Soft_Machine_discography
Soft Machine are an English rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion.[1] Having known numerous line-ups, the band currently consists of John Etheridge (guitar), Theo Travis (saxophone, flutes, keyboards), Fred Baker (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums).
Studio albums
More information Year, Album ...
| Year | Album | Line-up | Additional musicians |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Soft Machine | Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers | Hugh Hopper |
| 1969 | Volume Two | Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper | Brian Hopper |
| 1970 | Third | Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper, Elton Dean | Lyn Dobson, Nick Evans, Jimmy Hastings, Rab Spall |
| 1971 | Fourth | Evans, Hastings, Mark Charig, Roy Babbington, Alan Skidmore | |
| 1972 | Fifth | Side 1: Ratledge, Hopper, Dean, Phil Howard Side 2: Ratledge, Hopper, Dean, John Marshall |
Babbington |
| 1973 | Six | Ratledge, Hopper, Marshall, Karl Jenkins | |
| 1973 | Seven | Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington | |
| 1975 | Bundles | Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, Allan Holdsworth | Ray Warleigh |
| 1976 | Softs | Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, John Etheridge, Alan Wakeman | Ratledge |
| 1981 | Land of Cockayne | Marshall, Jenkins, Holdsworth, Warleigh, Jack Bruce, Dick Morrissey, Alan Parker, John Taylor | |
| 2018 | Hidden Details[2][3][4] | Marshall, Etheridge, Babbington, Theo Travis | Nick Utteridge |
| 2023 | Other Doors | Marshall, Etheridge, Travis, Fred Baker | Babbington |
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Live albums
More information Recorded, Released ...
| Recorded | Released | Album | Line-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 1967 – May 1968 | 2006 | Middle Earth Masters | Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers |
| March 1969 | 1996 | Live at the Paradiso 1969 | Ratledge, Wyatt, Hugh Hopper |
| November 1969 – May 1970 | 2002 | Backwards | November 1969 recordings: Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper, Elton Dean, Lyn Dobson, Mark Charig, Nick Evans May 1970 recordings: Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper, Dean |
| January 1970 | 2000 | Noisette | Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper, Dean, Dobson |
| January 1970 | 2005 | Breda Reactor | |
| January 1970 | 2022 | Facelift France & Holland CD 2 | |
| March 1970 | 2022 | Facelift France & Holland CD 1 + DVD | |
| April 1970 | 2004 | Somewhere in Soho | Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper, Dean |
| April 1970 | 2002 | Facelift | |
| August 1970 | 1988 | Live at the Proms 1970 | |
| October 1970 | 2006 | Grides | |
| February 1971 | 2009 | Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 | |
| March 1971 | 1998 | Virtually | |
| March 1971 | 1993 | Soft Machine & Heavy Friends: BBC in Concert 1971 | |
| November 1971 | 2008 | Drop | Ratledge, Hopper, Dean, Phil Howard |
| May 1972 | 2008 | Live in Paris | Ratledge, Hopper, Dean, John Marshall |
| June 1972 | 1994 | Soft Stage: BBC in Concert 1972 | Ratledge, Hopper, Marshall, Karl Jenkins |
| October – November 1972 | 1973 | Six Disc 1 | |
| May 1973 | 2010 | NDR Jazz Workshop Hamburg, Germany CD + DVD | Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Roy Babbington |
| October 1973 | 2023 | The Dutch Lesson | |
| July 1974 | 2015 | Switzerland 1974 CD + DVD | Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, Allan Holdsworth |
| January 1975 | 2006 | Floating World Live | |
| October 1975 | 2005 | British Tour '75 | Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, John Etheridge |
| July 1977 | 1978 | Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris | Marshall, Jenkins, Etheridge, Ric Sanders, Steve Cook |
| February 2019 | 2020 | Live at The Baked Potato | Marshall, Etheridge, Babbington, Theo Travis |
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Compilation albums
More information Year, Album ...
