Customer Reviews

Backwards

5 star:		(3)
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Fans of the Softs, especially of the "Third" album period, will be throwing their hats in the air for this one. Easily the best archive release (bettering even the BBC sessions), "Backwards" is a fantastic discovery. First off, they're all studio recordings (something the otherwise excellent packaging doesn't make clear, weirdly) and mostly of a high audio quality. They're live-in-the-studio versions of well-known tracks, but each varies substantially from existing recordings to provide delightful surprises - different lyrics to "Moon In June", different arrangements and solos everywhere - and the group is blowing red hot. Playing in a studio didn't seem to bother them one way or another; I get the impression they're so into the music they could be playing anywhere, and the absence of audience distraction may even have helped - this is thrilling stuff. "Backwards" makes a great "Augmented Third" album, concentrating as it does on that period when the band moved from quirky pop to a powerful jazz rock that owed nothing to Chicago or other contemporary horn-padded ensembles. Cuneiform are right to be proud of this release, and fans frequently disappointed by lo-fi archive barrel-scrapings (such as the virtually worthless "Deaf Corner" album) will be thrilled, as I was, by the marvellous playing, sound quality, and superb packaging of "Backwards". My only gripe is the sudden and frustrating fade on "Hibou Anenome and Bear" (to squeeze it all onto one cd, I expect).

If you're new to the Soft Machine, I'd recommend this anyway, if you like structured yet experimental music (no guitars!) with flashes of humor, chaos, and beauty. If you're a fan, you'll probably be reaching for your credit card right now and drooling.

Machineheads who felt burned by Voiceprint's two recent "Turns On" collections of archival recordings may be leery of buying yet another, but this one is superb. (And it's from Cuneifrom, who do these things much better.) The bulk of this CD is taken from a May 1970 live recording that sounds as good as any of Soft Machine's commercially released live albums. Two further songs capture the septet version of the band from November 1969. But the real jewel here is a 21-minute demo of Wyatt's "Moon in June," similar to the version on "Third" but with enough differences to make it fascinating. You need this CD.

Incredible stuff! Charlie Parker meets Eric Clapton, or something. This is not to be categorized music, from a group largely forgotten. Dispirate, discordant themes, near Schopenhauersque in arrangement, combined with driving rythm, and psychedellic shades? Absolutely impossible to pigeonhole. I will leave it up to another reviewer to attempt it!
BEK