Soft Machine discography

Soft Machine are an English rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion. Having known numerous line-ups, the band currently consists of John Etheridge (guitar), Theo Travis (saxophone, flutes, keyboards), Fred Baker (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums).

Soft Machine discography
Studio albums	12

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Line-up	Additional musicians
1968	The Soft Machine	Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers	Hugh Hopper, The Cake
1969	Volume Two	Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper	Brian Hopper
1970	Third	Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Elton Dean	Lyn Dobson, Nick Evans, Jimmy Hastings, Rab Spall
1971	Fourth		Evans, Hastings, Mark Charig, Roy Babbington, Alan Skidmore
1972	Fifth	Side 1: Ratledge, H. Hopper, Dean, Phil Howard Side 2: Ratledge, H. Hopper, Dean, John Marshall	Babbington
1973	Six (Disc 2)	Ratledge, H. Hopper, Marshall, Karl Jenkins
1973	Seven	Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington
1975	Bundles	Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, Allan Holdsworth	Ray Warleigh
1976	Softs	Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, John Etheridge, Alan Wakeman	Ratledge
1981	Land of Cockayne	Marshall, Jenkins, Holdsworth, Warleigh, Jack Bruce, Stu Calver, Dick Morrissey, Alan Parker, John Perry, Tony Rivers, John Taylor
2018	Hidden Details	Marshall, Etheridge, Babbington, Theo Travis	Nick Utteridge
2023	Other Doors	Marshall, Etheridge, Travis, Fred Baker	Babbington

Contemporary live albums

Recorded	Released	Album	Line-up
20 October – 1 November 1972	1973	Six (Disc 1)	Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins
6 – 9 July 1977	1978	Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris	Marshall, Jenkins, John Etheridge, Ric Sanders, Steve Cook
1 February 2019	2020	Live at The Baked Potato	Marshall, Etheridge, Roy Babbington, Theo Travis

Archival live albums

Recorded (exact dates given unless unconfirmed)	Released	Album	Line-up
April – 10 December 1967 (includes some studio recordings)	2001	Soft Machine Turns On Volume 1	April – June 1967 recordings: Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen 22 September – 10 December 1967 recordings: Ratledge, Wyatt, Ayers
September 1967 – May 1968	2006	Middle Earth Masters	Ratledge, Wyatt, Ayers
10 November 1967 – 11 August 1968	2001	Soft Machine Turns On Volume 2
29 March 1969	1996	Live at the Paradiso 1969	Ratledge, Wyatt, Hugh Hopper
4 January 1970	2000	Noisette	Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Elton Dean, Lynn Dobson
17 January 1970	2022	Facelift France & Holland (Disc 2)
31 January 1970	2005	Breda Reactor
2 March 1970	2022	Facelift France & Holland (Disc 1 + DVD)
20 – 25 April 1970	2004	Somewhere in Soho	Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Dean
26 April 1970	2002	Facelift
November 1969 – May 1970	2002	Backwards	November 1969 recordings: Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Dean, Dobson, Mark Charig, Nick Evans May 1970 recordings: Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Dean
13 August 1970	1988	Live at the Proms 1970 (re-released as disc 2 on 2007 remaster of Third)	Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, Dean
25 October 1970	2006	Grides (also includes a DVD of 23 March 1971 Beat Club appearance)
27 – 28 February 1971	2024	Høvikodden 1971
28 February 1971	2009	Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971 (this concert later included on Høvikodden 1971 with another concert at the same venue the previous day)
11 March 1971	1993	Soft Machine & Heavy Friends: BBC in Concert 1971
23 March 1971	1998	Virtually (DVD with footage of this recording included on Grides)
5 December 1967 – 1 June 1971	2003	BBC Radio 1967 – 1971	Various line-ups including Ratledge, Wyatt, Ayers, H. Hopper, Brian Hopper, Dean, Dobson, Charig and Evans
10 June 1969 – 15 November 1971	1990	The Peel Sessions (all tracks here later included with others on BBC Radio 1967 – 1971 and BBC Radio 1971 – 1974)	Various line-ups including Ratledge, Wyatt, H. Hopper, B. Hopper, Dean, Dobson, Charig, Evans and Phil Howard
November 1971	2008	Drop	Ratledge, H. Hopper, Dean, Howard
2 May 1972	1994	Live in France (re-released with same content as Live in Paris in 2004)	Ratledge, H. Hopper, Dean, John Marshall
20 July 1972	1994	Soft Stage: BBC in Concert 1972	Ratledge, H. Hopper, Marshall, Karl Jenkins
17 May 1973	2010	NDR Jazz Workshop Hamburg, Germany (also includes a DVD of the concert)	Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Roy Babbington
26 October 1973	2023	The Dutch Lesson
15 November 1971 – 10 June 1974	2003	BBC Radio 1971 – 1974	Various line-ups including Ratledge, H. Hopper, Dean, Howard, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington and Allan Holdsworth
4 July 1974	2015	Switzerland 1974 (also includes a DVD of the concert)	Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, Holdsworth
29 January 1975	2006	Floating World Live
11 October 1975	2005	British Tour '75	Ratledge, Marshall, Jenkins, Babbington, John Etheridge

