Customer Reviews

Spaced

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recording sounds like a kind of environmental music, which was played by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper and Rober Wyatt with some sax blasts played by Brian Hopper and with the tape looping work by Bob Woolford in 1969. According to the brochure in this CD, "Spaced" seems to have been made to fulfill the contract with the record company and it was the same timing when "Volume Two" was recorded for the same reason.

Since it is the creature of tape loops edited in the living room of Bob Woolford's apartment, it sounds different from other titles by Soft Machine. Although there are several portions scattered here and there, in which you can enjoy the dynamism of their live performance, it still sounds like a remix of "cut up" phrases, which reminds me of the technique of writing taken in "The Soft Machine" by William Burroughs.

As a Soft Machine freak, it is "must to have". But it could be "nice to have" for average listeners of good old progressive rock music.

This may be the most demented work the Softs ever released, at least that I've heard. This was originally composed as background for a multimedia event of this title in the time period between the second and third album; so the sense of experimentation and personal challenge for the Softs was growing exponentially. This album represents an edited version of the event comprising tape loops, sonic experiments and some of the most possessed and inspired Mike Ratledge keyboard ever comited to tape along with some pulse style drumming from Robert Wyatt. The thirty two minute fourth section is absolutely astounding; This recording captures the band growing in intellectual depth and complication stretching the improvisations into a more avant garde direction. This is an inspired performance with some fascinating improvisational experiments.

Had the Avant Guarde been developed enough within the rock spectrum, at least 18 minutes of this album could have been released to the public when it was written, and enjoyed as an experiment bit of FREAKOUT ROCK. In fact, SOFT MACHINE's "SPACED" serves the same function that THE CATHERINE WHEEL served the TALKING HEADS, as a transistional piece between REMAIN IN LIGHT and SPEAKING IN TONGUES. (Altho the sound of SPACED is maybe closer to MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS, because of the extensive use of tape loops for both composistions.)Even tho "SPACED" has remained hidden from SOFT MACHINE fans for many years, the SOUND of the album could still be heard. If you listen to "OUT OF TUNES", "FIRE ENGINE PASSING WITH BELLS CLANGING" or "ORANGE SKIN FOOD" from Volume 2, or the first five minutes of "FACELIFT" from Soft Machine's THIRD, then you already know what sound is found on this album. Lots of tape loops, strange keyboard drones, FLUXUS influenced beyond a doubt, and even free jazz sax lines, fill the composistion. Never as abrasive as METAL MACHINE MUSIC, its sound at its strangest points reminds you of Coltrane's "OM", or perhaps Cecil Taylor. (The 32 minute SPACED FOUR, is maybe the most OUT song, and does take discipline to listen attentively all the way thru.) What will surprise fans of SOFT MACHINE who buy this, is how listenable so much of the album actually is. IN fact, SPACED TWO, SPACED THREE and SPACED SEVEN especially could sit on VOLUME 2 or THIRD without seeming out of place. (ITs only the two extended pieces, the 12 minute piece and the 32 minute piece, that you may not listen to on multible occasions.) I wont listen to freaky music, just to claim avant guarde creditials. If i like something, i like it, and if I dont, i dont. That stated, i found myself often playing the short, almost melodic pieces from SPACED when I'd play THRID. Brian Hopper's Sax solo on SPACED FIVE is actually mellow, and engaging on both the emotional and intellectual level, not unlike the best free jazz. Combined with Ratledge's piano comping, the only thing that keeps SPACED FIVE from sounding like a smoky NYC 3am jazz trio ballad, is the way the drum parts are overdubbed to incorperate several time signatures simultaneously. SPACED SIX is mostly percussive in nature, with what sounds like a keyboard that's shorting out on top. The last number, SPACED 7, has an ambient vibe, filled to overflowing with backward tape loops.

Overall, probibly NOT an album you'll listen to repeatedly from the first track to the last. However, for a studio effort that more often than not successfully bridges the gap between free jazz or the fluxus music movement, with later trance ambient pieces, this is an interesting, engaging album to complete your "psychedelic" period of SOFT MACHINE. If nothing else, its an aural snapshot of swinging London at its most freaky, experimental and progressive. Few people who even like those songs I listed by Soft Machine, that sound like some of this music, will enjoy the WHOLE "SPACED" album. But if you can enjoy Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, 1966 Coltrane, or psychedelic freak outs instrumentals by Zappa, or tape loop music by Eno-Fripp, then you'd no doubt be surprised and happy with how much you enjoy most of the music on this CD. However, if SOFT MACHINE's "THIRD" or "VOLUME 2" already sounds as freaky as you can stand, maybe avoid this CD for now.

Basically, this is the buiding blocks of Soft Machine's music on Third and after.

Those loops and hums that the band used to play over in the early 1970s took a lot of blood, sweat, and razor blades. Painstakingly edited with 1970 technology, which meant litterally slicing magnetic tape at just the right point and then (scotch) taping it to the ajoining piece you wanted.

So if you like ambient music or space rock, or really, really like Soft Machine, this is for you. These are BACKROUNDS. You will not get the Soft Machine flesh you hear on the classic albums

But you have to admire the labor of love--no one sat and did this unless they were ready to make some serious music, and we all know that story with the Softs.

Hugh Hopper did the liner notes, saying he could now do this in an hour or two.

I guess when digital technology came a long, he got a lot more sleep and a much closer shave.

If you are a fan of the Soft Machine, This CD will be a welcome addition to your collection!!! It's from their early period with Robert Wyatt!!! And it's a very cool album!!! Very experimental!!! A true relic of the past!!! it's nice to see this music released after all of these years!!! Fans of their first five albums will most likely enjoy this one!!! Five Stars!!! A+