By 1976, Soft Machine - as one may have known them - were no more. Mike Ratledge was still hanging around but wasn't very involved. By this time you essentially had Nucleus calling themselves Soft Machine. And musically that holds true too. Soft Machine had gone from psych to prog (or Canterbury if you will) to jazz to jazz rock and now onto fusion. As with all the best albums in the latter genre, Softs gets a gold star due to the melodic songwriting versus any kind of showoffy chops display. The album is frontloaded with the best tracks like 'The Tale of Taliesin' and 'Ban-Ban Caliban'. John Etheridge's guitar is the highlight of the instrumental roster. I have friends that never cared much for Soft Machine, but like this album since it intersects with their interest in all things jazz fusion.
Ownership: CD: 1990 See For Miles. Jewel case with four pages of history.
7//04 (first listen); 9/26/22 (review / new entry)
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