Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 03/01/2008
Run Time: 75:43
The Soft Machine plunged deeper into
jazz and contemporary
electronic music on this pivotal release, which incited
the Village Voice to call it a milestone achievement when it was released. It's a double album of stunning music, with each side devoted to one composition -- two by
Mike Ratledge, and one each by
Hopper and
Wyatt, with substantial help from a number of backup musicians, including Canterbury mainstays
Elton Dean and
Jimmy Hastings. The
Ratledge songs come closest to
fusion jazz, although this is
fusion laced with tape loop effects and hypnotic, repetitive keyboard patterns.
Hugh Hopper's
"Facelift" recalls
"21st Century Schizoid Man" by
King Crimson, although it's more complex, with several quite dissimilar sections. The pulsing rhythms, chaotic horn and keyboard sounds, and dark drones on
"Facelift" predate some of what
Hopper did as a solo artist later (this song was actually culled from two live performances in 1970).
Robert Wyatt draws on musical ideas from early 1967 demos done with producer
Giorgio Gomelsky, on his capricious composition
"Moon in June." Lyrically, it's a satirical alternative to the pretension displayed by a lot of
rock writing of the era, and combined with
the Softs' exotic instrumentation, it makes for quite a listen (the collection
Triple Echo includes a
BBC broadcast recording of this song, with different albeit equally fanciful lyrics). Not exactly
rock,
Third nonetheless pushed the boundaries of
rock into areas previously unexplored, and it managed to do so without sounding self-indulgent. A better introduction to the group is either of the first two records, but once introduced, this is the place to go.
~Peter Kurtz, All Music Guide
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