The Soft Machine Rigmarole

  Soft Machine/Matching Mole. 1972 Matching Mole’s debut album was recorded between the months of December and February of 1972. Between sessions, the band would often play live as a form of practice and rehearsal. It was common for hosts to introduce them as “a continuation of Soft Machine”, much to the initial disgruntlement of the band. “At the time, it was very frustrating. We understood how we were seen that way, given me and Ayers were the last remaining members of the band when we officially ‘broke up’... But I think it was Kevin, who told me one day that he remembered what Mike told him, about ‘Soft Machine being our band’. And eventually, we just embraced it and officially became the continuation of Soft Machine, a Soft Machine Mark II if you will.” Robert Wyatt, 2014​ Most songs on Soft Machine’s fifth album, Matching Mole , were written by Robert Wyatt, with Kevin Ayers contributing two of the songs, Margaret and the centerpiece Whatevershebringswesing , Dave Sinclair c...

  Tanglewood Tails, 1971 Tanglewood Tails formed in late 1970 by former three former Soft Machine members: Mike Ratledge on keyboards, Hugh Hopper on bass, and Elton Dean on saxophone. The band was named after a piece performed by Robert Wyatt and the Hopper brothers in 1963. Due to them initially not finding an available drummer that suited their needs, Soft Machine member Robert Wyatt temporarily took up drum duties. “I was mainly brought onto the band as a sort of placeholder, and I was on a good majority of the tracks, except for stuff like Grides and Blind Badger.” Robert Wyatt, 1997 The album also included a song recorded during Soft Machine’s Fourth sessions that was ultimately left out from that album, Out-Bloody-Rageous . During recording sessions, the band also held auditions for a new drummer. At the end of the auditions, Australian drummer Phil Howard was hired as the band’s permanent drummer, with Wyatt giving his approval of Howard before leaving. The album was releas...

Soft Machine, minus Kevin Ayers, 1970 In early 1970, keyboardist David Bedford recruited the help of Soft Machine (who had dropped the proper article from their name beforehand) to record a piece based on the William Blake poem The Garden of Love. The recording was entirely live, recorded in a single take, and it featured saxophone player Lol Coxhill and guitarist Mike Oldfield, leading to a 8-man lineup, along with a group of “six beautiful girls”. Album Cover for the 1996 release of Spaced - C uneiform Records In April 1970, the band were commissioned by the BBC to write and perform a set of pieces meant to be the soundtrack for the Apollo 13 lunar landing. However due to that mission’s failure, the pieces went unreleased until 1996, under the name Spaced. Following that, the band would spend time recording their next album. The sessions, however, were fraught with tension, in particular between Mike Ratledge and Kevin Ayers. "I think with the addition of Elton and all them, S...

The Soft Machine, 1969​  "On the first tour I was completely drunk with the whole thing; I'd never seen anything like it in my life! Girls lining up outside the door, free drink everywhere - so I was drunk every night, with enormous quantities of girls at my disposal. By the second tour, I had changed completely... I went on a very strict macrobiotic diet and I didn't go out partying. I became alienated from everything that was going on around me - because of the violence and extremity of it. At its worst, it was literally plane, hotel, gig, hotel, plane, hotel, gig and so on. Mike Ratledge and I would just stay in... He would read books, while I used to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. At the end of 1968 I could barely take it anymore." Kevin Ayers, 1987 With their 1968 tour slowly wrapping up, the band takes some time off from each other. Wyatt stayed in the US to record solo demos, Ratledge and Hopper returned to London and began composing new songs, and ...

       The Soft Machine with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968      After the leave of Daevid Allen, The Soft Machine continued forth onto the next year as a trio. Sharing the same management as Jimi Hendrix, the band opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience during their North American tour in 1968. At the end of the first leg of the tour, in April, the band recorded their second album, produced by former bassist of The Animals: Chas Chandler and noted producer Tom Wilson at the Record Plant Studios in New York City. “I think it took about a week to record the album, which is pretty quick in terms of album making. I personally felt the album represented our sound a bit better than our debut, but that’s just me talking.” Robert Wyatt, 2016​ Joy of a Toy                                        Front Cover         ...