Comments for Soft Machine, Six

Lineup: Hugh Hopper: Bass guitar Mike Ratlege: Organ, electric piano, grand piano, celeste John Marshall: Drums, percussion Karl Jenkins: Oboe, baritone & soprano sax, electric piano, grand pianoHalf live, half studio. After Elton Dean left to join Just Us, John Marshall brought in his Nucleus bandmate Karl Jenkins on reeds and keys.He immediately takes on a large role in the band, writing most of the compositions, though he doesn`t domiate the playing; yet. His compositions are very riff-based (as can be seen in the titles), but are still very interesting. One of my all time favorite SM tracks is here, The Soft Weed Factor. About 10 different electric piano and celeste lines race around each other into a cohesive whole before the bassand drums enter, followed by the sax and organ stating the main theme. It`s kind of repetetive, but very hypnotic. The rest of the pieces have really great soloing from all the members. A very underrated album, IMHO.