Third - SOFT MACHINE***

Facelift/Slightly All The Time/Moon In June/Out-Bloody-Rageous

Third sees the one time psychedelic band Soft Machine move firmly into avantgarde territory. Although their most commercially successful release many punters may find this a difficult listen. (UK:18)

"It took 40 years to get to my ears because it is bad. Did you ever hear of noodling? I hate noodling. Noodling is what happens when rock musicians try to stretch out and play jazz. Its like free form Spinal Tap after Nigel was kicked out of the band. Endless, pointless, noodling."

"So intent were Soft Machine to evolve at the speed of light into new musical territory that, in only a few short years since they started as a psychedelic pop band, by the time they got to their third album they practically abandoned all that had come before. Diving head first into the world of free jazz and avant-garde psychedelia only titbits of rock were still to be found throughout this sprawling and ambitious undertaking."

"Something obviously happened between the making of Soft Machine's 2nd and 3rd albums to bring about the unfortunate shift from Volume Two's playful psychedelia to the turgid fusion of Third. It augured well for something highly ambitious but I'm not sure if it really succeeded. This is an album devoid of any serious composition, and which relies on its strangeness to beguile the listener. At its best it can be quite fascinating, but as a follow-up to the magnificent Volume Two, it's a terrible disappointment."

"Their third studio album is my favourite in Soft Machine's discography. Third will most likely please the fans of jazz oriented progressive rock but I'm not so sure if the fans of their early material like it as much. This group started as a psych band but over the years their style changed. You won't find anything psychedelic here because this time jazz has taken over Soft Machine's sound completely."

"I'm a psych rock fan myself but I also like jazz a lot and in my opinion Soft Machine made the right choice by leaning more towards jazzy material. The instrumental work is superb. Basically this double album is just long instrumental jamming from start to finish. Even if the jazz fusion/prog style is the dominating genre, there are still some experimental influences as well. While these four songs are just great I still think this record is a bit too long."