SWITZERLAND 1974

This archival live release from Soft Machine captures their Montreux performance from 1974, which unfolded in same month as the studio sessions for Bundles. That means this is one of the earliest live documents of Allan Holdsworth's brief but transformative stint in the band, and it's clear that his arrival has already provided a new dimension to the group's sound, bringing in guitar when they'd never been a guitar band previously.

Much of the material here comes from Bundles, with only a few compositions from the Fifth to Seven period rounding out the set, and Holdsworth's guitar work is given centre stage, the group perhaps realising the necessity of selling the world on a version of the group which had electric guitar as prominent as it was from Bundles onwards. The end result is a pretty solid live release, provided you dig what the band were doing on Bundles, their sole Holdsworth-era album.