| Year | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Jet Propelled Photographs | 1967 demos by the line-up of Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen |
| 1977 | Triple Echo | A "best of" album, including both sides of their first single and material from all the albums up to Softs (the most recent at the time) |
| 1990 | The Peel Sessions | Radio sessions recorded during 1969–71 |
| 1996 | Spaced | Recorded in 1969 by the line-up of Ratledge, Wyatt and the Hopper brothers Hugh and Brian as a soundtrack for a work by artist Peter Dockley |
| 2001 | Turns On Volume 1 | Lo-fi recordings from April to December 1967 |
| 2001 | Turns On Volume 2 | Lo-fi recordings from November 1967 to August 1968 |
| 2003 | BBC Radio 1967–1971 | Radio sessions |
| 2003 | BBC Radio 1971–1974 | Radio sessions |
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Other minor releases
These albums were either released by small labels with most of their content available on the main albums listed above or are reissues/"Best of" collections released by major labels with all previously released material.
More information Year, Album ...
| Year | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Rock Generation Vol. 7 | One side only, April 1967 De Lane Lea Studios demo recordings with Giorgio Gomelsky. |
| 1972 | Rock Generation Vol. 8 | One side only, more April 1967 demo recordings. This and the preceding entry were combined on many subsequent releases, under such titles as Faces & Places Vol.7 (BYG Records, 1972), At the Beginning (Charly Records, 1976), Jet Propelled Photographs (Piccadilly, 1980 [LP], Charly, 2003 [CD]), and several others. These issues contain the track "She's Gone", recorded in April 1967, which is not the same track released in Triple Echo. |
| 1975 | 1&2 (Architects of Space Time) | Double album reissue of the first two albums. |
| 1990 | The Untouchable | Compilation of tracks from Bundles, Softs, and Alive and Well. |
| 1991 | As If... | Curious (probably unauthorized) compilation with six Ratledge/Hopper compositions ranging from 1970's Third to 1973's Six. |
| 1994 | Soft Machine | Live At The Paradiso 1969 plus six tracks from Jet Propelled Photographs. |
| 1995 | The Harvest Albums 1975–1978 | Box set of the Harvest-era albums Bundles (1975) to Alive & Well (1978). |
| 1998 | Canterburied Sounds (Vol. 1–4) | Voiceprint Records released four CDs containing several tracks by various musicians from the Canterbury scene (mainly from the Soft Machine and the Caravan bands), compiled and with notes by Brian Hopper. The four single CDs are re-released in 2013 in a box set. |
| 1998 | Live 1970 (also known as Live in Europe 1970) |
Tracks 1–2 recorded on 13 February 1970 at Swansea (or 14 at the London School of Economics); tracks 3–11 also in Live at the Proms; here, with the edited version of "Out-Bloody-Rageous" from 11:54 to 8:46, and "Esther's Nose Job" split in seven contiguous tracks. |
| 1999 | Fourth / Fifth | CD reissue of Fourth and Fifth, the first CBS-era album Third was already available on CD individually. |
| 2001 | Man in a Deaf Corner: Anthology 1963–1970 | Disc 1 mainly containing live pieces from 1963 to circa 1967, with tracks 7–9 also in Turns On vol. 1 (respectively tracks 2, 1, 16); Disc 2 containing a recording at the Paradiso, 29 March 1969 (tracks 1–10) also in Live at the Paradiso (about 32 min out of 40 min); tracks 11–12 ("Facelift" and "Moon in June" – short versions) also in Live 1970 (respectively tracks 1–2); tracks 13–16 recorded at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon on 26 April 1970, also in Facelift (respectively tracks 4–7); track 17 is a Jakko Jakszyk rendition of "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" in conjunction with the two short tracks "That Still and Perfect Summer" and "Astral Projection in Pinner" to appear in his future album The Bruised Romantic Glee Club (Iceni 2006). |
