of the seven tracks on the album were all that YT had. Of those four, each was over 17 minutes. I did not listen to them they were not good.

Listened once. While I enjoyed the music as background, 18 minute tracks are not my thing. 2/5.

mukaviin pätkiin jaettu pojat. edelläkävijät (varhaiset valkoihoiset) jatsi, rokki fuusio (kaksi kevyttä atomiydintä yhtyy yhdeksi raskaammaksi)... virtuoosoja selv'sti. kuitenkin muutama osio jotka eivät vaan hittaa.. helpoin genre onnistua mutta ei oikeen pystynyt... jotkut indiealbumit parempia kuin tämä, miten voi olla? orgaani sentään soi ja rommia pullo. eli silti erinomainen kokemus tämä, jota en koskaan olisi kuullut ilman rojektia. slightly all the time

Slightly all the time var best. Hitt er misjafnt, aldrei grípandi (kannski ekki meiningin), en aldrei leiðinlegt heldur svo sem. Og þó, röddin í Moon in June er meh og hann er stundum falskur. Samt, þið vitið, ok allt í allt.

So I read that this album plays a significant role in what rock ‘n’ roll was to become. I’m glad it’s over! Super hard to listen to.

Yikes. Not a fan. That vocal performance may have been my least favorite song on any album so far.

Terrible. 0 stars.

Struggled to listen to all of it. It’s not the album Suicide so a 2 instead of a 1.

Horrid

Could perhaps be used as background music if something more interesting was going on

An album I have not previously listened to. This holds up to my prior feelings about prog being too inaccessible and unfocused. Track one is a cacophony that felt like a pretentious attempt to showcase how differently-thinking they are. Also what's with prog musicians and their organs? Turn it down in the mix, good lord. Really not appreciating the vocal contributions on track 3 either, I find them mumbly and a bit off key. Beyond the vocals, the lyrics were meandering and I couldn't grasp much of anything that he was trying to express. I'd probably get more meaning from the song without words altogether. Track 2, on the other hand, was actually pretty excellent. It worked as more of a jazz track, but it never lost a sense of groove and forward motion. The first fourth of track 4 is dope and I could listen to a whole album of that kind of thing. Backwards guitars and bubbling effects really putting one in the zone. Of course they decide to make the next part of the track a jumpy jazz number, which works well unto itself but why they don't just make it another song when it clearly has nothing to do with the first aspect.... Then they go back to ambient and then back to jazz then back to ambient again.. Just make them separate songs, God I have so many questions for these people. I'm glad I'm ruminating on this because I like a lot of difficult, avant garde music. I even like what many describe as boring or downright obnoxious music. What is it that I hate so deeply about these skilled and seemingly very informed musicians in the overall cannon of prog? Altogether, there's some cool moments in this album, and clearly a lot of talent. Ultimately, however, I find genres most grating when they have no restraint. Just because you have a lot of talent, and are brimming with ideas, doesn't mean you have to execute every single one of them to it's maximum degree.

hard prog

I've listened to a lot of prog and prog-adjacent music in my day. This album was o.k. I've listened to it before but it is pretty forgettable. For example, I had only listened to Gentle Giant's "The Power and the Glory" once, yet immediately recognized the sample of "Proclamation" in Travis Scott's "Hyaena". The same sticking power can't be said of this album. Still good, but middle of the road prog that is slightly elevated by the ethereal second half of the album. 3/5.

Funny, I just listened to the first 5 Soft Machine albums four days ago. This is number 1 or 2 among them. 4 songs on 4 sides. I think Robert Wyatt was a member- I swear I heard King Crimson in the first track. 3 stars for stretching the material a little thin.

This album is a 78 minute opus with only four songs. The genre can loosely be said to be progressive rock, but that doesn't even begin to encompass what is here. Soft Machine have clearly done their homework and are influenced by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and early jazz fusion. This modal jazz influence is the dominant one and the album can be characterized by long passages with a simmering quality before building to a crescendo and starting over again. At no point did this have a noodly quality to it, but rather feels improvisational within a careful framework that the whole band is locked into. In that way it distinguishes itself among other albums of this type.

On my current round of overnights, I've been revisiting random albums that pop into my head. One of those records is "The Apocalypse Inside of An Orange" by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, guitarist for the Mars Volta. I bought that record at age, like, 13, because I had randomly stumbled into being a fan of TMV and wanted to consume everything they made. I bring it up because, I think that record was severely inspired by this one. This record is drenched in psychedelia, acid, and even that kind of electronic that sounds "space age". I groaned when I saw that it was only four songs initially, but ended up walking away really loving it? It aged well, despite definitely sounding confined to the era in which it was birthed. I hesitate to give it a five here, all because of the vocals on "Moon In June". They aren't the strongest, the lyrics aren't great, and overall just feels like a throw-away. Other than that, I really love how weird this record gets, and found the 80 minutes (or so) pass by relatively quickly. Will definitely revisit. Favorite tracks: "Facelift", "Slightly All the Time"

Nope not a fan of most jazz fusion albums Iv tried, a prog rock one is just painful to my ears.

And the point of this is..?

Horrible. Can't give zero stars.

Well, the first cut, Facelift, was just so discordant, who would listen to a bunch of instruments screeching at you? The second cut, Slightly All the Time, was better, but not much on chord changes. The last two cuts just were not interesting. Not sure how this one ended up in your curation.

Well, I'm not quite sure where to start with this one. It is certainly experimental. I'm not the biggest fan of jazz, and I just found this way too much for me - rambling all over the place, and a lot of it just noise. I've made a concerted effort to listen to all of the albums suggested on here in full, even if they are not my thing, but on this one I struggled to make it half way through the first song, and just skipped through the rest :(

It’s great if you like it, but for me, I didn’t feel like I needed to hear this before I died.

