Soft Machine

[pb2015]

Here's the answer to the question that I was about to ask...

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/all-white-9

Dead link. I guess they didn't want us to have this answer yet.

[Dave (in MA)]

No, I guess they changed the url to better reflect the name of the album:
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-vikodden-1971

[polmico]

In stock at Wayside.

[JKL2000]

I think this thing is being delivered here today! I just ordered it like three days ago.

[battema]

It's a petite but satisfying fondle

[polmico]

I think this thing is being delivered here today! I just ordered it like three days ago.

It’s quite good. I know that’s not a very informative review, but Soft Machine fans already know this is good.

[JKL2000]

It's a petite but satisfying fondle

Indeed, she looked larger in the photos! But it's beautifully designed. I'm halfway through the 1st set and it's heating up!

[moecurlythanu]

Indeed, she looked larger in the photos! But it's beautifully designed. I'm halfway through the 1st set and it's heating up!

Sometimes it just takes a little fondle to get them going.

[battema]

It's an excellent set, both the music and the packaging. Thrilled to own it

[Blind Badger]

Received the CDs today. I am very impressed by the sound quality. The packaging is lovely. The only thing that was slightly surprising is that the CD set doesn't appear to include Aymeric's liner notes, which would have been nice for context. Steve, can you explain the reasoning behind that — I can't imagine that it would have increased the price by much?

[Mister Triscuits]

The only thing that was slightly surprising is that the CD set doesn't appear to include Aymeric's liner notes, which would have been nice for context. Steve, can you explain the reasoning behind that — I can't imagine that it would have increased the price by much?

Is your set missing the booklet?

[rapidfirerob]

Just bought a ticket for Yoshi's Oakland, hopefully with WideOpenEars.

[calyx]

Received the CDs today. I am very impressed by the sound quality. The packaging is lovely. The only thing that was slightly surprising is that the CD set doesn't appear to include Aymeric's liner notes, which would have been nice for context. Steve, can you explain the reasoning behind that — I can't imagine that it would have increased the price by much?

Well, I received my copy of the box a couple of days ago, and the booklet with my notes was definitely there!

[Dave (in MA)]

My CD box includes the booklet.
The booklet looks very similar to the CD slipcases, did you overlook it, by any chance?

[battema]

Booklet was in mine, first thing I enjoyed in the set actually!!

[Hunchentootz]

+1 on book received and read!

[Blind Badger]

Thanks everyone — it appears that I was just unlucky, no booklet in my box. Oh well.

[Dave (in MA)]

Ha ha, what a dumbass.
I just got Soft Machine - Paris 1970 on London Calling and it's the same performance as the France portion of Facelift:France & Holland on Cuneiform, without the Ian Beabout audio wizardry. I guess I need to be more careful.

[Blind Badger]

Does anyone know of an account of the series of concerts at Ronnie Scott's from 30 July to 4 August 1984?

For instance, I was wondering what the playlist was like — whether it was the typical Bundles/Softs mix, or whether they (also) played anything from the Land of Cockayne project. (I wouldn't think so, but who knows.)

[calyx]

Does anyone know of an account of the series of concerts at Ronnie Scott's from 30 July to 4 August 1984?

For instance, I was wondering what the playlist was like — whether it was the typical Bundles/Softs mix, or whether they (also) played anything from the Land of Cockayne project. (I wouldn't think so, but who knows.)

No recordings appear to exist, alas. This included some new, never recorded, material by Jenkins. Plus older material including "Hazard Profile", "Nettle Bed" and "Tale of Taliesin". No "Cockayne" stuff, as far as I know. Other than Jenkins and Marshall, none of the other participants had played on it.

[Blind Badger]

Thanks! That actually sounds more interesting than I had expected, if it had new material.

[Trane]

Just bought the Harvest years clamshell boxset from Esoteric. (I only had a CDr compilation so far)
Disappointing for the price 12$€/disc.
Cheap papersleeves (not fidel reproduction, Softs doesn't even have the tracklist on the back cover), no booklet, just a fold out poster with credits on the back.

[Blind Badger]

Ok, an open question. In recent years, we have been spoilt with a large number of archival Soft Machine live recordings, by Cuneiform and others. I am curious to know whether people have any interesting suggestions for future releases?

Before I list my own ideas, I would like to stress that I understand that there are many good reasons why a certain archival release may not be realistic: there need to exist recordings of sufficient quality, the rights holders need to agree, and there must be sufficient demand to make a release economically viable for the record company.

Having said that, I would be very interested in the following:

1) A full concert by the septet. I thought that there might be no such recordings, but then I saw this concert on YouTube from the Actuel Jazz Festival on 28 October 1969:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMggKfZtMJ4

2) A live recording by Hopper / Dean / Tippett / Gallivan. (Technically not Soft Machine, I know.) There appear to be various recordings from Paris, London, Edinburgh, and Radio Bremen (the latter two listed in the British Jazz Sound Archive).

3) A concert with more material from Seven than what we have so far, in particular Day's Eye/Bone Fire/Tarabos and Block. This one is probably impossible, due to a lack of recordings, but the Calyx chronology at least tells us there was a concert on 9 August 1973 in Ancona where these tracks were played (as well as, one assumes, on adjacent dates):

https://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/soft...e/chrono2.html

[calyx]

1 - That's the Holy Grail. But the best we have is a multi-generation copy of a radio broadcast of the first half-hour, and the remainder only as a low-fi bootleg. Hopefully, audio for the entire gig survives in the Karakos archives, but judging on the audio on the Pink Floyd boxed set's footage of PF with Zappa, it's probably NOT great...

2 - That's possible, but the commercial potential is limited. I think Leonardo had in mind to release the Bremen HDTG gig, but probably didn't think it viable.

3 - That boot is of very low quality, definitely not releasable. Sadly... The two Cuneiform releases that do exist are all that was available to release in pro quality.

[Dave (in MA)]

There's a 2012 SM (Legacy) show on YT with Tippett guesting that would make a nice CD release if they've got a good recording of it.