| 2004 | Six / Seven | 2-CD reissue of the last two CBS-era albums Six and Seven. |
| 2005 | Out-Bloody-Rageous: An Anthology 1967–1973 | 2-CD compilation of tracks from up to, and including, Seven. |
| 2005 | Orange Skin Food | 2-CD compilation of previously released live recordings; tracks from Somewhere In Soho, recorded 20–25 April 1971, Facelift, recorded 26 April 1970 and the entire Live in Europe 1970, recorded 13 or 14 February 1970 and 13 August 1970 at the Proms. |
| 2010 | Original Album Classics | 5-CD box set of the 2007 remasters of the CBS-era albums Third, Fourth, Fifth, Six and Seven. |
| 2011 | Tales of Taliesin: The EMI Years Anthology 1975–1981 | 2-CD compilation of tracks from Bundles to Land of Cockayne. |
| 2013 | 68 | Credited to Robert Wyatt, it nonetheless contains an 18 minutes early version of "Rivmic Melodies" (to appear in the 1969 album Volume 2) and a 20 minutes early version of "Moon in June" (to appear in the 1970 album Third), both recorded in U.S. in 1968, after Soft Machine's first dissolution, and just before the new formation with Hopper in place of Ayers. |
| 2013 | Canterburied Sounds | Re-issue in a single 4 CDs edition of the four titles previously released in 1998 by Brian Hopper on Voiceprint. |
| 2014 | Tanglewood Tails | 2 CDs, Disc 1 with tracks 1–4 from 1963 (also in "Canterburied Sounds"), tracks 5–12 from 1967 studio recordings (also in Turns On vol. 1); Disc 2 with tracks 1–4 live from the Col Ballroom, Davenport, Iowa, 11 August 1968 (also in Turns On vol. 2), tracks 5–6 live from the Paradiso, Amsterdam, 29 March 1969 (also in Live at the Paradiso), tracks 7–11 live from the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 26 April 1970 (also in "Facelift"). The quality of tracks are far better than in both volumes of Turns On (especially "She's Gone" – June 1967 version that now has a quality comparable to the Triple Echo version – that is up to now the only acceptable CD version of this track). |
| 2014 | Turns On (An early collection) | 2 CDs – Reprint from Floating World Records of the two Turns On volumes of 2001, with the same track list. The low quality of the former editions was here maintained. |
| 2014 | Live in 1970 | 4 CDs – Reprint of two live concerts. Disc 1 and Disc 2 recorded at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club on 20–25 April 1970 (already in Somewhere in Soho, Voiceprint, 2004), Disc 3 and Disc 4 recorded at Het Turfschip, Breda, Netherlands on 31 January 1970 (already in Breda Reactor, Voiceprint, 2005). |
| 2014 | Live in the 70s | 4 CDs – Reprint of various live concerts. Disc 1 and the first four tracks on Disc 2 also issued as Live in Paris (Cuneiform, 2004); tracks 5–7 of Disc 2 also appear on Backwards (Cuneiform, 2002); Mark Charig is here wrongly mentioned as the trumpet player; Disc 3 was previously released as Noisette (Cuneiform, 2000) and Disc 4 was previously issued as Drop (Moonjune, 2008). |
| 2015 | Hugh Hopper Volume 9: Anatomy of Facelift |
Five performances of "Facelift", 1969 through 1971. |
| 2019 | Live in London in the early Sixties (LP) | Eight tracks recorded live in 1963 in London, with Brian Hopper (sax), Hugh Hopper (cello, bass), Robert Wyatt (drums, voice), Kevin Ayers (bass, voice), Mike Ratledge (organ), Daevid Allen (guitar). These tracks are also in Man in a Deaf Corner (2001, 2 CD) as tracks 1.01–1.06 in a different remix. |
| 2019 | Top Gear Live in London 1967–1969 (LP) | Side 1 recorded in 1967 with the Ratledge/Wyatt/Ayers line-up; Side 2 recorded in 1969 with Ratledge/Wyatt/H. Hopper/B. Hopper line-up and including "Facelift" and "Moon in June". |
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Singles