Cat on the Piano! I swear, the start of this album brought back boyhood memories of being woken by our cats walking on the piano keys. They’d sneak into the rec room, then get shut in overnight. Fucking spooky the first few times hearing this in the middle of the night! Anyway, Apple Music calls this Rock. Hardly. I call it pretentious Noise Jazz. I’m sure plenty of folk get a thrill. Not remotely for me.

Not my cup of tea, but "Slightly All the Time" is pretty great.

1-2

It made my lawn mowing more interested than nothing, but I guess “better than silence” isn’t glowing adulation.

Prog double album. You get four songs, one per side, and they're each nearly 20 minutes long. At times it's more jazz than prog rock but what does that matter? It's all a lot. Technically impressive but did not stick with me at all. Felt like there was maybe 15 minutes of good ideas in that 75 minutes, the rest being padding.

It’s not that this is a bad album. But so often I wondered, “What’s the point of this?” There were inspired moments, but everything dragged on for too long and it was so far from the best prog rock I’ve ever heard that I feel it hasn't earned higher than 2 stars on this list. Perhaps if I read that it was incredibly influential or groundbreaking, but it doesn’t really seem like it was.

Random noise, with bits of jazz hidden in it. And now I feel harsh for rating Willie Nelson so low.

3-4

Pretentious, garbage "music" for pretentious, garbage "humans." Hard pass.

what... did I just listen to? 3 stars? Or perhaps a rhombus.

Listen I enjoy a good old-fashioned instrumental album. But every song felt like it was 100 hours long.

Strange

Acid is GReAt!

love it

Third is a live, double album by the English rock band Soft Machine, and is their third album overall (hence the title). It's a jazz rock and electronic piece with a single composition for each of the four sides. Critically acclaimed, this album did a great job of fusing jazz and rock that made this the top album of Soft Machine's catalog. I liked the concept for this album which is live jazz rock, but the tracks were too long in my opinion as a result of this recording process. There's a few slow spots or even quiet/silent sections that I feel like could have been edited out to decrease the run time. If you like jazz, then you should appreciate this album.

One like the out-thereness of this, and finds it more satisfying than a great deal of prog, because it has more to do with Coltrane than ferries, wizards or extraterrestial creatures.

I enjoy this. It’s interesting and unusual. I like to listen to stuff without words when I work and this fits that bill nicely. 4/5

Interesting prog-sounding fusion album, though no particular highlights from this

decent but it can be a difficult listen at times, not because of the complexity of its ideas but because it sometimes fixates on sounds that don't resonate, at least not with me (I'm sure this would be great to see live though) Best Song: Out-Bloody-Rageous (which is the least popular funnily enough) Worst Song: Facelift

Jeff Beck III killed me softly with his song, and now my teeth couldn't be any whiter and brighter.

Listened Before? N Nope. Not a fan. It's like Miles Davis with way less talent. Boring. Added to Library: N Songs added to playlist: None because they're all 18+ minutes

An overly long and samey progressive jazz rock slog.

Moon In June //

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Facelift

Psychedelic Rock. Für Liebhaber.

It’s fine although it feels like a jam session in need of an editor. Some cool sections in each of the tracks but there are just parts that could be trimmed to make the whole thing tighter. I am not against free jazz or jam bands but this doesn’t feel coherent in parts. Still not totally terrible as background music.

I love jazz, and prog rock like Pink Floyd and The Alan Parsons Project, but could not imagine ever playing this again.

Not my thing

I put off listening to this all day because I kept thinking it was Soft *Cell*. This rules though, I can definitely fuck with this. It's like if Ornette Coleman jammed with Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd.

I could only tolerate two songs. Not to my liking at all

Otros 70's

Vibes I think. No lyrics in rock songs is always kind of a turn off for me but I’m kind of grateful for it here since the guy’s voice is really pathetic and annoying. But it’s funny so I’ll give it a pass. I really don’t like how all the drums are panned to the right the entire time. It’s really distracting and grating after a while. Nevermind, it’s not really vibes

