Name: Hidden Details
Brand: Soft Machine

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

dy029

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Colour

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

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-09-07

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Proper

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5024545825626

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Soft Machine

Genre GB

Psychedelic

Label GB

Dyad

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.

Hidden Details is a new studio album of Soft Machine, recorded at the late great Jon Hiseman's Temple Studio in Surrey, England, last December 2017. Released on John Etheridge's Dyan Records exactly 50 years since the release of the band's 1968 debut album The Soft Machine. Hidden Details is very much the product of an active, contemporary sounding outfit striking out with its own agenda. Though informed by the past, the music here is neither weighed down nor beholden to it. Animated with the same ineffable and inquisitive spirit that has always made this group throughout its fifty years such a compelling experience. The yearning tenderness of Heart Off Guard and the come-down reveries of Broken Hill and Drifting White showcase the more intimate aspects of Soft Machine's personality while in contrast, One Glove gives the more pugilistic side of John Etheridge's playing an outing. The terse angularities of the title track and Life on Bridges highlight a fearless disposition, as does the buzzsaw interplay heard during Ground Lift and Flight of the Jett, both featuring Roy Babbington's decisive interventions. The surging lyricism of Fourteen Hour Dream flirts with an almost popish sensibility, underscoring the sense that this is a quartet that is fundamentally at ease with itself. The return of what some older fans of the band have called 'cosmic tinkles’'– the appearance of layers of cyclical electric piano motifs – is especially welcome. Their brief manifestation on The Man Who Waved at Trains and Third-era, Out-Bloody-Rageous, both stone-cold Mike Ratledge-composed classics, adds an extra spacey dimension to the overall sound. Travis' use of looping technology with his flutes creates its own beguiling world and can be heard to powerful effect on the beautiful and enigmatic Breathe, where his hovering notes are underpinned by Marshall's oblique yet atmospheric percussion.

Hidden Details

Music GB