SEVEN

Seven is a very organic record and is my favourite Soft Machine record of this period. There are no oustanding tracks, but all tracks flow nicely one in another and you have to listen to it as a whole and let you transport by the athmosphere. 'Flow' is the word that desribes the record best, a steady flowing groove with a special mention for Babbington and Marshall, a perfect rhythm section for the double keyboard work of Jenkins and Ratledge and the horn arrangements. In a way 'Seven' represents the revers movement to the beginning of Soft Machine : 'One' and 'Two' were more pop oriented and gave place to a jazzier orientation in 'Three' ,'Seven' is the climax of an orientation, based on composition, which was started with 'Six'. The departure of Elton Dean and the arrival of Karl Jenkins, a classical trained musician and composer who had already played together with Babbington and Marshall in Nucleus, changed the group from a freeblowing outfit to a more composition oriented outfit. Roy Babbington, who has already helped out on 'Four' and 'Five' fits perfectly into the group. While Hugh Hopper is more a root oriented Bass player, Roy Babbington plays the bass as an melody instrument like Steve Swallow and Scott La Faro. His bass playing on 'Seven' works in a counterpoint fashion with the double Keyboard play and the horn arrangements.My favourite passage is 'Carol Ann/Day's eye' a nice transition from a moody Jenkins Composition to a bouncy Ratledge composition.