Looking at from this album from the outside, it didn't look like one I'd enjoy terribly much. To begin with, the thing's a double album. Nearly 80 minutes of music! These days I'm not really that much into albums over an hour unless it's already something I love dearly, so right away this was fighting an uphill battle. And that battle only got steeper once I discovered that the album is only four songs long, one per side. That's four twenty minute songs! An album having one song that long is usually bad enough... And that's not even mentioning that this is a progressive jazz rock album! In my mind this was really shaping up quickly to be an interminably boring slog, like that drum n' bass compilation my group got a few days ago. Just endless jazz-y canoodling that I wouldn't be able to latch on. "Oh, a higher power have mercy. This is what I get for listening to every album that pops up." However, once I actually got into it and past the first minute—which really wasn't as bad as the top-rated review warned me it'd be, honestly... It kind of clicked with me? And I very quickly realized why, which ended up being my secret to getting through it: this album sounds a LOT like Frank Zappa's jazz work. Now, that isn't an original observation; I've seen a ton of other reviews, from here and on AllMusic, that point that out. It keeps getting made, though, because it's just true. It's a lot looser than a lot Zappa's jazz works could be, true, but tonally it's very close. Hell, there's even a part somewhere on one of these songs that sounds a lot like the electric violin used on "Willie The Pimp". (Forgive me for not knowing exactly which one; these are long and dense songs and I'm going off of only one listen.) With that framework in mind, anyway, my favorite and least favorite tracks don't exactly fall into it, 100%? I've seen a lot of people single out "Moon In June" as their favorite, but on initial listen, I'm not exactly feeling the hype myself. It's the one that sounds the least like Zappa jazz, and at this point that's what I'm listening to this album for. As a result, it ends up being a bit of a disappoint for me. Meanwhile, my favorite cut, "Out-Blood-Rageous", opens with these electronic tape loops and they're actually really pretty. It sounds nothing like Zappa would compose, albiet in the best way possible. If all that could've been in its own song, absolutely it would've been the one I'd come back to. And as a brief note before I conclude, part of me hates that I keep bringing up Zappa here instuead of considering the bang's music on its own. Part of me feels like it's disrespectful. But I don't mean it as disrespect, like I've seen at least one person use the compairson. I really like Zappa's jazz work. It's not my favorite section of his discography, but it's still an important one with a lot of great tunes. Anything that sounds like it gets positive points in my book. Although, with that in mind, I'm not sure if I'll give it another listen. For a one time listen, it was a pleasant surprise, and it was nice music to have on and not fully pay attention to while I played the Nintendo 64 DR. MARIO for the billionth time. The songs are still all twenty minutes, however, and I don't really usually have much room in my regular song rotations for it. So, with all that, it's a three for me, but if I do come back to again I could see it growing into a four over time. FInally, two spare thoughts that don't have anything to do with anything: ~ For the longest time I'd assumed that Soft Machine was a band that made music like The Flaming Lips did on THE SOFT BULLETIN or YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS. Just sounds like the perfect band name for that? ~ I totally mistook this band's THIRD for Big Star's THIRD.

Some good moments, but Christ, you could've cut off a few minutes, huh?

Nah. Just nah. It’s not egregiously terrible, but these songs drone endlessly on without any clear direction; especially Track 3, my god. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the most baffling instrumental choices I think any of these albums have made so far. For a pretty early attempt to blend jazzy instruments with electronica and synth, I have to give it credit for occasionally succeeding. The problem is, those moments are so short and so fleeting under these incredibly fucking long songs that it’s like finding a $1 bill while you’re walking through a sea of pennies. Those moments are enough to put this album at a 2 for me, but… this just wasn’t it, man.

Wibble

That's not my taste in musik.

This was pretty decent background music.

Psych rock jam band 70's stuff with flutes. YEOW! Groovy baby.

Dug it if you got time. Liked it better than the band’s first album. Jazz? Hmmmm. Might listen again.

Ugh. Besides a couple decent moments, always involving woodwind instruments, I found this annoying and really hard to get through.

I don't think this is for my listening pleasure. I can see it's interesting for music, but no song really needs to be over 9 minutes....

I can imagine how back when this came out it may have been incredible, but with today‘s music and my musical background I don‘t really get it (yet). Though I gotta say i really enjoyed the vibe in ‚Slightly All The Time‘

Virtuos artists. Interresting sounds. This album shows the line between music and noise. For me it's noise.

Música un tanto psicodélico y sin mucho ritmo. Sucesión de canciones largas instrumentales en su mayor parte. No me ha gustado, por lo poco que me ha aportado

Sinceramente no me gustó mucho. Melodias vocales desafinadas. Conozco otros álbumes y artistas de la época que también son percusores e innovadores, pero con un sonido más lindo.

Tedious, self indulgent explanation. And a jazz track. It was a struggle to get through.

It was alright!

I may have gotten into them during the day, but they're not for me now. I did like some elements, but it wasn't cohesive for me to like as a whole.

What a pleasant surprise. This album was a jazz/prog adventure. There were moments thwt sounded like King Crimson and early Kansas. I had to look up this band because the sound King Crimson is very prominent within this record and I wanted to see if there was any cross over. This band has gone through a number of members... Their current line up has Theo Travis on it, formerly of King Crimson. Theo also has worked with Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson's solo stuff. Remember the killer flute solo In The Raven that Refused to Sing? That was Theo Travis. Awsome listen. Would love to show this off to my fellow prog friends.

Just not for me. Parts of tracks 2 and 3 were ok for awhile--then they went somewhere.

The musical rendition of Hitchhiker's Guide. Adventurous, mind-bending, indecisive, crazy. I got lost several times. The fact that this was recorded live is incredibly impressive. It sounds several years ahead of other bands that would themselves be considered wildly ahead of their time (e.g. Pink Floyd's Meddle and WYWH). Unfortunately, though, the music lacks riffs, hooks, and (for the most part) chord progressions and melodies, making it tough for your standard listener. One thing I will say is that it wasn't boring. It just overrepresented creativity and musicians' enjoyment, at the expense of building a connection with the audience. Because I'm part of said audience, I can't give this 5 stars. Great synths. In fact, great instrumentation all around. The musicianship is solid and the band sounds like they're genuinely enjoying themselves without sounding too indulgent. Fun and well-executed build-ups as well. It's mostly great, in theory. 4/5 Fave track: Out-Bloody-Rageous

Hier had ik nu net even geen zin in

HAHHAHAHA Ik had al 3 minuten geluisterd voordat ik jullie commentaar las maar ik ben het met iedereen eens natuurlijk. Wat is dit?

Mijn God, kill me now!

Why? No seriously, why?

Initially pretty annoying but has nice experimental and more conventional Jazz segments.

Jammy psychedelic jazz rock. Nothing too interesting is said in this and the bass is mixed way too loud.

Instrumental jazz good - did not like vocals.

Smart rock

Just noise??

