Fourth - SOFT MACHINE***

Teeth/Kings & Queens/Fletcher's Blemish/Virtually Part 1/Virtually Part 2/Virtually Part 3/Virtually Part 4

For their fourth album release Soft Machine move decisively away from their progressive origins to embrace a jazz fusion style. This would result in a significant reduction in their commercial appeal. (UK:32)

“I am pretty bored by the end of this. No standout compositions and the playing is generally pretty lethargic compared to the earlier efforts.”

“Fourth is a complete jazz fusion record from start to finish. Some Canterbury scene influences can be heard though. Most of the time they sound great but there are some points where they feel a bit empty. However this is still an enjoyable totality.”

“Much lesser than the fantastic and innovative previous works. What is on offer here is pretentious and boring tacky imitations of free jazz and a blatant lack of melody.” “Musically speaking, the tracks lie on a continuum from a slightly more jazzy take on the fusion sound of Third, to an approach which takes on so much of jazz, and incorporates so little rock, that it's no longer really fusion, just jazz.”

“As their sound continues its headlong shift towards total jazz, it continues to lose my interest. Not that I don't appreciate progressive jazz, but for some reason this just doesn't excite me. Perhaps I'm just disappointed they didn't pursue progressive rock further, as they were one of the best of the genre early on. It was clearly obvious by this time that Soft Machine had changed for good.”

“Fourth marked the period where Soft Machine made the complete change into straight up jazz, moving completely away from progressive rock elements. Imagine a hard rock or heavy metal band that, instead of using an electric guitar, uses a saxophone and just rips your speakers apart with a distinct style of intensity and an ability to make it melodic. That's what Fourth is like, and why it's so unique.”

“This is fantastic jazz, the Softs really had little to do with rock by this point. And it is early 70s fusion at its finest. The electric pianos let you know it is from this era. But unlike some early jazz-rock over-indulgence, Soft Machine stuck with clean sounds and structures, using simple lines to open space for improvisation.”