(2019) Soft Machine - The Harvest Albums (1975-1978)





Review:

Re-mastered 3CD box set featuring all three Soft Machine albums released on the Harvest label between 1975 and 1978: Bundles (1975), Softs (1976) and Alive and Well: Recorded in Paris (1978). After recording five highly acclaimed albums for the CBS Records label, Soft Machine signed a licencing deal with EMI’s “Progressive” imprint, Harvest Records in 1974 and would record two further studio albums and a live album for the label over the next three years. Bundles was the band’s first for Harvest and featured a line-up of Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Karl Jenkins (oboe, piano, soprano sax), John Marshall (drums), Roy Babbington (bass) and Allan Holdsworth (guitar). An accessible collection, Bundles featured Holdsworth’s considerable guitar playing talents and opened a new chapter for the band, and attracted much praise upon release. By the time Softs was recorded, Allan Holdsworth had departed the group. The album would feature Karl Jenkins (keyboards), John Marshall (drums), Roy Babbington (bass) and new member John Etheridge (guitar), along with saxophonist Alan Wakeman. The album also saw the final appearance on a Soft Machine album by Mike Ratledge whose synthesiser contributed to the pieces ‘Ban-Ban Caliban’ and ‘Song of Aeolus’. Soft Machine’s final album for Harvest was the classic 1978 live record “Alive & Well Recorded in Paris”. The band’s line-up had changed once more by this point and comprised Karl Jenkins (Piano, Electric Keyboards, Synthesiser), John Marshall (Drums), John Etheridge (Acoustic and Electric Guitars) and new members Steve Cook (Bass Guitar) and Ric Sanders (Violin). The album was the result of several nights of excellent concerts staged at Le Palace Theatre in Monmartre, Paris in July 1977.











Tracklist:



CD1





CD2





CD3









Media Report:

Genre: jazz, prog-rock

Source: CD

Format: FLAC

Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM

Bit rate mode: Variable

Channel(s): 2 channels

Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz

Bit depth: 16 bits