1.5

Weird shit

Long, drawn out jazz rock. A double album with one 18+ minute track on each side. It's not bad per se, but is somewhat dull, self indulgent and tedious. Rating: 1.5/5 Playlist track: Slightly All The Time Date listened: 05/01/24

Very long jazz songs, four in total. A small portion of the songs were decently fine jazz. The rest was a little too experimental for me, with squawking trumpets and weird beats and synthesizer. Not very musical at all

How is anyone expected to even get through track 1? I'm going to need those 45 seconds back at some point in my life. Do over.

Ab dem 2. Lied wird's besser

Jazzy prog? Wow I have been sleeping on these guys. I know some of Robert Wyatt's solo stuff but somehow haven't ever explored Soft Machine. I clearly have work to do!

A mix between electronica, prog rock, and free jazz. In other words, pretty awesome!

now this is the kinda weird shit i am looking for drone, jazz, rock, electronic. only thing i'm not into is the vocals on track 3

Did not really get into it

Opened my mind. Will listen it again soon.

I typically enjoy Prog rock. King Crimson. Early Genesis and such. But something about this just didn't really click with me for some reason. I didn't hate it by any means and can recognize the musical genius. I just don't think I was in the mood for it.

I've heard the band mentioned in a few different contexts over the years, but I don't think I'd ever actually heard any of their music. The album started in a way that made me roll my eyes at first because I was worried it might be yet another psychedelic experimental album that probably sounded so cool to the musicians while they were making the music but doesn't hold up so well these days, but I readily admit I was quite wrong. There is some great music here with some genuine jazz and jazz-influenced composition and performance. Very interesting stuff.

I some times wonder if I had grown up when psychedelic rock was a thing if these would make more sense.

Didn't grow on me. A tough listen

Something strange

Sometimes the best albums are the ones we can't figure out

I was very surprised to find this one on this list, but hey! I'm not going to complain. A really great album from a really great band. Moon in June is just incredible and makes me crave for some more. I understand that this album might scare a lot of people, but I swear it's quite the journey!

One of my favorite album ever, by which I discovered the incredible Robert Wyatt. Uncompromised and so unique experimental jazz music with a canterbury scene feel. Listening to Robert Wyatt singing Moon In June while drumming is one of the best thing a human can experience.

At its best (Slightly All the Time) this is a mediocre contribution to the jazz fusion world of Miles, Herbie Hancock, Donald Bird, Chick Core, et al. At its worst (FaceLift) it comes across as slightly organized noise.

Long and jazzy

Psychedelic, enjoyed it.

This was a challenge. The first 6 minutes are just some weird soundscape, no real melody or anything, but if you treat it like an orchestra tuning up you can get through it, and it improves, marginally. The rest is ...fine (and I like prog), but I really wouldn't want to hear this again. It's over long, not interesting enough, and Robert Wyatt's voice, which works really well on Shipbuilding, does not really work here.

soft, psychedelic altrock vibes, I should have paid attention a bit more but I let this album gently wash over me for my afternoon work sesh and enjoyed it in general without any part really standing out except the length of the tracks (wowow 21 mins?? pink Floyd vibes)

It's a live album, which should be enough said, right? I said, right? But this one has to be indulgent. It has to have only one song on each side of the record. How the hell am I expected to carry around a record player when I'm walking around? Maybe I'll call it a "record man" or something?

This is about as bad as it gets. Not only is it that experimental instrument noodling, but the dated nature of it locks all the instrumentation into horrible organ or weird 60's electronic noises. Glad when it was over.

I thought it was OK. 2/5

3.5 - This is definitely an odd album. The first few minutes of the first track had me scared, but it's actually kinda good. That third song was definitely the standout here. I can appreciate the mix of jazz and prog. This makes me pretty optimistic for the Robert Wyatt albums that are in the 1001 albums list.

Bra at alle sangane e over 18 minutt. Kunne sikkert satt pris på da hvis eg hadde hørt da nåken titalls ganga, men satte seg ikkje heilt etter første forsøk

Get the sextant out and plot a course to the edge of your mind. After a start where is seems there was some frantic twiddling of knobs before the correct settings were found it hit a stride. A discordant quartet on offer with many ebbs and flows plus a smattering of wit. Give it a go there is plenty to discover.

Wyatt usually manages a telos with his music; Soft Machine doesn't. That's dangerous territory for prog, which Third navigates deftly. While no track is near lean, each occupies its position and no more. Noodling, the music's friendly at the same time it confuses.

I can't come up with any activity I could be doing that would make me enjoy this album. Just bad.

This one was hard for me to get through...I simply do not think jazz will EVER grow on me. It's like each instrument is playing its own rambling ass jam with no regard to the other players & no regard to a structured song. I suppose that is part of the allure for jazz fans? Idk. In MY opinion, this album is a good candidate to be piped thru the loud speakers of hell.

pretty enjoyable mix of jazz and prog, like it quite a bit, would have liked it more if Robert Wyatt had kept his trap shut on Moon in June

British jazz rock from 70, extremely distinct feel between the different tracks A hated the first one

20 minute instrumentals are just not for me during the work day

An odyssey. I’m still getting over the audacity it takes to start off an album like that. It straightened out a bit but why wouldn’t I just listen to other jazz?

This was actually okay for having such long songs. They had kind of a Pink Floyd thing going on. Not super compelling but not bad either

Too long; didn't care.

I’ve never heard of this group before and when I read the description I expected more of a psychedelic rock record than a jazz record. Great musicianship throughout but just not my personal taste. The vocals also really took me out of it when they came in in the last track but did bring the record back to where my expectations were initially. High 3.

dahora, quero ouvir mais.

