Soft Machine’s new album Other Doors certainly echoes the Greek guy’s thought that “you can never step in the same river twice.” That’s the deal with Soft Machine: It’s a living musical equation, sort of like Can’s Tago Mago, that continues to evolve and cradles a nest in the cathedral melodies of Canterbury city.
For fans: The line-up is similar to that of Hidden Details, being John Etheridge, John Marshall, Theo Travis, with the addition of fretless bass player, Fred Thelonious Baker, although Roy Babbington does add a guest appearance on two of the tunes.
Now, just an odd comment: In the original Star Trek series, Captain James T. Kirk was (way too many times!) allowed to violate “the prime directive,” which is “a guiding principle of Starfleet that prohibits its members from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations.” Now, if the Enterprise were to spin the Earth backward (as it is occasionally wont to do) and encounter our current behemoth Borg-like cooperate music industry with accountants at the helm, well, let’s just say James T. would pretty much be free to invest an episode’s drama to “interfere” due to a dearth of “natural development” with carte blanche Starfleet authority.
As Soft Machine devotees know, however, we can all still “hope for happiness,” as Other Doors is vital music, of which even the often-stoic Mr. Spock (who was no slouch on the Vulcan harp!) would have to say, as he did 74 times in the series, his immutable word, “fascinating.”
To the music: The brief “Careless Eyes” is a lovely flute-guitar duet that echoes the mysterious beauty of the Island-period Jade Warrior, when instrumental albums (in the wake of Tubular Bells) like Tom Newman’s Faerie Symphony, Brand X’s Unorthodox Behavior, Marscape, and Pekka Pojohla’s Mathematician’s Air Display (aka Keesojen Lehto) widened a late-night listener’s attention span with a blur of rock, folk and jazz, and fused brain synapses in a warm and lovely way. Ditto for “A Flock of Holes” that does “all of the above” and also floats on a “pillow of winds.”
“Penny Hitch” revives the tune from Soft Machine Seven, continuing in the jazz-rock vein with bass and drum engine room propulsion, while Theo Travis and John Etheridge converse in an inter-galactic conversation. They also resurrect a playful version of “Joy of a Toy.” Thank you, Kevin Ayers and Mike Ratledge! These Softs do play with a Janus duality wisdom. On their last album, they revamped “The Man Who Waved at Trains” and “Out Bloody Rageous (Part 1).” As my friend Kilda Defnut always says, “Reverence to the past cleans all the musical rivers.” Sure.
The title tune evokes the Lizard/Islands-era King Crimson, with an extended sax and guitar drama that could have found its way into the midst of “The Letters.” The same is true for “Fell to Earth,” which is ripe with sax and electric guitar tension, with punched percussion and bass that anchor a swirling Circus multi-ringed ride. The eight-minute plus “Crooked Usage” is a Mediterranean journey, with wonderful impressionistic improvisation, that once again evokes (merely as a reference!) Crimson’s Islands. Big compliment, there. Theo Travis’ sax wanders on ancient beaches. John Etheridge’s guitar is a distant dance and sings like blown seabirds that flutter with improvisational melodies against a dissonant wind. The tune gurgles, stutters, bends, struts, wah-wahs, and just plays (sort of) “Out Bloody Rageous” music, that is “fascinating,” once again.
There are a few solo bits. “Whisper Back” is a John Etheridge electric guitar tune, which has the tenderness of Terje Rypdal’s quiet After the Rain album and John Abercrombie’s Characters solo record. “Maybe Never” blips, bumps, and bulges with a wonderful electronic watery current, courtesy of, perhaps, Theo Travis. The long-serving drummer John Marshall gets a well-earned solo moment with “Alice Clair,” which is listed as one of four bonus tracks. “Now! Is the Time” gulps, with Fred Thelonious Baker’s bass, like any fish that’s loving the river depths in which it breathes.
To quote, as I am wont to do, the great Procol Harum, “still there will be more.” “The Stars Apart” slows the current with a languid guitar into and then morphs into a hypnotic bass interlude before the guitar re-enters in a really nice stretched sunset fade. “The Visitor at the Window” returns to an impressionistic thought that once again, recalls Jade Warrior and Terje Rypdal’s album, Descendre, with a bit of sax added to cross the finish line. This is lovely stuff.
“Back in Season,” which is the final tune on the album proper, is a piano-flute-percussion trio that is infused with an elastic electric guitar that glances at the “Hatfield and the North” road sign with Canterbury Chaucer charm. There are also several bonus tracks, which oddly enough, aren’t listed on the Amazon album site. No matter: “Backwards” is a smooth jazzy workout with a fiery guitar solo. “Out of Interest” is a weird and churning sonic delight that ventures into tough deep brain caverns. Then there’s the before-mentioned drum solo of “Alice Clair.” Thank you, John Marshall! And finally, “Look You Know” quickly flips through a taped electronic collage as the band wonderfully warbles into the final grooves of the album.
Other Doors touches an eternal river. Sure, “Esther’s Nose Job” is still an important event, but Other Doors simply leaves us with yet another job – and that is to raise a prog-rock Star Trek eyebrow, wait for a dramatic moment, and then simply quote the enigmatic Mr. Spock and say that this album is, with Starfleet “prime directive” approval and with warp drive vigor, Borg beating and really quite, as is often said, just plain “fascinating.”
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