ARCHIVE
SOFT MACHINE
Facelift France And Holland
CUNEIFORM
6/10
2CD and DVD documenting a previously unreleased tour of the Continent
From their very earliest incarnation, Soft Machine were always popular on the Continent, and this album has uncovered two gigs in front of enthusiastic audiences from early 1970 during an extended tour of France and the Netherlands. The recording quality is variable – lurching, even mid-track, from the bright and well defined to the dull and muffled – but the tapes do capture a short-lived quintet, where the core trio of Robert Wyatt (drums), Hugh Hopper (bass) and Mike Ratledge (keyboards) were joined by multireedists Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson. The latter is a star of the 18-minute “Facelift”, playing tenor, soprano, flute and even an amped-up harmonica, set against Dean’s FX-laden alto and Ratledge’s Lowrey organ (so distorted that he sounds like a heavy metal guitarist). Other highlights include “Esther’s Nose Job”, where a slightly arid fusion workout is interrupted by Wyatt harmonising over an echo of his own voice, like a curious fusion of Brian May and Cleo Laine.