Third

Soft Machine's Third album represents a significant shift from previous efforts. Their stream of consciousness songwriting had now given way to straight-out instrumental fusion. The album presents four compositions, each spanning one album side-adding to the confusion as to whether the Softs were still a rock band. The change was so intense within the group that the only vocal track, Robert Wyatt's superb "Moon in June," was recorded (the first section anyway) without participation from any other member. The change was precipitated by the arrival of a four-piece brass section, led by saxophonist Elton Dean, in late 1969. This short-lived septet was a monster, just witness live recordings of Hugh Hopper's opener "Facelift." But by the time the Softs got around to recording the album, only Dean and saxophonist Lyn Dobson remained. The version here was recorded live in January by the quintet. Mike Ratledge's "Slightly all the Time" suffers from languor and foreshadows the direction he would take the band; but his redemption comes just two sides later, in the quasi-electronic "Out-Bloody-Rageous." The album remains a landmark recording of British jazz-rock and even managed to bring the Softs onto the UK charts, resting at No. 18. Without Dobson, the quartet would soldier through one final album, Fourth, before Wyatt quit. Then, under Ratledge's exclusive direction, Soft Machine would continue in the direction of instrumental jazz-rock. In this iteration, they recorded several albums-some distinguished, some not-but all worthy of a listen. By mid-decade, however, the band would be hijacked by ex-Nucleus bandmates and contain no original members.