December 1, 2023 HL: “Moon in June”, “Out-Bloody-Rageous” Kind of as a counterpoint to another reviewer, the song order works for me because the spacey loops in the last track are a cool bookend to the atonal electronics in the first. Aggression slowly gives way to serenity I appreciated the book’s insight of the members of Soft Machine wanting to make “serious” music, to Robert Wyatt’s displeasure Though people who don’t like jazz or prog will likely find this interminable… I probably should have a copy/paste of “Wow I liked this more than I expected” for every new prog band I come across on this list.

interesting stuff 3 stars

No.

Très cool, mais pas facile putain

This was better than I had expected. The first few minutes felt like just-another-improv-jazz album, but it evolved into a bit more of a prog-jazz wig out. It's not really my bag, but it was ok and easy on the ear.. eventually.

Favorite Songs: Slightly All the Time Out-Bloody Rageous You start with the impression of being at a concert in the 70s in a dusty location and some blokes experiment with their instruments. After 10 Minutes of intro in the first track it becomes quite catchy, the second song is amazingly jazzy.

You do a track, and you do a track, and you do a track. Play whatever you want but don’t tell anybody else what you’re doing. We’ll just mash em all together in the end. Ugh.

So crazy good so cool instrumental stuff absolutely yes

5/10, didn't really get into this? Some of the repeating elements were cool, but the minimalism aspect didn't shine through well for me

El màxim que s'ha apropat el rock al jazz. Costa de pair, però la digestió es disfruta

Jazz rock / prog / Canterbury Scene of the highest order.

The first song got the album off to a bad start. The first 7 minutes of avant- guard intro was hard to take. It was better when it got into the psychedelic stuff and the later songs that were more jazz were quite good.

It seems they may have taken a page from Bitches Brew, with one song per side. Side 1 is too noisy for me and poorly recorded. Side 2 is great, very Weather Report-ish. I don’t know how a jazz critic would rate it, though. Side 3 is maybe the most interesting and the least jazzy, though Robert Wyatt’s lyrics are silly at times. Side 4 has a great intro. I think I read of a Terry Reilly influence and it sure sounds like it. I just wish the minimalist segments weren’t dragged out for so long.

This is a very cool ride, it spans jazz/psychedelic/prog/noise rock and conjures images of early King Crimson, Pink Floyd and maybe even some Zappa and Kraut rock/electronic music. I'm still not a fan of Robert Wyatt's voice but it's undeniable that he's a great musician and has teamed up with A-list musicians of the era with Kevin Ayers, Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper. The first track, Facelift gets a lot of grief from the reviewers on this site, but I didn't think it was too bad. Experimental yes, but never boring. The stand-out track for me was the closer, Out-Bloody-Rageous and I learned from Wiki that the tape loops on this song were inspired by Terry Riley hence its repetitive minimalist sound. Disc 2 (which is not available for listening on Spotify) was apparently part of a subsequent CD released in 2007 so technically not part of this album so its not graded here.

squonky squonky jazz sax and brass, oooooof. i barely made it through the first 10 minutes which were nails-on-chalkboard bad to hear. the album gradually became less bad to listen to, but more boring. i kept wanting to walk away from the second and third tracks to do chores. i kept checking the timestamp. i just didn't want to hear more. then the final track came on and i was into it! i really loved the layering and tones in that track ... and then the jazz horns started again and i was back to disliking it. this album seems to represent a transition moment for this band, unfortunately for me, it's between one genre i am indifferent to and another genre i dislike. i feel unfair giving this album such a low rating since i'm sure the musicianship was very high, but it's just very much something i never want to listen to again.

prog rock is a tool of the devil. jazzy prog rock is a WMD.

This was so difficult to get through. Every song was at least 15 minutes too long, and there weren't enough interesting changes to make the length worth it. It took me multiple tries to finish listening to it.

enjoyable in parts, but so all over the place that it's hard to justify the parts i like, yk? 2

no, thank you

I started listening to us with headphones, but I could not deal with the instruments being separated. The way they were, the piano on my left ear was driving me nuts. I switched to playing it on my phone speakers and that was better Interesting the album is called third when I hated the 3rd song the most because of the vocals The other 3 songs were fine background music at times but then it would just get really disharmonious and jarring, only to go back to fine again

Sorry, too out there for my liking.

I typically like jazz. These songs I did not. They dragged on for 18-20mins taking forever to build.

Digg jazz

Wow, this was intense.. I heard these guys were something else, but not really expected this. Very King Crimson esque, but a bit crazier. It was too much for me too dig out enjoyable moments and I don’t think I’ll really connect with this band or music. 2 out of 10

It was good in parts

Olen onnellinen siitä, ettei Spotifyssa ollut kuin puolet albumin kappaleista. Puuduttavaa tiluliluleita, ei jatkoon. Tässä meni useampi päivä, vaikka biisejä vain muutama. Mutta niiden kesto onkin 15-20 min.

I thought the songs were a bit long but pretty enjoyable as background music especially while driving. I really enjoyed moon in June probably a 3.5 album for me

This was fairly forgettable for me.

Who actually likes this album? One of the worst to date by quite some way.

Starts out with just a load of sound, and continues that way for too long. "Creative", in my opinion, implies breaking the norm in a new, positively substatial way. Emphasis on positively. Jumping up and landing flat on your face to try and win the 100 meter race should not be described as a creative approach to the 100 meter, and much in the same manner, the first track of this album should not be described as creative music. There are good parts on the first track, but they are sparse and short lived. It sounds like if miles davis trained and coached The Shaggs. I'm calling it quits after the first track. If you want to hear rock jazz fusion done well, just listen to the Mahavishnu orchestra.

