Six & Seven

Six & Seven Artist: The Soft Machine
Label: Edsel Records UK
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2


UPC: 740155174026
EAN: 0740155174026
ASIN: B0001HK2HS


Release Date: 2004-05-11

Six & Seven


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Tracks:

  1. Fanfare
  2. All White
  3. Between
  4. Riff
  5. 37 1/2
  6. Gesolreut
  7. E.P.V.
  8. Lefty
  9. Stumble
  10. 5 from 13
  11. Riff II
  12. Soft Weed Factor
  13. Stanley Stamps Gibbon Album
  14. Chloe and the Pirates
  15. 1983

Tracks:

  1. Nettle Bed
  2. Carol Ann
  3. Day's Eye
  4. Bone Fire
  5. Tarabos
  6. D.I.S.
  7. Snodland
  8. Penny Hitch
  9. Block
  10. Down the Road
  11. German Lesson
  12. French Lesson

Similar Items:

  1. Fourth/Fifth
  2. Virtually
  3. Third
  4. Cunning Stunts
  5. British Tour '75

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Late Soft Machine.......2005-01-30

1970-71 were turbulent years for Soft Machine with many comings and goings, notably the departure of Robert Wyatt and Elton Dean. For most people that was the end of the story and it is often forgotten that there was a distinctive late edition of the band in 72-74, featuring regulars Ratledge and Hopper joined by drummer John Marshall and multi-instrumentalist Karl Jenkins, which recorded two final albums for CBS.

"Six" was a double album - in the vogue of the time one disc live / one disc studio, all included on a single CD here. Arguably this was the most musically accomplished version of the band. The live album is one long suite, effortlessly gliding back and forth through tunes and themes (mostly drawn from "FIFTH"). It's very tight and fluid, driven by understated, shifting funk or rock rhythmic patterns. The studio album contains just four tracks. "Sot Weed Factor" and "Chloe" are developments out of the languorous style pioneered on parts of "THIRD": Terry Riley-ish loops, loping repetitive funk drum and bass, tinkling keyboards. Jenkins generally eschews jazzy improv, preferring to overlay the tracks with elegant, repetitive, extended lines on oboe or soprano.
It's an over-used word but I'd have to describe this music as "cool". It's a far cry from the hyperactive fusion music of the 70s and might even prefigure some of the ambient, trance and trip-hop of the 90s. The cool-muzak sensibility even reminds me sometimes of Air (well, Soft Machine always were big in France!). The other two studio tracks are busier, sounding like sketches for compositions and don't stand up so well.

The suspicion that the composing was in decline is confirmed on "SEVEN". Apparently recorded in a hurry and with Hopper replaced by Roy Babbington on bass, the first half relies too much on manic riff-based fusion cliché. There's also one track plagiarized wholesale from MacLaughlin's "EXTRAPOLATION". The second half reverts to the cool trancey mode which, personally, I quite like. Bizarrely Karl Jenkins is now Britain's most popular living classical composer (of the "new age" variety I believe).

This 2CD reissue is tackily packaged and has a liner note which goes on about Canterbury and swinging London and has little to do with the actual music on these albums or its context. No bonus cuts. But it is cheap and, given that "SIX" was a double album, not bad value. It usefully rounds up the late era Soft Machine and as such is recommended to fans.

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  1. Space Revolver ~ The Flower Kings
  2. Thankful ~ Kelly Clarkson
  3. I Got a Rocket in My Pocket ~ Jimmie Logsdon
  4. Nature's Assembly Line ~ Jack Logan , and Monday Night Recorders
  5. Greatest Hits Live ~ Nektar
  6. Spreading My Wings: The Ultimate Denny Laine Collection ~ Denny Laine
  7. Considering the Situation: Anthology ~ The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
  8. Until the Grinders Cease ~ Sky Cries Mary
  9. I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused ~ David Ford
  10. Time After Time: The Best of Cyndi Lauper ~ Cyndi Lauper

Music Album

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Family Album ~ Warren Bernhardt

Breath of Heaven: A Holiday Collection ~ Jr. Grover Washington

The Best of Erroll Garner: Play Piano Play ~ Erroll Garner

RCA Victor Gold Series Goes Funk ~ Various Artists

Live at the Blue Note: 75th Birthday Celebration ~ Chico & Von Freeman

The Story of Jazz ~ George Shearing

Marie V.4 ~ Marie

As 7 Melhores Jovem Pan 2005 ~ Various Artists

Wings of Time ~ Takashi Numazawa

The Shores of Lillisand ~ Steve Schuch and the Night Heron Consort