THE SOFT MACHINE

One might say anything negative about Robert Wyatt: one thing remains sure: he was an outstanding drummer: he definitely proves it here, offering a VERY impressive exhibition of complex, fast, jazzy, structured and varied drums patterns: he sounds like he could drive an entire orchestra, like the legendary American jazz drummers long time ago: he is so talented that he sounds like he makes more than 50% of the music. His vocals are good, being original and excentric too, as usual: however, his voice does not take too much room, so that the other instruments can be fully appreciated. The omnipresent electric organ is very psychedelic and often experimental: its melodies contribute to give a slight Canterburian character to the music. The EXCELLENT elastic bass really has a powerful bottom & smooth sound. The album does not have a hard rock dimension, since there is no electric guitar involved. To produce such an album in 1968 is impressive: this record must be seen by many as a major & memorable one in the prog music history: this album must be appreciated firstly for the rhythmic section, i.e. the drums & bass, since it constitutes the major part of the music.