There were a couple of times I could have turned this off but mostly I thought it was pretty amazing, the good kind of jazz fusion.

Hey cool, more Robert Wyatt! I liked this a lot, as far out as it got at times. Reminded me at times of an album's worth of Mr. Bungle interludes. Kind of crazy this is considered jazz rock, as it seemed like 95% jazz with only occasional rock elements.

3/5. I listened to this for another list and it has no notes, but I gave it 3/5 then and I'll just stick with that.

Cool but a little overlong for my tastes. I’d rather play something like King Crimson who usually had tracks half as long, but I can’t deny the talent here. C

Vibe I looooove die jaren 70 achtige nergeuze king crimson ass Horns

Chill.

Nope. Not my thing

18 minute long songs? No thanks.

Somewhere between ethereal and jazz.

Ok, I can see how it influenced more modern music, perhaps...but not for me.

This was fine. Nothing particularly good jumped out at me. It was a little noisy sometimes—if there's noise rock, can there be noise jazz?

This isn't offensively bad, but I can't really recommend anything about it. 1.5.

I love prog and I love jazz, but this was insufferable.

Very few songs are good enough to justify being almost 20 minutes long. None of these songs were worth the length.

Not something I'd put on in my free time, but super interesting. Sort of like if Kraftwerk were into jazz.

Cool, instrumental album

The field recording of an alien swingers party that ends in communal astral projection.

Really phenomenal spacey electronic stuff, big fan of this sound and can see where it launched them in the future as well.

Heavy does of Jazz with a touch of some prog/avant-garde rock. Probably the the 5th or 6th time listening and it keeps getting better.

Jazz with prog rock segments. Out-Bloody-Rageous and Slightly All the Time were the tracks I enjoyed most. Cool stuff.

It felt like a really long jazz record. I didn't turn it off. Low bar for jazz records.

Bored out of my mind. Thought maybe it needs some vocals. Then they came in on the third song and didn’t help.

Despite some interesting sax, not my idea of good.

Jazz rock, electronic, ambiental. Muy largo. Si no fuera por lo largo que es, le subiría la puntuación.

5/10. Not bad as naptime albums go, but can't say it made much of an impression on me.

80 minutes, 4 tracks, mostly nothing. 4/10

2.5/5 I liked the part when they sang. Fav: Moon In June

Jazzy and proggy and would fun to play Risk to

I like a lot of prog albums quite a lot. This one is very "mid" as the kids say. It's extremely meandering and just feels like it's padded out to fill up a double album for the sake of it. The musicianship is loose without feeling intentionally so. It comes off as amateurish and bored.

Hey, this sucks. That first track was so incredibly bad, that nothing on the rest of the album could redeem it from a 1 star. Second track was ok, third track had its moments, fourth, ehh, this was not a good time.

Through two songs, both of them have some really great moments. I generally like this style of music - the experimental rock, so I'm a little biased. Lots of really good stuff. There weren't any parts, really, that felt like it didn't belong in the song.

Usually a huge fan of long, sprawling tracks, but I do require some interesting journeys along the way. This LP doesn't have much to share in that department, choosing instead to meander and bump its way through 4 artificially extended tracks that gave been inflated to reach an arbitrary goalpost of 18 minutes each. Just could not grab on to anything this LP was trying serve, which again is a damn shame given how long tracks like these don't come through here often

Hell yeah. This is sick.

I enjoyed this to begin with, as it was different to what I was expecting, but after a while - probably during the first tune, as it's nearly 20 minutes long - my interest started to wane. A lot of jazz leaves me cold, and prog makes me feel a bit queasy, so prog jazz is not really going to float my boat. Too much showing off, and for far too long.

I would have run a bloody mile from this in years gone by. These days I'm the one making all the moves. You grow old, you listen to jazz, innit. Life 101. Even better if it's on the cusp of psychedelic shit fusing it with freestyle jazz and drugs are involved - participants, not the listener. I love how the songs build up throughout ten minutes or so. You aren't going to hear these on Heart FM anytime soon. There's also a soft approach to all the jazz shit. The horns won't blow your arse off. If you make it through all four sides then you have done very well. It takes you on a journey. Gawd knows where to. I became lost on side 3. That's half the fun, right?

I HATE PROG ROCK I DONT WANT TO LISTEN TO 18 MINUITE TRACKS ONE AFTER THE OTHER I DON'T WANT TO SIT THROUGH SEVEN MINUITES OF A GUITAR SOLO Actually this isn't bad tbh

très instrumental, expérimental. not sure how i felt about it. devrait réécouter pour mieux comprendre le sens de l'album 6.5/10

I’m glad other people enjoyed this. However, I did not. The first song drove me nuts and I could not do 18 minute songs. So I listened to a little of each song and I’m ready to move on.

Did not enjoy

I felt pretty done with this not long into the opening live piece, but I came around for it somewhat as the album went along. Still a little too much Prog Jazz for me.

Je me suis longtemps demandé pourquoi l'expression "énorme daube" avait été créée aussi peu de temps après la publication de cet album et j'ai finalement compris hier soir.

Tous les ingrédients ont été parfaitement concoctés pour nous offrir une bouille musicale absolue, longue et pénible, c'est un superbe 1 que j'accorde aujourd'hui. Soft Machine ira donc à Baltard en compagnie des autres prétendants au titre de pire album du générateur, comme Napalm Death, Slayer, ou encore CAN.

