A wild, freewheeling, and ultimately successful attempt to merge psychedelia
with jazz-rock, Soft Machine's debut ranges between lovingly performed
oblique pop songs and deranged ensemble playing from drummer/vocalist
Robert Wyatt and organist Mike Ratledge. With only one real break (at
the end of side one), the songs merge into each other -- not always smoothly,
but always with a sense of flair that rescues any potential miscues. Wyatt
takes most of the vocals, and proves himself a surprisingly evocative
singer despite his lack of range. Like Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates
of Dawn, Volume One was one of the few over-ambitious records of the psychedelic
era that actually delivered on all its incredible promise.
(by John Bush, All
Music Guide)
|