Bundles [Import]

Soft Machine | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: See for Miles UK
• ASIN: B00000119T
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,911 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hazard Profile Part 1

2. Hazard Profile Part 2

3. Hazard Profile Part 3

4. Hazard Profile Part 4

5. Hazard Profile Part 5

6. Gone Sailing

7. Bundles

8. Land Of The Bag Snake

9. The Man Who Waved At Trains

10. Peff

11. Four Gongs Two Drums

12. The Floating World

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered edition of this 1975 album from the celebrated Jazz/Rock/Prog outfit. The album was the band's first for EMI's Harvest label and featured a line-up of Mike Ratledge, Karl Jenkins, John Marshall, Roy Babbington and new member Allan Holdsworth. An accessible collection, Bundles featured Holdsworth's considerable guitar playing talents and opened a new chapter for the band, and attracted much praise upon release. Unavailable on CD for nearly 15 years, this reissue fully restores the original artwork. Esoteric. 2010. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jaw-dropping, stunning, ridiculously artful, subtle, etc., September 26, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bundles (Audio CD)

I was turned on to this album, and in it heard my first Allan Holdsworth (guitar), at the tender age of 16 or 17, and life hasn't been the same since. I just ordered it and listened to it for the first time in about 20 years, with the clarity a CD affords, and I can see it's going to screw me up again!

There are no adequate words to describe the guitar solos on this album, especially in "Hazard Profile Part 1". This is a young Holdsworth recorded at the point of a major breakthrough in his virtuosity. He is like a machine (a "soft" machine??), relentlessly spewing impossibly long and fluid strings of legato 32nd notes. It's positively mindbending if you are a serious listener of music. If you're a musician, especially a guitarist, it's nothing short of devastating.

As for the rest of the musicians on this album, they're brilliant too. The drum work is stellar; the keyboards are at turns subtle and psychedelic; the bass is transcendently transparent; and the horns speak like the songs of a possessed shaman. "Bundles" is an entire package that flows from beginning to end, like an aural movie. The fact that this came out in 1975 is in itself devastating because it reveals just how banal and un-challenging music has become today in comparison. The jazz-rock fusion of the 70s represented a pinnacle of unabashed creativity that hasn't been touched since and I'm very afraid will likely never be seen again. "Bundles" captures a golden moment in this most special era of music.

Now I have to go listen to it again and cry some more...

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it's about time, July 21, 2010

By 

Michael Sherriffs "music 1w1" (surprise az.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bundles (Audio CD)

this cd should have been remastered a long time ago, with that said if you like soft machine or are a allen holdsworth fan ( guilty) you need to get this. the remastering is excellent on this ,and is much better than the see for miles release.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New sound for the Softs makes this album worth a listen, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bundles (Audio CD)

Mike Ratledge's last album with the Softs found the band on a new label and adding guitar to their jazz-rock sound. In a nutshell, the guitar, provided by Allan Holdsworth works, and makes this one of the best fusion pieces of the mid 1970s. Worth a listen (especially by Softs fans who refuse to listen to anything the group made after Robert Wyatt left).