Soft Machine
Softs

"Being the only remaining founding member is horrible: it’s probably the main reason that pushes you to quit and lose interest. When people want to identify you with an entity called Soft Machine and hold you accountable for everything that happens, your first reaction is to want to leave... I never felt part of the English jazz scene, and the more musicians of that type joined the band, the more it amplified the difference I felt between me and them, mainly because composing was really important to me, while jazz is often improvised and doesn't need to be written."

From this interview given by Mike Ratledge about his departure from the group, published in 1976 by an Italian fanzine called Gong, it becomes clear how long the first incarnation of Soft Machine had been gone. The avant-garde, dizzyingly experimental style proposed by the group hit a dead end after the creation of "Third", and so (after trying to merge incompatible sounds in "4") it split: on one side, Robert Wyatt’s experimentalism, who decided to continue his sound exploration (with enormous results), and on the other, the unpredictable jazz-rock formed with the latest works which, as if it had a will of its own, attracted the most talented jazz musicians of the English scene, giving birth to a style that would find its definitive form with Bundles in 1975.

A year after this work, Mike, as we already mentioned, leaves, entrusting his "soft machine" to the now new leader Karl Jenkins. Allan Holdsworth decides to join the Tony Williams' Lifetime but suggests another excellent guitarist as a replacement: John Etheridge, then playing with Darryl Way's Wolf. Another new entry is portrayed by saxophonist Alan Wakeman (yes yes, Rick's cousin) who allows Karl, previously also handling the winds, to focus solely on keyboards. The rhythm section, composed of Roy Babbington on bass and John Marshall on drums, remains unchanged and the band, structured this way, gives birth to the album Softs in 1976.

In this work, the guitar is once again in the spotlight, but it is now admirably accompanied by the other instruments, creating a much more balanced sound compared to the recent past.
The longer episodes see John supported either by Karl’s intense piano and the furious drumming of the other John (The Tale of Taliesin), or by Alan’s elegant sax and Roy’s unstoppable bass (Ban-Ban Caliban). "Song of Aeoius" shows us how the guitar handles more reflective environments, shaped by Mike Ratledge’s keyboards, back as a guest (But how? A guest in the band he himself founded? Indeed yes...), while "The Camden Tandem" clarifies to what inhuman levels the two Johns can reach when placed face to face with each other.

The epic sounds of "Nexus" introduce us to the jazz of "One Over the Eight", where Alan’s sax has the task of laying down the law, for once at the expense of the guitar, which however quickly finds a way to redeem itself through extremely expressive acoustic episodes, which see it engaged in duets first with the saxophone (Aubade) and then with the piano (Out of Season). Nor are solos missing and if Karl weaves calm atmospheres with his keyboards in "Second Bundle" and John shows us his romantic side in the splendid acoustic portrait of "Etka", the other John with his "Kayoo" informs us that when he sits in front of his drums, he probably turns into a machine... but certainly anything but soft.