Archival studio recordings

Recorded	Released	Album	Line-up
April 1967	1972	Jet Propelled Photographs (gained this title in 1988, previously released under various other titles including Faces and Places Vol. 7 and At the Beginning)	Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen
1969	1996	Spaced	Ratledge, Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Brian Hopper

Compilation albums

Year	Album	Notes
1977	Triple Echo	Triple album covering the band's whole history to that point, featuring select tracks from all the albums up to Softs (the most recent at the time), the band's first single "Love Makes Sweet Music" and its B-side "Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin'" (both later included on 2009 remaster of The Soft Machine) and several unreleased recordings (all later included among the archival albums listed above except this version of "She's Gone", which remains exclusive to this album).

Other minor releases

These albums were either released by small labels with most of their content available on the main albums listed above or are reissues/"Best of" collections released by major labels with all previously released material.

Year	Album	Notes
1972	Rock Generation Vol. 7	One side only, April 1967 De Lane Lea Studios demo recordings with Giorgio Gomelsky.
1972	Rock Generation Vol. 8	One side only, more April 1967 demo recordings. This and the preceding entry were combined on many subsequent releases, under such titles as Faces & Places Vol.7 (BYG Records, 1972), At the Beginning (Charly Records, 1976), Jet Propelled Photographs (Piccadilly, 1980 [LP], Charly, 2003 [CD]), and several others. These issues contain the track "She's Gone", recorded in April 1967, which is not the same track released in Triple Echo.
1975	1&2 (Architects of Space Time)	Double album reissue of the first two albums.
1990	The Untouchable	Compilation of tracks from Bundles, Softs, and Alive and Well.
1991	As If...	Curious (probably unauthorized) compilation with six Ratledge/Hopper compositions ranging from 1970's Third to 1973's Six.
1994	Soft Machine	Live At The Paradiso 1969 plus six tracks from Jet Propelled Photographs.
1995	The Harvest Albums 1975–1978	Box set of the Harvest-era albums Bundles (1975) to Alive & Well (1978).
1998	Canterburied Sounds (Vol. 1–4)	Voiceprint Records released four CDs containing several tracks by various musicians from the Canterbury scene (mainly from the Soft Machine and the Caravan bands), compiled and with notes by Brian Hopper. The four single CDs are re-released in 2013 in a box set.
1998	Live 1970 (also known as Live in Europe 1970)	Tracks 1–2 recorded on 13 February 1970 at Swansea (or 14 at the London School of Economics); tracks 3–11 also in Live at the Proms; here, with the edited version of "Out-Bloody-Rageous" from 11:54 to 8:46, and "Esther's Nose Job" split in seven contiguous tracks.
1999	Fourth / Fifth	CD reissue of Fourth and Fifth, the first CBS-era album Third was already available on CD individually.
2001	Man in a Deaf Corner: Anthology 1963–1970	Disc 1 mainly containing live pieces from 1963 to circa 1967, with tracks 7–9 also in Turns On vol. 1 (respectively tracks 2, 1, 16); Disc 2 containing a recording at the Paradiso, 29 March 1969 (tracks 1–10) also in Live at the Paradiso (about 32 min out of 40 min); tracks 11–12 ("Facelift" and "Moon in June" – short versions) also in Live 1970 (respectively tracks 1–2); tracks 13–16 recorded at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon on 26 April 1970, also in Facelift (respectively tracks 4–7); track 17 is a Jakko Jakszyk rendition of "As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still" in conjunction with the two short tracks "That Still and Perfect Summer" and "Astral Projection in Pinner" to appear in his future album The Bruised Romantic Glee Club (Iceni 2006).
