BUNDLES

Really dislike the choice to continue making albums under the name Soft Machine despite losing so many key members responsible for a lot of what made the band legendary. Plus the Nucleus members are literally 4/5 this band and the music sounds like a Nucleus album rather then a Soft Machine album. Like I get that Nucleus existed at this point in time so they couldn't go by that either but a new name would have been more respectable as this is not Soft Machine but the rejects of Nucleus cashing in on another bands good name.

Opening up Bundles is the 20 minute suite, Hazard Profile. The first ten minutes are high energy funky piece of music that reminds me so much of Song For The Bearded Lady. The next three movements are quite short and quiet focusing largely on solo guitar or piano. The final section is a return to the high octane opening and ends after six minutes. This track is solid, definitely the albums highlight for me but I find it far to long. I think condensed into a ten minute piece would make the track significantly, particularly trimming the fusion jams and leaving the solo piano parts.

The next few track are relatively short songs that sound like leftovers from Hazard Profile. No real character or memorability for me, real filler material.

Breaking up the monotony are Bundles last two tracks. Four Gongs Two Drums is a drum only piece that's oddly enough the most Soft Machine sounding song to me. Finally, the closer, Floating World is seven minutes long and very chill. Reading other reviews I was expecting this to be very bad ambient fare but it's a bit more. I would not call this ambient, it's more pastoral but I think this is due to the lack of percussion. Aside from this there is definitely a lot of music occurring. It reminds me of Jade Warriors Islands period and is a solid ending for Bundles.

Overall this a fine album of Jazz Fusion without any Canterbury Scene touches. I don't think I'll review the other Nucleus 2.0 albums, one review for me is enough as it captures my opinion on them as a whole.

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