THE SOFT MACHINE

What a brilliant debut.

This is a perfect blend of early Canterbury sound and psychedelia. All tracks are short, but I prefer to call them brief instead. There is nothing too protracted here; this is a perfect amount of soloing and well-developed main ideas. Basically, there's no boring or weak moments. The sound is quite muddy, production is far from perfect, but in a way, that suits music fine. Fuzzy organ and bass are spread all over the place, from short odd-time-signature experiments "Box 25/4 Lid" to downtempo almost-ballad-like type songs ( "A Certain Kind"), to three-minute repetitive trance in "We Did It Again".

"Why Are We Sleeping" is a highlight, with simple structured organ chords, excellent lyrics and frenetic solo. Now wait...I just described any song on this album. They're all really good. Nice humour, experiments with vocals, overall warmth...but "Why Are We Sleeping" is my favourite, although it's hard to define why. Maybe because lyrics are sending shiver down the spine. Maybe because chorus is so suggestive.

SOFT MACHINE will never repeat the power, freshness and imagination of the first album. Second album equally good, but it's mellower, the rest of the albums are without humour, and after that...that's a completely different story.

This album is a must for any serious progressive rock collection.

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