Seven

Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4571191050748
ASIN: B0006TPHZI

Release Date: 2005-03-08

Seven

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Customer Reviews:

A great album of spacey jazz rock with some experimental tendencies.......2006-10-13

This 1973 album would be the last by the band for a few years (until Bundles, which was released in 1975). On the whole, I think that this is a fantastic jazz rock effort from the band and although it is not as "out there" as Third, this album is still very interesting. Soft Machine always had a unique take on jazz rock and fused elements of minimalism with some great instrumentals. This combination is still very much present on Seven - in short, there is plenty here for the Soft Machine fan to enjoy.

The lineup at this point included Mike Ratledge (organ, synthesizers (mostly moog I think); John Marshall (drums and percussion); Roy Babbington (electric and acoustic bass); and Karl Jenkins (oboe, baritone and soprano saxophones; recorder; and electric piano). All of the musicians are excellent and the rhythm section of Babbington and Marshall is formidable - these guys can play fairly well. In fact, Roy's bowed acoustic bass solo on Down the Road is well played and very creative (it does not sound like a bass actually). One addition that I especially appreciate is the use of synthesizers - in Mike's hands they are used very tastefully and add a lot to the overall sound along with his trademark distorted organ tone.

The music on this album runs the gamut from very spacey and dreamy passages to vigorous jazz rock instrumentals that feature a heavy ostinato played in unison on the bass and the synthesizers. Typically, Karl solos over these sections. Some of my favorite tracks however, include the spacier and more experimental pieces such as the percussion heavy and psychedelic D.I.S (written by John Marshall) and Karl Jenkin's Carol Ann, which features some haunting sax playing and eerie synthesizer parts. Mike Ratledge's minimalist tendencies are still felt here and there and he develops some very nice hypnotic ostinatos on the organ (Penny Hitch is a great example of this). Many of the spacier sections are used to link several tracks together into mini-suites of sorts. It works very well.

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