Drop by Soft Machine
'Drop' by Soft Machine
Soft Machine were many things during their long existence as one of Britain’s most interesting … well, hard to even call them a group given their ever-changing lineup. Soft Machine endured as a name for a series of musical adventures that assumed different forms at different times.
The previously unreleased Drop finds the British ensemble on tour in Germany in 1971. Founding drummer Robert Wyatt had recently left Soft Machine, replaced by Phil Howard. With the full support of saxophonist Elton Dean, Howard helped push Soft Machine to the front line of avant-garde jazz. The chaos theory improvisation calls Ornette Coleman to mind and, thanks in part to Mike Ratledge’s electric keyboards, the cosmic funk of the era’s Miles Davis. Hugh Hoppe played bass both as a lead instrument and the rhythmic anchor that kept the proceedings on course.
Perhaps because of Soft Machine’s origins in ‘60s psychedelia, many jazz fans overlooked them. Drop is proof that Soft Machine was out there on that music’s leading edge.
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