Volume Two (The Soft Machine album)

Last updated

Volume Two
Soft Machine-Volume Two-Cover.jpg
International cover
Studio album by
The Soft Machine
ReleasedSeptember 1969 [1]
RecordedFebruary–March 1969 at Olympic Studios, London
Genre Canterbury scene, [2] Progressive rock, [2] jazz rock [2]
Length33:20
Label Probe SPB 1002 (UK); CPLP-4505 (US)
Producer The Soft Machine
The Soft Machine chronology
The Soft Machine
(1968)		Volume Two
(1969)		 Third
(1970)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]

Volume Two is the second album by The Soft Machine (although it was their debut in home country of the UK), released in 1969. The album combined humour, dada, psychedelia and jazz. In 2000 it was voted number 715 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums . [4]

Contents

Overview

The Soft Machine had split up in September 1968 but reunited that December without bassist/singer Kevin Ayers in order to fulfill contractual obligations. Their road manager Hugh Hopper took Ayers' place on bass and a second album (the first released in their home country UK) was recorded in early 1969. The group's sound had been radically altered from the first album, pushing much further in a complex prog and jazz-fusion direction with Hugh's brother Brian Hopper guesting on soprano and tenor saxophones. Multi-sectional suites like "Rivmic Melodies" and "Esther's Nose Job" rely on complex time signatures, Dadaist humour, short spoken word interludes, and Wyatt's idiosyncratic vocals which were often put through heavy echo delay. By contrast, "Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening" is a brief melodic tune performed with an acoustic guitar.

In the lyrics to "Have You Ever Bean Green?" Soft Machine thank the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with whom they had toured through the United States in the spring of 1968; as Hendrix's opening band they were exposed to large crowds for the first time. The title of the song is a play on the chorus lyric in the Hendrix song "Are You Experienced?", "Have you ever been experienced?". Wyatt thanks "Brian" (Brian Hopper) and "George" (engineer George Chkiantz) in the next section, Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2, which also includes a quote of "These Foolish Things". The title of the closing suite, "Esther's Nose Job", is derived from a chapter in Thomas Pynchon's novel V. After guesting on the album, Brian Hopper joined Soft Machine as a fourth member for a few months later in 1969.

Melody Maker gave the album a strong review upon release, calling it "little short of brilliant for much of its length", noting that "they are capable of handling a 7/4 time signature so well that you don't notice it's 7/4". [1] A feature for Record Mirror noted that the band's influences ranged from Ornette Coleman, Don Ellis, Hindemith and Bartok along with electronic sounds. Mike Ratledge stated "we're aiming for more complicated ideas whereby the structure changes throughout a piece". [5]

The outer sleeve featured an abstract collage of a girl with electronic wires and reels in place of a torso. The US version of the album featured a gatefold with expanded liner notes and a B&W photo of the group, whereas the UK version dispensed with the gatefold and featured a different B&W photo on the rear. A passage in the US liner notes (uncredited) states "There is music for the body and music for the mind...The Soft Machine plays music for the mind."

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Rivmic Melodies" – 17:07
    1. "Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 1" (Robert Wyatt) – 1:00
    2. "A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 1" (Hugh Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:10
    3. "Hibou, Anemone and Bear" (Mike Ratledge, Wyatt) – 5:58
    4. "A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 2" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:12
    5. "Hulloder" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:52
    6. "Dada Was Here" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 3:25
    7. "Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 0:47
    8. "Have You Ever Bean Green?" (Hopper, arr. Wyatt) – 1:23
    9. "Pataphysical Introduction – Pt. 2" (Wyatt) – 0:50
    10. "Out of Tunes" (Ratledge, Hopper, Wyatt) – 2:30

Side 2

  1. "Esther's Nose Job" – 16:13
    1. "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" (Ratledge, Wyatt) – 2:30
    2. "Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening" (Hopper) – 2:30
    3. "Fire Engine Passing with Bells Clanging" (Ratledge) – 1:50
    4. "Pig" (Ratledge) – 2:08
    5. "Orange Skin Food" (Ratledge) – 1:52
    6. "A Door Opens and Closes" (Ratledge) – 1:09
    7. "10:30 Returns to the Bedroom" (Ratledge, Hopper, Wyatt) – 4:14

Personnel

Soft Machine
Additional personnel

Charts

Chart (1969)Peak

position

Dutch Album Top 100 2 [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soft Machine</span> British rock band

Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive and jazz rock, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Ayers</span> English singer-songwriter (1944–2013)

Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Wyatt</span> English musician (born 1945)

Robert Wyatt is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a 40-year solo career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Jenkins</span> Welsh musician and composer (born 1944)

Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins,, HonFLSW is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus", Palladio (1995), The Armed Man (2000), his Requiem (2005) and his Stabat Mater (2008).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Hopper</span> Musical artist

Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.