2004	Six / Seven	2-CD reissue of the last two CBS-era albums Six and Seven.
2005	Out-Bloody-Rageous: An Anthology 1967–1973	2-CD compilation of tracks from up to, and including, Seven.
2005	Orange Skin Food	2-CD compilation of previously released live recordings; tracks from Somewhere In Soho, recorded 20–25 April 1971, Facelift, recorded 26 April 1970 and the entire Live in Europe 1970, recorded 13 or 14 February 1970 and 13 August 1970 at the Proms.
2010	Original Album Classics	5-CD box set of the 2007 remasters of the CBS-era albums Third, Fourth, Fifth, Six and Seven.
2011	Tales of Taliesin: The EMI Years Anthology 1975–1981	2-CD compilation of tracks from Bundles to Land of Cockayne.
2013	68	Credited to Robert Wyatt, it nonetheless contains an 18 minutes early version of "Rivmic Melodies" (to appear in the 1969 album Volume 2) and a 20 minutes early version of "Moon in June" (to appear in the 1970 album Third), both recorded in U.S. in 1968, after Soft Machine's first dissolution, and just before the new formation with Hopper in place of Ayers.
2013	Canterburied Sounds	Re-issue in a single 4 CDs edition of the four titles previously released in 1998 by Brian Hopper on Voiceprint.
2014	Tanglewood Tails	2 CDs, Disc 1 with tracks 1–4 from 1963 (also in "Canterburied Sounds"), tracks 5–12 from 1967 studio recordings (also in Turns On vol. 1); Disc 2 with tracks 1–4 live from the Col Ballroom, Davenport, Iowa, 11 August 1968 (also in Turns On vol. 2), tracks 5–6 live from the Paradiso, Amsterdam, 29 March 1969 (also in Live at the Paradiso), tracks 7–11 live from the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, 26 April 1970 (also in "Facelift"). The quality of tracks are far better than in both volumes of Turns On (especially "She's Gone" – June 1967 version that now has a quality comparable to the Triple Echo version – that is up to now the only acceptable CD version of this track).
2014	Turns On (An early collection)	2 CDs – Reprint from Floating World Records of the two Turns On volumes of 2001, with the same track list. The low quality of the former editions was here maintained.
2014	Live in 1970	4 CDs – Reprint of two live concerts. Disc 1 and Disc 2 recorded at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club on 20–25 April 1970 (already in Somewhere in Soho, Voiceprint, 2004), Disc 3 and Disc 4 recorded at Het Turfschip, Breda, Netherlands on 31 January 1970 (already in Breda Reactor, Voiceprint, 2005).
2014	Live in the 70s	4 CDs – Reprint of various live concerts. Disc 1 and the first four tracks on Disc 2 also issued as Live in Paris (Cuneiform, 2004); tracks 5–7 of Disc 2 also appear on Backwards (Cuneiform, 2002); Mark Charig is here wrongly mentioned as the trumpet player; Disc 3 was previously released as Noisette (Cuneiform, 2000) and Disc 4 was previously issued as Drop (Moonjune, 2008).
2015	Hugh Hopper Volume 9: Anatomy of Facelift	Five performances of "Facelift", 1969 through 1971.
2019	Live in London in the early Sixties (LP)	Eight tracks recorded live in 1963 in London, with Brian Hopper (sax), Hugh Hopper (cello, bass), Robert Wyatt (drums, voice), Kevin Ayers (bass, voice), Mike Ratledge (organ), Daevid Allen (guitar). These tracks are also in Man in a Deaf Corner (2001, 2 CD) as tracks 1.01–1.06 in a different remix.
2019	Top Gear Live in London 1967–1969 (LP)	Side 1 recorded in 1967 with the Ratledge/Wyatt/Ayers line-up; Side 2 recorded in 1969 with Ratledge/Wyatt/H. Hopper/B. Hopper line-up and including "Facelift" and "Moon in June".

