(originally posted on Facebook)
Soft Machine is a progressive fusion jazz band from the late 60's, which explains why you've never heard of them. And I'm sure for most of my readership there is hardly a worse trio of musical words than "progressive fusion jazz". It's a tough genre to dive into. Anything prog tends to involve songs of obscene length stretched out by flute solos or some other unexpected instrument. And of course jazz can be quite hit or miss- everyone loves a good rhythm, but nobody likes it when every band member gets 2 or 3 solos per song.
Third hits on quite a few cliches. In fact the original double-LP contained only four tracks. Each side of the two records contained one continuous piece of music. It's a challenging listen to say the least. The hardest thing to overcome is the piss-poor quality of the recording. The songs don't have a discernible melody. Rather they start with a musical "theme"- a beat, a bass riff, or maybe just a certain key- as a foundation and let the leads play freely on top. Each song has multiple segments like different movements in a symphony.
Anyway, I'm usually pretty tough on progressive music for it's flightiness or its pretentiousness, and after all that I just ranted about this may come as a surprise... Soft Machine made some really nice music on Third. It's nothing you'll rock out to or hum to yourself in the car. Actually I can't think of a good time to listen to this album. Just trying to write this short review while I'm doing so has made me lose my place several times and wondering if I'm still listening to the same song. A few places could use some trimming, but overall not too bad. 3 stars.
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