- 1967: "Love Makes Sweet Music"/"Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin'" (Line-up: Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen) (Released in the UK and New Zealand, both the A- and B-side were later included on Triple Echo in 1977, the first time either appeared on an album)
- 1968: "Joy of a Toy"/"Why Are We Sleeping?" (Line-up: Ratledge, Wyatt, Ayers) (Both A- and B-side from the album The Soft Machine, single released in the US and Japan)
- 1978: "Soft Space (Part 1)"/"Soft Space (Part 2)" (Line-up: John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, John Etheridge, Ric Sanders, Steve Cook) (From the album Alive and Well, single released in the UK and most other European countries)
Bootlegs
The 1960s
1968
- 1968, 08–11, Live at Davenport, Iowa (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
- 1968, 08–16, Live at the Merryweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
- 1968, 09–13, Live at the Hollywood Bowl, California (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
1969
- 1969, 04–13, Live at the Country Club in London
- 1969, 06–25, Live at the Ba.Ta.Clan in Paris
- 1969, 08–09, Live at Plumpton Race Course – only "Moon in June" was performed
- 1969, 10–05, Live at the Lyceum in London
- 1969, 10–27, Live at the Liverpool University – Excerpt
- 1969, 10–28, Live at Actuel Festival in Amougies, Belgium – Excerpt
The 1970s
1970
- 1970, 01–04, Live at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon – This concert was published as Noisette (Cuneiform, 2000), but this official release lacks "Facelift" that was in part used for the Third album (1970), where it is joined by another version recorded 11 January and overdubbed. This concert is inserted here only because the version of "Facelift" herein contained (over 25 minutes long) is a very special version and the full song would deserve an official treatment.
- 1970, 01–17, Live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
- 1970, 04–04, Live at the Kolner Festival, Germany
- 1970, 09–01, BBC Radiophonic Workshop – Eamonn Andrews explained
- 1970, 09–17, Alan Black "Sound of the Seventies" (broadcast 25 Sept.), recorded at the Camden Theatre in London
- 1970, 10–24, Live at DeDoelen, Rotterdam – Excerpt
1971
- 1971, 02–07, Live at the Roundhouse, London, UK
- 1971, 03–21, Live in Het Turfschip, Breda, Netherlands
- 1971, 06–07, Live at the Cafe au Go Go (the Gaslight) in New York City
- 1971, 10–17, Donaueschinger Musiktage – This concert has appeared partially on Drop (Moonjune 2008)
- 1971, 11–07, Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival – There exist two versions of this concert: the live recording and the radio broadcast (with German DJ inserts) – this concert has appeared partially on Drop (Moonjune 2008)
1972
- 1972, 04–22, Live at Palazzo dello Sport in Bergamo, Italy
- 1972, 04–24, Live at the Piper Club in Rome
- 1972, 06–07, Live at King's Cross Cinema
- 1972, 12–03, Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, UK
1974
- 1974, 03–11, Radio Interview with Mike Ratledge and Allan Holdsworth for an American radio broadcast
- 1974, 03–13, Live at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York
- 1974, 03–17, Live at "My Father's Place" in Roslyn, New York
- 1974, 03–23–24, Live at the Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York
- 1974, 08–10, Live at Le Naiadi, Pescara, Italy
- 1974, 09–20–24, Villa Pamphili Festival in Rome
1975
- 1975, 01–16, Live in Stuttgart, Germany
- 1975, 08–17, Live at the Théâtre antique d'Orange, Orange Festival in France
- 1975, 08–24, Live at the Reading Festival, UK
- 1975, 08–29, Live in Vienna
- 1975, 11–26, Live at the Cinéma Variétés in Marseille, France
1976
- 1976, 02–18, Live at the Palasport in Reggio Emilia, Italy
- 1976, 08–08, Live in Trieste, Italy
- 1976, 10–09, Live in Roskilde, Copenhagen
- 1976, 12–03, Live at the Palais des Sports in Paris
Discography
More information Year, Album ...