Singles

• 1967: "Love Makes Sweet Music"/"Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin'" (Line-up: Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen) (Released in the UK and New Zealand, both the A- and B-side were later included on Triple Echo in 1977, the first time either appeared on an album)

• 1968: "Joy of a Toy"/"Why Are We Sleeping?" (Line-up: Ratledge, Wyatt, Ayers) (Both A- and B-side from the album The Soft Machine, single released in the US and Japan)

• 1978: "Soft Space (Part 1)"/"Soft Space (Part 2)" (Line-up: John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, John Etheridge, Ric Sanders, Steve Cook) (From the album Alive and Well, single released in the UK and most other European countries)

• 2024: "The Dew at Dawn"/"(Slightly) Slightly All the Time" (Line-up: Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Baker, Asaf Sirkis) (Released in the UK and online)

Bootlegs

The 1960s

1968

• 1968, 08–11, Live at Davenport, Iowa (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• 1968, 08–16, Live at the Merryweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
• 1968, 09–13, Live at the Hollywood Bowl, California (supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

1969

• 1969, 04–13, Live at the Country Club in London
• 1969, 06–25, Live at the Ba.Ta.Clan in Paris
• 1969, 08–09, Live at Plumpton Race Course – only "Moon in June" was performed
• 1969, 10–05, Live at the Lyceum in London
• 1969, 10–27, Live at the Liverpool University – Excerpt
• 1969, 10–28, Live at Actuel Festival in Amougies, Belgium – Excerpt

The 1970s

1970

• 1970, 01–04, Live at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon – This concert was published as Noisette (Cuneiform, 2000), but this official release lacks "Facelift" that was in part used for the Third album (1970), where it is joined by another version recorded 11 January and overdubbed. This concert is inserted here only because the version of "Facelift" herein contained (over 25 minutes long) is a very special version and the full song would deserve an official treatment.
• 1970, 01–17, Live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
• 1970, 04–04, Live at the Kolner Festival, Germany
• 1970, 09–01, BBC Radiophonic Workshop – Eamonn Andrews explained
• 1970, 09–17, Alan Black "Sound of the Seventies" (broadcast 25 Sept.), recorded at the Camden Theatre in London
• 1970, 10–24, Live at DeDoelen, Rotterdam – Excerpt

1971

• 1971, 02–07, Live at the Roundhouse, London, UK
• 1971, 03–21, Live in Het Turfschip, Breda, Netherlands
• 1971, 06–07, Live at the Cafe au Go Go (the Gaslight) in New York City
• 1971, 10–17, Donaueschinger Musiktage – This concert has appeared partially on Drop (Moonjune 2008)
• 1971, 11–07, Live at the Berlin Jazz Festival – There exist two versions of this concert: the live recording and the radio broadcast (with German DJ inserts) – this concert has appeared partially on Drop (Moonjune 2008)

1972

• 1972, 04–22, Live at Palazzo dello Sport in Bergamo, Italy
• 1972, 04–24, Live at the Piper Club in Rome
• 1972, 06–07, Live at King's Cross Cinema
• 1972, 12–03, Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, UK