<i>Third</i> (Soft Machine album) 1970 studio album by Soft Machine

Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elton Dean</span> English jazz musician

Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in Soft Machine, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wilde Flowers</span> British rock band

The Wilde Flowers were an English psychedelic rock band from Canterbury, Kent. Formed in 1964, the group originally featured lead vocalist Kevin Ayers, lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist Brian Hopper, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Richard Sinclair, bassist Hugh Hopper and drummer Robert Wyatt. Despite not releasing any material during their brief three-year tenure, the band are generally considered to be the originators of the Canterbury scene. After their breakup in 1969, the group's members went on to form numerous key bands within the scene, including Soft Machine, Caravan and Camel.

<i>The Soft Machine</i> (Soft Machine album) 1968 studio album by The Soft Machine

The Soft Machine is the debut album by the British psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, released in 1968. It is the group's only album to feature Kevin Ayers as a member.

<i>Fourth</i> (album) 1971 studio album by Soft Machine

Fourth is the fourth studio album by the rock band Soft Machine, released in 1971. The album is also titled Four or 4 in the USA.

<i>The End of an Ear</i> 1970 studio album by Robert Wyatt

The End of an Ear is the debut solo album by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt.

<i>Seven</i> (Soft Machine album) 1973 studio album by Soft Machine

Seven is the seventh studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1973. Bassist Roy Babbington, who had previously worked with the band as a session musician on the Fourth (1971) and Fifth (1972) albums, joined the band as a full-time member, replacing Hugh Hopper, who left to begin a solo career. This line-up change meant more than half of Soft Machine was now former members of the band Nucleus.

<i>Fifth</i> (Soft Machine album) 1972 studio album by Soft Machine

Fifth, is the fifth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1972. In the US the album was identified on cover and label by number (5).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Ratledge</span> British keyboardist and flutist (born 1943)

Michael Roland Ratledge is a British musician. A part of the Canterbury scene, he was a founding member of Soft Machine. He was the last founding member to leave the group, doing so in 1976.

<i>Joy of a Toy</i> 1969 studio album by Kevin Ayers

Joy of a Toy is the debut solo album of Kevin Ayers, a founding member of Soft Machine. He is accompanied on the LP by pianist and arranger David Bedford as well as his erstwhile Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge, and his eventual replacement Hugh Hopper, who had previously worked with him in the semi-pro band Wilde Flowers. Among the session musicians are cellist and arranger Paul Buckmaster, jazz bassist Jeff Clyne, oboist Paul Minns and drummer Rob Tait.

Phil Howard is an Australian jazz drummer best known for his brief stint with the jazz-rock group Soft Machine. Howard arrived in London from his native Australia in 1969, joining the band Caparius led by saxophonist Clive Stevens, alongside guitarist Peter Martin and bassist Neville Whitehead. The band's final line-up, in 1971, replaced Martin with future Isotope guitarist/leader Gary Boyle and pianist Dave MacRae.

<i>68</i> (album) 2013 compilation album by Robert Wyatt

'68 is a compilation album by Robert Wyatt. It is composed of previously unreleased demos Wyatt recorded in 1968 at the end of a tour Soft Machine did with the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the United States. It was released by Cuneiform Records in 2013.

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. Having known numerous line-ups, the band currently consists of John Etheridge (guitar), Theo Travis, Fred Baker (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums).

The discography of Robert Wyatt, a retired English musician, consists of eight solo studio albums, six archival/collaborations albums, ten compilation albums, two boxed sets, nine EPs and 15 singles. He has also appeared as a guest musician on a large number of albums by other artists.

References

  1. 1 2 "Album Reviews" (PDF). Melody Maker. 25 October 1969. p. 29. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kurtz, Peter. "The Soft Machine - Volume Two (1969) album review, credits & releases | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0857125958.
  4. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 229. ISBN   0-7535-0493-6.
  5. ↑ "Soft Machine: Looking For More Complicated Musical Ideas" (PDF). Record Mirro. 25 October 1969. p. 10. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  6. ↑ "Hugh Hopper - 1962-1972". Hulloder.nl. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  7. ↑ "Soft Machine". DUTCH CHARTS (in Dutch). 2 August 1969. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.