AFTER founder member Daevid Allen left the psychedelic band, The Soft Machine, they shifted direction and by 1970, the nucleus of Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper (joined by Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson) had become a jazz-rock-fusion band.
Whilst an integral part of the underground scene in the UK, they were very big in France, and on March 2nd 1970, they recorded this concert for the French music programme Pop 2'. To fit it into their format it was broadcast in two parts.
This rare footage has only just been rediscovered and is in remarkable condition.
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Nobody has managed to better them in this genre and that fact is evident in this concert. Wyatt's unusual echoplexed and scat vocals are sparingly used, but the instrumental passages scream the question - why weren't Soft Machine a bigger name in music?
Perhaps their eclecticism was their downfall, Tracks such as Eamonn Andrews', Esther's Nosejob' and Out-Bloody-Rageous' are jazz-rock at its' most extreme and Facelift' is quite accessible.
Not for the faint-hearted, but is a rare insight into a unique band.
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Kat Dibbits
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