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Soft Machine Legacy – Live Adventures
There is a purity and appeal in music that is made just for the sake of making music. With commercial expectations or considerations very low in the list of priorities, the emphasis can be placed purely on sonic exploration and personal expression. With some musical genres (in this case progressive rock) the expectation for rampant commercial success by producing the lowest common denominator music becomes almost non-existent.
The band, Soft Machine, with various line-ups has been around since the mid-sixties and was one of the original acts to help pioneer the prog-rock genre. The Legacy line-up features band members that while baring little resemblance to the original group succeed magnificently in keeping the spirit of that group of musicians very much alive. What they have produced here through an attitude of servicing the song first and foremost is a collection of tracks with a real universal appeal.
Those moments of what can often be seen as pure instrumental excess in this style of music are removed and the results are songs rich in melody and fine detail. It’s still an album of instrumental inventiveness but one with very little bombast and a lot of very inviting melodies.
Things start off with the long and spacey Has Riff II. The eight-minute plus song lives up to its name and is used as a mood-establishing device. Grapehound then takes over and sets the standard of guitar and sax locked in a playful sense of interplay. The guitar playing while being expansive is far from indulgent and connecting it to unison sax lines keeps things from getting too out of hand.
The rhythm section is solid throughout and drummer John Marshall is a master of tasty cymbal work. Long song lengths give the players the chance to really build the tension and resolve. There is wild adventure at times (The Relegation Of Pluto and Gesolreut) but also moments of beautiful reflection (Song Of Aeolus) and even moments of stop start funk In The Back Room.
Throughout Live Adventures you can feel the connection the band creates between audience and artist. This isn’t from a forced sense of crowd reaction or their elevated sound levels but from the mediative way the music is approached. This is a set with a distinct sense of beginning, middle and end. Makes you wish you were there but happy to have an audio record regardless.
Rob Hudson
www.johnetheridge.com/softmachinelegacy
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