Soft Machine - 4th & 5th
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CD Details
Artist: Soft MachineEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Import
Published: 1999
CD Release Date: 1999-03-29
Music Label: Columbia Europe
Soundtracks:
- Teeth
- Kings And Queens
- Fletcher's Blemish
- Virtuality Part 1
- Virtuality Part 2
- Virtuality Part 3
- Virtuality Part 4
- All White
- Drop
- M C
- As If
- LBO
- Pigling Bland
- Bone
Music reviews of 4th & 5th
Music Review: A band losing all its touch in one swoop
Rating: 1 Stars
On their first three albums, the Soft Machine were one of the real gems of the psychedelic and then progressive rock scene. Whereas far too many psychedelic bands tried to make it with vocalists who were quite unsuited to the sounds which they were aiming to make, and many progressive bands could never play in such a manner as to attract attention, the Soft Machine never fell prey to any of those problems. Their music always had a deep feeling to it, and the vocals of Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers were always truly touching and at times even funny.
On Third, the band with a new lineup changed tack completely but to no less effect on three of the sides. In doing so, they provided part of the blueprint for such movements as the 1990s post-rock sound, with fierce bass work and the unique saxophone playing of Elton Dean.
However, on the second side, "Slightly All the Time", there was some suggestion that the Soft Machine could lose the plot - and on "Fourth" and "Fifth" it is no understatement to say that they did so in a more dramatic manner than could ever have been imagined. Gone is the touching drumming of Wyatt and the intense bass lines that carried so much of "Third" and in their place are sounds that could have come from almost any jazz-rock band and have utterly no emotional impact, let alone the capacity to make a listener want to listen repeatedly. Elton Dean's saxophone work is even more prominent than it was on "Slightly All the Time", but lacks the balance Hugh Hopper's fierce bass playing provided so wonderfully on "Facelift" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous".
Worse still is how the music on "Fourth" and "Fifth" seems to drift through a listener as if it were the worst kind of elevator music played with very little interruption. The saxophone sound is also so typical of the worst kind of 1970s jazz-rock as to be distinctly dated.
All up, this is a case of a band seemingly losing everything in one step, just as Third Ear Band did around the same time with the MacBeth soundtrack. Stick with their first three albums.
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Description of 4th & 5th
Digitally remastered reissue with their 1971 & 1972 albums, respectively, together on one CD. A combined total of 14 tracks. Also features the original cover art. 1999 release.Classic Rock CDs
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