| Year | Album | Soft Machine members involved | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Wilde Flowers | ||||||||||
| 1965–69 | The Wilde Flowers (released in 1994) | Ayers, B. Hopper, H. Hopper, Wyatt | ||||||||
| The Keith Tippett Group | ||||||||||
| 1970 | You Are Here... I Am There | Charig, Dean, Evans | ||||||||
| 1971 | Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening | Babbington, Charig, Dean, Evans, Howard, Wyatt | ||||||||
| Centipede | ||||||||||
| 1971 | Septober Energy | Babbington, Charig, Dean, Evans, Jenkins, Marshall, Wyatt | ||||||||
| Elton Dean | ||||||||||
| 1971 | Elton Dean (re-released as Just Us in 1998) | Dean, Babbington, Charig, Howard, Ratledge | ||||||||
| Karl Jenkins (re-released as Soft Machine in 1994) | ||||||||||
| 1976 | Rubber Riff | Jenkins, Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall | ||||||||
| Hopper / Dean / Tippett / Gallivan | ||||||||||
| 1977 | Cruel But Fair | H. Hopper, Dean | ||||||||
| 1977 | Mercy Dash (released in 1985) | H. Hopper, Dean | ||||||||
| Elton Dean, Alan Skidmore, Chris Laurence, John Marshall | ||||||||||
| 1977 | El Skid | Dean, Marshall | ||||||||
| Planet Earth | ||||||||||
| 1978 | Planet Earth | Jenkins, Ratledge | ||||||||
| Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Alan Gowen, Dave Sheen (re-released as Soft Head in 1996) | ||||||||||
| 1978 | Rogue Element | H. Hopper, Dean | ||||||||
| Soft Heap | ||||||||||
| 1979 | Soft Heap | Dean, H. Hopper | ||||||||
| 1979 | Al Dente (released in 2008) | Dean, H. Hopper | ||||||||
| 1982–83 | A Veritable Centaur (released in 1995) | Dean | ||||||||
| Rubba | ||||||||||
| 1979 | Push Button | Jenkins, Ratledge | ||||||||
| 2nd Vision | ||||||||||
| 1980 | First Steps | Etheridge, Sanders | ||||||||
| Rollercoaster | ||||||||||
| 1980 | Wonderin' | Jenkins, Morrissey, Parker, Ratledge, Warleigh | ||||||||
| Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Vince Clarke, Frances Knight | ||||||||||
| 1998 | The Mind in the Trees | H. Hopper, Dean | ||||||||
| Soft Works | ||||||||||
| 2003 | Abracadabra | Dean, Holdsworth, H. Hopper, Marshall | ||||||||
| 2003 | Abracadabra in Osaka (released in 2020) | Dean, Holdsworth, H. Hopper, Marshall | ||||||||
| Soft Mountain | ||||||||||
| 2003 | Soft Mountain (released in 2007) | Dean, H. Hopper | ||||||||
| Soft Bounds | ||||||||||
| 2005 | Live at Le Triton | Dean, H. Hopper | ||||||||
| Soft Machine Legacy | ||||||||||
| 2005 | Live In Zaandam | Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall | ||||||||
| 2006 | Soft Machine Legacy | Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall | ||||||||
| 2006 | Live at the New Morning | Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall | ||||||||
| 2007 | Steam | Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall, Travis | ||||||||
| 2010 | Live Adventures | Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall, Travis | ||||||||
| 2013 | Burden of Proof | Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall, Travis | ||||||||
| Delta Saxophone Quartet | ||||||||||
| 2007 | Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening: The Music Of Soft Machine | H. Hopper (as a guest on some tracks) | ||||||||
Close
- Lynch, Dave. "Soft Machine". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- Brian Morton (October 2018). "Soft Machine – Hidden Details (review)". The Wire.
- "Soft Machine – Hidden Details (info and reviews)". Prog Archives. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
- Soft Machine discography discography at Discogs