IT MUST be hard for a lot of people to understand that, in France, the Soft Machine are one of the top three or four bands. Hard because they mean little in Britain as yet, although they can pack the Fairfield Hall and command a week's residence at the Ronnie Scott Club.

Their first two albums were released first in the States on the Probe label and only the second of these was put out in Britain, after a considerable timelag. These omissions will be rectified early next month, when their new double-album will appear under a new contract with CBS.

The album called simply "Third," resembles Pink Floyd "Ummagumma" in that each member of the band has been given complete freedom. Bassist Hugh Hopper and drummer Robert Wyatt have one side each, while organist / pianist Mike Ratledge has two.

The album called simply "Third," resembles Pink Floyd "Ummagumma" in that each member of the band has been given complete freedom. Bassist Hugh Hopper and drummer Robert Wyatt have one side each, while organist / pianist Mike Ratledge has two.

It opens with Hopper's "Facelift" which is actually a collage of two live performances (from the Fairfield Hall and Mothers in Birmingham, both last January) plus some tapeloops overlayed by Hopper later on. Most of the material is from the Fairfield concert, and the side opens with the extraordinary organ solo with which the second half began.

Ratledge is now probably the most resourceful and inventive organist anywhere, making most other practitioners sound academic with his sliding pitch-warps and visceral gobs of sound. The "bugged" soprano (Lyn Dobson) and alto (Elton Dean) play a Zappalike theme, wich segues quickly into a very percussive 7/4 tune, with Wyatt asserting himself strongly behind the organ solo. Dobson solos well on flute and electric soprano, and it's back to the theme, which is played forwards before the tape is reversed to give a pyramid effect.

Ratledge's "Slightly All The Time " starts with harmonics on the bass, and Dean's overdubbed alto and saxello play a theme which has a strong jazz flavour Dean solos on alto over a ponderous bass progression, being interrupted occasionally by brief two-horn riffs which are introduced each time by a staccato organ phrase. A flute solo by Jimmy Hastings develops into a written flute loop, which repeats on top of the saxes' theme, and the saxello and organ solo over a 9/4 pattern. The track fades with a stately theme voiced by the reeds, fuzz organ, and fuzz bass.

Robert Wyatt's "Moon In June" features a great deal of the drummer's highly unorthodox singing, with is most effective in the improved passages, especially when doctored with echo. Robert played most of the organ and electric piano on this track, Ratledge only coming in for a solo near the end.

Finally there's Ratledge's "Out-bloody-rageous," which opens in startling fashion with piano tapes played backwards, all based on progressions of the bass line which underpins the main theme. This theme is again played by Dean on overdubbed alto and saxello, and trombonist Nick Evans makes a couple of brief appearances. Dean has an extraordinarily beautiful alto solo before the track ends with another tape collage, this time of the electric piano overdubbed three or four times, playing phrases of differing lenghts which gradually contract.

The Softs are an exhilarating band, and listening to them can be like jumping off a cliff into a pool of freezing water. The new album is full of music of such fine, invigorating quality, and their crucial importance in the future of popular music cannot be denied.

Richard Williams