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Soft Machine: Facelift France and Holland
by Maurizio Comandini
Sotto l'ombrello robusto chiamato Soft Machine si nascondono in realtà parecchie band. All'inizio l'interesse del gruppo, nato nel 1966 in quel di Canterbury (anche se loro non vogliono essere considerati come esponenti del cosiddetto Canterbury Sound), era per una sorta di pop-rock patafisico, che poi ha iniziato a dilatarsi verso la psichedelia, il rock progressivo, il ...
Caravan in 37 dischi
by Maurizio Comandini
Impressionante. Questa è la prima parola che ci viene in mente per Who Do You Think You Are?, uno dei cofanetti più esaustivi della produzione discografica legata al rock. 35 CD, un DVD, un disco Blu-ray. Un volume di grande formato con circa 150 pagine riccamente illustrate, decina e decina di memorabilia legate alla storia dei ...
Who Do You Think We Are?
by John Kelman
Trying to find a distinct definition of what has come to be known as “The Canterbury Sound" is as elusive as attempting to describe what, in the jazz world, has become an overused epithet for the German ECM Records label and “The ECM Sound." Attempts to do so usually fail short because, rather than being actual ...
New Sounds and Archive Nuggets
by Bob Osborne
A mixture of old and new this time. Featured albums are from Behn Gillece, Devin Gray, Camila Nebbia & Axel Filip, Damon Locks and Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp. There's also a couple of albums from 2020 that I have only just gotten around to, plus some archive specials from Hugh Hopper, Marc Ducret and Miles ...
Abracadabra in Osaka
By Soft Works
Label: MoonJune Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Seven Formerly; Alphrazallan; Elsewhere; Baker's Treat; Calyx; Kings & Queens; Abracadabra; Madame Vintage Suite; Has Riff; First Grande; Facelift.
Soft Machine: Live At The Baked Potato
by Chris May
Live At The Baked Potato was recorded in Los Angeles in 2019 as part of Soft Machine's 50th Anniversary Tour. (Fact check: 2019 was the band's 53rd and this lineup's fourth anniversary). The latest album is a lot of fun even though it bears little resemblance to the music of the revolutionary 1966 -1969 lineups featuring ...
Results for pages tagged "Hugh Hopper"...
Hugh Hopper
Born:
Hugh Hopper is perhaps the central figure of the whole Canterbury scene. In a career spanning over thirty years, he has played with literally everyone: Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen, Richard Sinclair, Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Phil Miller, Dave Stewart, Pip Pyle...
Hopper was one the founder members of the seminal Wilde Flowers in 1964. During the 60's, he also worked in an experimental context with guitarist Daevid Allen (who later founded or co-founded Soft Machine and Gong). After leaving the Wilde Flowers, he became Soft Machine's roadie, and when Kevin Ayers departed for a solo career, he swapped roles and moved to the role of bass player, remaining in the band until 1973 and playing on most of Soft Machine's classic albums.
In the early days of Soft Machine, Hopper was a prolific songwriter (his song "Memories" became a standard, even covered by Whitney Houston!), but when the Softs opted for an instrumental format, he kept the same level of inspiration, providing compositions full of unusual yet catchy riffs, and experiments with sounds (Hopper was a pioneer in the use of 'tape loops'), for instance on the groundbreaking Third (1970), which featured his own "Facelift," one of the Canterbury "hymns" alongside "Nan True's Hole" and "Calyx." Although he provided the bulk of the material for Fourth (1971), his creative input sadly decreased over the next couple of years, contributing short and rather minimal pieces to 5 and Six.
Hopper left Soft Machine in May 1973, shortly after the release of his first solo album, 1984, which had good jazz-rock instrumentals on one side, and a long experimental and partly improvised composition/collage on the other
Poetry and Jazz: A Chronology
by Duncan Heining
My intention here is to offer a detailed but inevitably incomplete chronology of poetry and jazz. The focus is solely on the combination of the two art forms in performance, not on poetry about jazz or jazz musicians or poetry inspired by jazz but not performed to music. My definition of 'poetry' is fairly broad and ...
Soft Machine: Hidden Details
by John Kelman
Following a series of releases for Moonjune Records under the moniker Soft Machine Legacy, beginning with 2005's Live in Zaandam and concluding, most recently, with 2013's Burden of Proof, this quartet consisting largely of members from the classic Canterbury group Soft Machine has finally decided to drop the “Legacy" and go it with the original name ...
Needlepoint: The Diary Of Robert Reverie
by Roger Farbey
Norwegian band Needlepoint's fourth release for BJK is an intriguing one, full of vocal-based songs that twist and turn at every opportunity. The near-title track “Robert Reverie" contains a skilfully fast and labyrinthine guitar solo from Bjørn Klakegg, underpinned by wistful words, riff-laden bass and keyboards. and energetic, surgically precise drumming. By contrast, Nikolai Hængsle's Hugh ...
