Album title: Fourth
Artist: Soft Machine
Nationality: English
Label: CBS/Columbia
Chronology: Duh, fourth
Grade: B
Tracklisting: Teeth/ Kings and Queens/ Fletcher’s Blemish/ Virtually Part 1 - 4
Comments: Never a good sign when the genre tags read jazz, free jazz, but Soft machine being one of the big names in the Canterbury Scene we are constrained to give it a listen. This was their first fully instrumental album, and almost immediately we have that jazzy jam that so annoys me, full of rolling drums and howling horns. Some organ in there too, but no guitar anywhere on the album. Damned jazz.
I guess one thing I can take with jazz is the piano, and there’s some nice ivory-tinkling here from Mike Rathledge, though mostly it’s very much brass-driven. Not my thing at all. This will already be getting a low Personal Rating score from me.
Christ! This is nine minutes long! At least it’s the longest by far on the album, so I won't have to deal with this sort of length anywhere else on this record. I’m sure it’s great for those who are into this sort of thing, but it does nothing for me and it doesn’t sound like progressive rock at all. I probably should have avoided this one. Oh well. Only six more tracks to go. Help! “Kings and Queens” is a little more sedate, though it doesn’t take long for the horns to stick their noses in. At least they’re more restrained here, and the melody seems to ride on a bass/double-bass line in a far slower tempo. That was actually quite relaxing. Violin-like screeches and - what are they? Oh yes. More horns - in “Fletcher’s Blemish”, where even the piano lets me down as Ratledge starts playing dissonant chords, boo. Just a hot mess, to me.
That leaves us with four tracks, all I guess linked as they’re called “Virtually Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4”. Part 1 opens with double-bass and oh look! I didn’t expect that! Horns! Sussurating drums from Robert Wyatt and what sounds like a guitar but isn’t, quite low-key and not very annoying at all but I fear it’s luring me into a false sense of security, ready to kick me in the head in part 2. You just wait. You’ll see. Horns rising now as if to say “we’re gonna get you!” well, sounds like someone playing an old Casio plastic keyboard or a kazoo now, as we slide into part 2, not as jarring as I had expected - yet. Still relatively restrained, so maybe there’s hope. The horns go wild but are more or less kept in check by the steady, deliberate piano line and then part 3 is where it all begins to slip a little. Expected, but still.
Squeaky sounds like someone turning a wheel that needs oil or something merge with a nice organ and maybe some sort of synth if they had them, an effect of some sort if not; again it’s a slow tempo so not too bad, quite spacey and ambient in ways and that leaves us with part 4 to close, which seems to carry the same basic theme and melody over from the previous track. Nowhere near as bad as I had feared it might be.
Favourite track(s): Yeah right
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: Couldn’t call this prog rock, but though there’s a lot of free jazz on it is it really that genre either? Quite a lot of ambient music, so not quite sure where to place it. Continues my dislike of Soft Machine though, and while it’s not the ordeal I had expected it to be, I still wouldn't be listening to it again unless I had to.
Personal Rating: 2.0 (higher than I had expected)
Legacy Rating: 3.0
Final Rating: 2.5