Name: Facelift France and Holland
Brand: Soft Machine

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RUNE495LP

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Double LP with DVD housed in Gatefold Sleeve.

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-02-10

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Shellshock

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0045775049519

Total Cap

2 / Black / LP

Artist

Soft Machine

Genre GB

Psychedelic

Label GB

Cuneiform

With their website <a href="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com">www.cuneiformrecords.com</a>, Cuneiform provides a platform for music enthusiasts to explore and discover extraordinary talent across various genres. Collaborating with Wayside Music, an online music mail order service founded in 1980, they have established themselves as a trusted source for exceptional musical experiences.

Soft Machine is an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury, formed in mid-1966. The band was named after the novel "The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs. Led by Australian artist Daevid Allen, the group was influenced by the emerging Beat Generation and the music philosophies of Sun Ra. They started as a free-jazz outfit called the Daevid Allen Trio before evolving into Soft Machine with members Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, and Kevin Ayers. Their eponymous album released in 1968 is considered a classic of the late 1960s psychedelic era.

The band gained popularity on London's psychedelic scene and performed at various iconic venues such as The Marquee and UFO club. They also took part in notable events like the '14 Hour Technicolor Dream' alongside Pink Floyd and Velvet Underground. Despite several lineup changes over the years, Soft Machine continued to push boundaries with their experimental sound.

Today, Soft Machine remains active with current members John Etheridge on guitar, Theo Travis on saxophone/flute/piano, Fred T. Baker on bass (since 2022), and Asaf Sirkis on drums (since 2023). Their music continues to captivate audiences with its unique blend of rock and jazz influences.

From their beginnings as a psychedelic rock band in 1966, sharing stages with Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to being one of the originators of electric jazz/rock by early 1969, Britain's Soft Machine were restlessly creative. Facelift France and Holland captures them at a pivotal moment in the first quarter of 1970 as a short-lived quintet, just before they recorded and released their breakthrough album Third. As broadcast on the French TV programme Pop 2, the film of Soft Machine's concert at Paris' ThÈ‚tre de la Musique, which constitutes the main course of this release, stands as an exceptional document of the band at, arguably, its artistic peak. It is the earliest footage of the band to be commercially released and also the only video footage known to exist of the quintet line-up that was active from January to March 1970, and contains the only professionally-recorded performance of "Out-Bloody-Rageous" with Lyn Dobson on second sax. It also is the only professionally-recorded alternative performance by the quintet of "Facelift" (the original appearing as the opening track on Third).

In addition to the March, 1970 material presented here on vinyl and DVD in splendid stereo sound, Side D presents a previously unreleased performance at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw from January 1970.

Facelift France and Holland

Music GB