Please don't let this ugly beast ruin your impression of Soft Machine. By the time of "Third", the band embraced more than before its tendencies toward noisy jazz (or jazzy noise). However, "Volume Two", the band's best record, is unlike anything else that exists in its delicate and much more subtle fusion of the two. "Volume Two" manages to jam actual songs, or at least sketches of songs, into the wax. It's funny and wonderfully constructed with pretty little bits juxtaposed beside more atonal atmospheres. I know this is a review for "Third", but it's such a disappointment for me to have to hear this particular album when I rate its predecessor so much more highly. My advice is to go forth and listen to "VOLUME TWO" first before third.