Continuing on with my late 60s psychedelic rock general trend from the past few weeks, tonight I’m checking out this album by Soft Machine, a band I don’t think I had ever heard of until adding this album to my queue. It turns out that Soft Machine is a psychedelic rock band from Canterbury, England, which never received huge commercial success, yet still became hugely influential in the underground rock scene, according to Wikipedia. This particular album is their debut album, but the group has released a number of different albums with different incarnations of members throughout the next decades, mostly in the 1970s, though they did release a jazz rock fusion album in 2018, their first studio album in decades. I’m pretty excited to give this one a listen, so I’m going to go ahead and jump on into the music.
“Hope for Happiness” starts out in a super interesting manner with the arrangement and performance of the vocals all around the soundscape. There’s a vague raga feel to it, and definitely has a great psychedelic sound to it. Wow, I’m really digging this one right now. I’m reminded a lot of the Gong album I listened to a little while ago with the near experimental approach to the structure. Oh wow, the bass gently comes in and brings the other instrumentation with it, which all produces a strange cacophony of different melodies that all seem to have a counterpoint with the next. Oh wow, the electric guitar comes in and has almost a waltz-like stepping feel to the rhythm of the melody. I’m pretty stoked by this introductory song to this album. The discordant outro really sets a tone for what could come.
Oh wow, the seamless intro to “Joy of a Toy” has a really relaxing feeling coming off the tail of the tri-tones of the outro of the previous song. The guitar really feels like it’s gradually melting and stirring the song, while the drums gently echo through the soundscape and keep the rhythm. It’s something like The Doors meets Gong in terms of sound. There’s definitely a bit of raga influence in the guitar work, not dissimilar to Robby Krieger of The Doors’ playing style, while keeping a really spacey psychedelic soundscape to perpetuate the feeling from the playing. Oh wow, this outro is really discordant again.
“Hope for Happiness (Reprise)” segues right into things off that discordant outro, falling right back into that strange chorus from the intro track to the album. Oh wow, the playing from the keyboards and drums feel like they’re sucking everything together towards the bass line. Definitely an interesting tune with a super flavorful last note.
“Why Am I So Short?” has a feeling like it’s taking you up a hill of a roller coaster, while you look around at the ride to come. This is definitely one groovy little tune. Wow, those melting space-like keys are absolutely awesome.
“So Boot If At All” segues into things right off the tails of the previous track. The keyboards really get super far out while the drums and bass keep things from leaving this universe altogether. Honestly, it might even be the guitar I’m listening to – but the effects are super sweet. It’s sort of like a song that’s unraveling everything and immediately rebuilding afterwards. The drums keep shifting around the soundscape, really making it feel like the band is whirring around in circles around you. The playing gets quite low and tense, as if there’s some sort of plateau on the proverbial musical roller coaster that you’re on before the way back to the start. With that said, a plateau might not be the best way to describe the sound, as it still feels like I’m being driven further up the hill at a steady pace. Now there’s simply a drum solo whizzing around the soundscape, making it near impossible to keep track of any thought until the pace picks up and the whirring around the soundscape produces an almost constant sound on all sides (from the drums). Oh wow, now there are some chimes that sound like they’re from an ice cream truck. I can imagine how this band would have been influential in the early days of progressive rock – this is sweet. Wow, I’m not even sure what instruments are being played, but it’s both eerie and comforting at the same time. Meanwhile, the drums are still continuing on, creating a nice platform for the song to perform on. Oh wow, the vocals come back on so unexpectedly, with a lot of tension built still, but they’re really sweet when they do.
Oh wow, “A Certain Kind” has an almost church-like gospel pleading feeling from the keyboards and vocals. I really dig the sound of the vocals – it’s almost like a serenading Van Morrison steeped in psychedelic blues. This song is really sweet – this one is like the top of the roller coaster, or at least another plateau, preparing you for the rest of the ride. I’m not sure if what I’m hearing is a flute or something similar, but it’s super serene. The drums continue to build the tension, and the bass slowly comes back in at a faster and faster pace, making it sound like the song is coming to a roaring finish at any moment.
“Save Yourself” has a super great psychedelic rock feeling at the beginning, verging on acid rock. Honestly it reminds me a fair deal of Iron Butterfly. I really dig the drums with how they keep jamming on, and continuing the momentous feeling built up through the rest of the tunes on the album. The vocals definitely have a really nice psychedelic arrangement throughout the soundscape. The organs even have a little distortion, it seems; super flavorful. Oh wow, the little lick from the guitar or organ right at the end has a super great tone to it.
“Priscilla” has such a smooth segue into it. There’s definitely a lot of groundwork laid in this album for the coming days of prog rock in the near future of this album’s release. Wow, there’s still so much tension in the drums and bass.
“Lullabye Letter” has an extremely groovy feeling to it – wow. That shuffle from the drums and bass is super awesome, and the guitar lines that bleed together are super awesome. I really love the mix of the vocals in this one; they sound so close to the listener in the soundscape. I couldn’t help but turn this one up a bit. Wow, this jam between the guitar, drums, and bass are absolutely awesome. The guitar takes things relatively far out, and gets some real squealching (squelch and squeal) from the instrument – really awesome. Wow, this song is pretty sweet. The drums sort of feel like they’re preparing for a landing near the end of the track, as a lot of tension has worked out naturally through the playing.
“We Did It Again” has a super interesting sound, and really feels like the band has on the descent from their super far out jams earlier in the album, as if they’re preparing the listener for a landing through their playing. This one has a lot of repetition while keeping things through various small changes and additions to the layers of the instrumentation. The vocals have a super interesting mix throughout the soundscape, creating a really interesting harmony with a bass vocal part and a falsetto vocal part. Meanwhile, the keyboards are continually lifting the song to different levels while the drums continue to bring the listener in for a landing – super interesting. Wow, the final notes breathe super well – awesome tune.
“Plus Belle Qu’une Poubelle” is really interesting as it’s just bass notes from the keyboard (I think?) at first, and gradually other instruments come in in an awesome effort from the band to tie up their extended psychedelic progression.
“Why Are We Sleeping?” started extremely smoothly off the tail of the previous track. This one feels like the band has landed the listener back on the planet Earth, where they enter into one super flavorful psychedelic rock verging on acid rock jam. The vocals are more so spoken word for the verses, while during the chorus there are some super flavorful gospel-like chorus vocals. This tune is super groovy – it feels like a great jam piece for the band to have fun with as the listener is reentering Earth’s orbit. The bass lines are super melodic in nature, and the same goes for the little lines played by the keyboards. I really dig the drums and how they’ve been steering this album in a certain sense throughout. I can hardly believe that I’m on the final couple of minutes of the album already – time has flown by. The chorus of this song hits some great notes that have been seemingly teased throughout. Wow, the band gets super discordant with some of the final licks as things are getting tied up. Awesome tune.
“Box 25 / 4 Lid” has a super simple feel with the piano and the bass guitar playing some simple lines throughout this short tune, which really wrap the album up quite nicely by giving a nice indication that this musical vehicle has finally landed at its destination.
This was one heck of an album – at 42 minutes in length, the entire thing flew by in seemingly no time at all. If you’re a fan of early progressive rock, or you dig 60s psychedelic rock, or you enjoy psychedelic prog rock in particular, this is definitely one you might want to check out. In any case, if you do decide to give it a listen, I sincerely hope that you enjoy the experience at least as much as I did.
-A