THIRD

This is where the Soft Machine found their voice. And it happened by getting rid of the vocals. Sure, there is one song where Robert Wyatt gets to sing, but it's the instrumentals that really shine on this album.

The album is made up of four album-side long tracks. Three of the four are excellent works of jazz/rock fusion. The other, Moon In June, is performed mostly by Wyatt. It's not bad, but doesn't compare to the other three songs.

Facelift, spliced together from two different live performance, opens with some spacy psychedelic noises. At this point, the novice listener is unaware that the album will soon morph into a great work of fusion, powered by Mike Ratledge's keyboards and Elton Dean's sax.

Slightly All The Time sounds great as well. I especially like how trombonist Nick Evans wails away during his solo. Out-Bloody-Rageous is my favorite on the album, with some sections of backward organ passages. Some of the sections don't quite fit together, but that doesn't spoil the enjoyment.