Again, kinda weird but I kinda like it

The production on the remastered version is fun. The stereo separation and sub-bass sounded great on my bookshelf speaker system. Overall there are some interesting parts but it is long and I found myself losing interest by the middle of the third track. Better editing could have made this a four-star record for me.

There's some cool stuff in here. An atmospheric proggy jazz fusion album utilizes heavy synths, atonality, and minimalism to draw out four 20-minute tracks without it becoming too grating. It sounds dated, with a lot of moments feeling like gimmicks you could use with technology at the time that has become overshadowed with what the 80s could offer. It takes half of "Facelift" to get to the point, where it becomes something that vaguely resembles Bitches Brew with how some instruments screech and class while others remain constant. It tries to be as weird and abrasive as possible, and it's pretty good at this. It does have a natural progression. "Slightly All the Time" is chill and groovy, feels like a more low-key Chicago song. Goes through a lot of variations, emphasizing the improvisational method. It's ok but doesn't impress me much, and some of the transitions feel forced. "Moon in June" sounds like a typical prog rock song, less jazz, and more of the overly dramatic vocals like what you hear from Peter Gabriel. But it's god awful. And I think he's doing this on purpose to parody love songs? To make a point he doesn't need lyrics? I seriously can't tell. He gets meta in a few parts, "Don't really know what I'm singing about" or more subtlety, "Oh but you never say you like me... or something nice like that" that almost seems like he's purposely singing and writing lazily. According to wikipedia, it's a stream of consciousness, so I wonder if he's just singing whatever comes to his mind on the spot while recording, no written lyrics. Justifies it a little, but still shows he has no talent in rapping. Nevertheless, the music is pretty dull except for the instrumental middle section. Again, they try ending in a long dramatic unsettling coda, which serves its purpose and stands out, but doesn't impress me. We end with a space rock track "Out-Bloody-Rageous." It's mystical and otherworldly, but it doesn't take the beginning idea too far and it gets a bit boring. Turns into another jammy jazz fusion section, fairly good. The middle point shifts back to space rock, this time replacing the brighter industrial synths with a sax lead, kinda cool. In the last quarter, the bright synths return but multiplied and faster. Serves more as ambient music at that point. This piece does feel like a clustered mess overall, and I feel like the different sections only help me from not getting exhausted by each of them. For a prog album, they mess around a lot and get some cool sounds. But it's a very messy record, with very little that blew me away. On a few occasions I wondered how they did it, and you have to admire their innovative ideas, but they really take them very far or have them work together.

Noisy musical experimentation that periodically reveals beauty, but not often enough…

I really liked this; a mix of pop, avant garde, psychedelic, jazz, progressive all wrapped in that late 60s lofi sound. Lovely.

I didn't really care much for this. It started off pretty terrible and although it did get better, it didn't ever redeem itself, in my opinion.

This gave me King Crimson vibes. Pretty crazy, music like this was getting created and stayed relatively obscure. I loved it though.

First song i found hard to listen ro Song 2 and 3 are quite nice but they dont exactly grab me I honestly expected better of what i read... not for me

No. The third “song” where they we red e singing really brought this down to a one for me. Maybe a 1.5 up until that point

No thanks

If this is #20 on the top 40 ‘cosmic rock’ albums, does this mean: A. I have another 19 to listen to Or B. I am only half way cos if feels like I’ve done 20 already Speaking of 19 or 20. Are the tracks really that length!

Weird, but the kind of weird that if you keep listening it pulls you in. Probably won't listen again

Had trouble staying awake during this one

Maybe im a bit biased from other prog rock but i wish this was a bit more technical. The first track threw me off originally but as another reviewer recommended on second listening i put it off until last and i enjoyed this a bit better. Still pretty nice though.

I'm so tired

Wow, this album is a wild trip. I ignored first track - it is unbearable to listen to from first second. But rest of it is just crazy. During one 20 minute track it can go from perfect harmony to totally dreadful chaos and go back to great harmony. And this album is doing this many times this process is so smooth that I can't wrap my head around it. I have never heard other song with part that was monotonous and not interesting just to use it as a base to build more on it and turn it great and fascinating. Avoid first track.

Soft Machine, 1970, Double LP (4 songs) 2nd Listen (3) Genre: Jazz rock, Progressive rock, Electronic The bonus CD ups the song total to 7. The original double album contained one song per side and it is very much a prog rock album. That being said, it is not for everyone. The first song, Facelift, is the most difficult to get through. The rest of the album is better. The first two tracks seems great to put on in the background when you are studying or just want to relax or sleep... The third song, Moon in June, is more progressive rock than jazz. It's probably the best song on the album (to me). Solid 3/5

For the era, I think this was super impressive

Half the album isn’t even on Spotify and what’s left is entirely too long and tiresome to listen to. I really can’t stand tracks that run on longer than 5 minutes. This is a real chore.

Urgh

I’m glad this exists and is on the list but I didn’t enjoy it.

Jazz

At its best, it reminded me of Traffic, which is a good thing. I'm a fan of prog rock overall, but this was too much pointless canoodling for me. 2 stars.

When I saw 4 tracks and 1 hour and 20 minutes I groaned. The groan was warranted but at the same time it wasn’t horrible. But I was also high. So take that for what it’s worth.

4.5

Un disco densooooo AF. Malditas drogas.

First Listen. Never heard of Soft Machine. Genre: Jazz Rock, Prog Rock. 1970 Standouts: Out-Bloody-Rageous, Slightly All The Time, Moon in June Tracks: 2/5 1. Facelift 3/5 2. Slightly All The Time 3.5/5 3. Moon in June 3/5 4. Out-Bloody-Rageous Overall: 3/5 This one would take many listens to really get into..

