Soft Machine - Bundles: Expanded Edition.

Soft Machine
Bundles: Expanded Edition
(Cherry Red)
8.5/10
By Paul Davies

Far removed from their beginnings and earlier dalliance with guitar in the Soft Machine soundscape, Bundles is the album where guitar prominently shaped the musical direction of Soft Machine into a progressive jazz-rock unit with the inimitable nimble fret runs of Allan Holdsworth leading the way on this album’s compositions and pushing this group into a new era. In fact, considering the subsequent tour in support of Bundles, it’s two guitarists, with John Etheridge taking over as Holdsworth’s successor, who leave their sonic stamp on this period in the Soft’s evolution as the accompanying live CD recorded at Nottingham University ‘75 fully demonstrates both this internal and audio transition by the band. Recorded at a time when jazz-rock titans such as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever were releasing genre-defining albums, Bundles plays an intelligent game with complex music and song arrangements building a sonic sculpture on guileful musical foundations that holds up well today as evidenced by this remastered edition.

The five-part Hazard Profile dominates the recorded content as all members get to blow and showcase a high calibre of musicianship. Elsewhere, The Man Who Waved At Trains, Land Of The Bag Snake and the title track shine harder on this remaster. This expanded edition also provides an opportunity of listening to new music in the making with Ban-Ban Caliban and Song Of Aeolus getting a pre-recorded live airing before appearing on Bundles' follow-up album 1976s Softs, which was to be founder keyboard player Mike Ratledge's final album. The quality of musicianship and rapport between artists and the audience is a thrill. Abruptly answering the call to join The New Tony Williams' Lifetime, this singular Soft Machine album, with Allan Holdsworth passing the plectrum to John Etheridge, proves to be a vital document of a boundary-blurring musical institution during a tectonic period of musical transition that was fittingly released on EMI’s progressive Harvest label.