1974

• 1974, 03–11, Radio Interview with Mike Ratledge and Allan Holdsworth for an American radio broadcast
• 1974, 03–13, Live at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York
• 1974, 03–17, Live at "My Father's Place" in Roslyn, New York
• 1974, 03–23–24, Live at the Howard Stein's Academy of Music in New York
• 1974, 08–10, Live at Le Naiadi, Pescara, Italy
• 1974, 09–20–24, Villa Pamphili Festival in Rome

1975

• 1975, 01–16, Live in Stuttgart, Germany
• 1975, 08–17, Live at the Théâtre antique d'Orange, Orange Festival in France
• 1975, 08–24, Live at the Reading Festival, UK
• 1975, 08–29, Live in Vienna
• 1975, 11–26, Live at the Cinéma Variétés in Marseille, France

1976

• 1976, 02–18, Live at the Palasport in Reggio Emilia, Italy
• 1976, 08–08, Live in Trieste, Italy
• 1976, 10–09, Live in Roskilde, Copenhagen
• 1976, 12–03, Live at the Palais des Sports in Paris

Related bands, projects & tributes discography

Discography

Year	Album	Soft Machine members involved
The Wilde Flowers
1965–69	The Wilde Flowers (released in 1994)	Ayers, B. Hopper, H. Hopper, Wyatt
The Keith Tippett Group
1970	You Are Here... I Am There	Charig, Dean, Evans
1971	Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening	Babbington, Charig, Dean, Evans, Howard, Wyatt
Centipede
1971	Septober Energy	Babbington, Charig, Dean, Evans, Jenkins, Marshall, Wyatt
Elton Dean
1971	Elton Dean (re-released as Just Us in 1998)	Dean, Babbington, Charig, Howard, Ratledge
Karl Jenkins (re-released as Soft Machine in 1994)
1976	Rubber Riff	Jenkins, Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall
Hopper / Dean / Tippett / Gallivan
1977	Cruel But Fair	H. Hopper, Dean
1977	Mercy Dash (released in 1985)	H. Hopper, Dean
Elton Dean, Alan Skidmore, Chris Laurence, John Marshall
1977	El Skid	Dean, Marshall
Planet Earth
1978	Planet Earth	Jenkins, Ratledge
Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Alan Gowen, Dave Sheen (re-released as Soft Head in 1996)
1978	Rogue Element	H. Hopper, Dean
Soft Heap
1979	Soft Heap	Dean, H. Hopper
1979	Al Dente (released in 2008)	Dean, H. Hopper
1982–83	A Veritable Centaur (released in 1995)	Dean
Rubba
1979	Push Button	Jenkins, Ratledge
2nd Vision
1980	First Steps	Etheridge, Sanders
Rollercoaster
1980	Wonderin'	Jenkins, Morrissey, Parker, Ratledge, Warleigh
Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, Vince Clarke, Frances Knight
1998	The Mind in the Trees	H. Hopper, Dean
Soft Works
2003	Abracadabra	Dean, Holdsworth, H. Hopper, Marshall
2003	Abracadabra in Osaka (released in 2020)	Dean, Holdsworth, H. Hopper, Marshall
Soft Mountain
2003	Soft Mountain (released in 2007)	Dean, H. Hopper
Soft Bounds
2005	Live at Le Triton	Dean, H. Hopper
Soft Machine Legacy
2005	Live In Zaandam	Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall
2006	Soft Machine Legacy	Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall
2006	Live at the New Morning	Dean, Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall
2007	Steam	Etheridge, H. Hopper, Marshall, Travis
2010	Live Adventures	Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall, Travis
2013	Burden of Proof	Babbington, Etheridge, Marshall, Travis
Delta Saxophone Quartet
2007	Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening: The Music Of Soft Machine	H. Hopper (as a guest on some tracks)

External links

• Soft Machine discography discography at Discogs