Totalement et absolument ma came, je connaissais pas Soft Machine mais je kiffe, la découverte de cet album vaut tout à fait l'ensemble du projet des 1001 albums tructrucs

Ahh... Avis plus positif à la fin qu'au début (j'ai même failli abandonner au bout des cinq premières minutes de pur bruit) Pas mal dans l'absolu, j'ai bien aimé les côtés jazz, mais je trouve que ça manque un peu de mélodie par rapport à King Crimson ou autres trucs du même genre, que j'aime mieux.

5. I really like this album. It is a new sound for me with jazz that I really like and wouldn't mind hearing more of

Almost jazz prog rock. Interesting as background music, cool horn section.

Didn’t love it didn’t hate it.

Heel erg jazzy-chaotisch. Maar net georchestreerd genoeg dat het niet stoort.

In the end just a bit too unorthodox to be enjoyable

Wish I could give it 0 stars

i reckon this would only make much sense if you had a monstrous bowl of narcotics. might buy it on vinyl and head to La Paz to get on it with Manny Pacquaio.

EATING CHOCOLATE CAKE IN THE SHOWER EVERY MORNING HAS TAUGHT ME HOW TO FEEL LIKE A REAL MAN. I CAN USE IT TO DISGUISE WHEN I SHIT MYSELF. CAKE AND SHIT, CAKE AND SHIT, CAKE AND SHIT. SHOWERING WITH CAKE AND SHIT. SHITTING IN THE SHOWER, SHITTING IN THE SHOWER. CAKE AND SHIT. I'M A REAL MAN. EAT MY SHIT.

Get a big plate of drugs in you and stick this on. They're playing it at RadioSHACK in La Paz. Half man/half fly Scott Kelly is being sick in there as we speak.

What an album for the weekend.

Don’t think be ever heard of them. Very Genesis-Traffic-esque. 3.5/5

Impressive but too jammy for my taste

un album qui commence vraiment mal mais qui s'écoute bien par la suite. du rpog un peu dejanté. 3.25

This was an interesting listen, somewhat challenging. I didn't fully enjoy it, it felt a bit like listening to someone's half baked manifesto. I liked the moments of prog / jazz.

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.

I like this a lot better than most prog, maybe because it's Jazz-adjacent. The instrument choices also helped, but still is a bit of a long play.

I got a softspot for these guys. It's not really rock at all- more jazzy prog but it's really good for putting on late at night and chilling with a stick of incense...

It's jazz noodling. They've got skills, but who cares? Best track: Slightly All the Time

Interesting

I was unable to listen to the live part. Otherwise I really only enjoyed the second track

Not really a fan

I remember purchasing "Third" at a music festival. I listened to it once, maybe twice, and sold it back. Listening to it 20 years later, I know why. I also know why people mock "Tales From Topographic Oceans," which I like quite a lot. 4 songs, a double album is quite a lot. And if there isn't a lot of THERE there, it does tend to go on and on. There are some good bits in each of the songs, and some parts where I'm like "this could have been edited out." Easily trim these down to about 10 minutes each and it would have been much better. The songs just meander too much for me. Still, the good bits in each of the songs make me think there's something to them. So I feel like they have something better in them. This isn't it.

Strangely melodic. Jazz rock is it? I guess, as there's definitely jazz. Not quite sure where the rock is other than side C, but then I don't know what else I'd call it because it's not just jazz. Not the worst thing I've ever heard though side A was a slog. Sides C and D were better.

very interesting album, enjoyed it a lot.

Fuck this. I hate when the artist has no damn respect for the listener to make their music even a little enjoyable. There are so few bits to latch on to in this project that they may as well not exist entirely. There are barely any enjoyable aspects to this whole album. 2/5

Surprisingly, I was kind of in the mood for this.

Way way too much prog, disappeared up its own arse before the first two minutes of ambient nonsense had finished. Pointless, annoying, way too long. Its not big or clever to make music like this. The most jazzy parts reminded me of cheap tickets I got to the proms where we left after forty minutes. Wish I left this after forty minutes. Bad.

The first track is bad. The second track, Slightly All The Time, is pretty good ambient music for a metropolitan city. I enjoyed the surprising directions the track went in. The third track is bad. The fourth track is bad. 1.5 stars.

I knew from the first track that I was going to hate this album. An 18 minute track where it takes more than half the duration to get going. Even after that it just sounds like noise. The rest of the album isn't much better and I gave up before the end.

Imagine going to see this live and waiting about 10 minutes for something to happen in a song...... I don't mind progressive music but that opening track was too much of nothing but noises. Second track was better, quite jazzy. I dunno, rest of it passed me by a bit. Not horrible, but certainly won't be back

Interesting album. Reminds me at times of Miles Davis In A SIlent Way and Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come. Not really finding the rock part of the equation. Seems to me like a collection of 4 jazz suites. All 4 have something to offer. 3.5 stars

Jazz. Experimental. Interesante, pero demasiado largo.

- DO NOT LISTEN TO TRACK 1 FIRST - It was alright, but nearly lost the will to live after the opening minutes of track 1, and this is coming from someone who usually rates prog rock quite highly. Quite an enjoyable listen once I got past that.

A sometimes bracing sometimes beautiful prog/jazz fusion album. It was honestly a little exhausting listening to the entire thing, but I can't deny that it was NOT BORING (my most important metric!). I can see why some people would give it a 5 for sure, but it's not quite there for me yet. 4 it is.

fook me that’s some weird shit

Not my style

Strange. Not for me.

Not my cup of tea. Technically proficient but messy.

Maybe I wasn't in the best mood but this album didn't do much for me