Features Andy Narell, Bela Fleck, and others. CD

A beautifully burning double-length set from Soft Machine – proof that the group were really at the height of their powers during the early 70s – magically blending together jazz, rock, and fusion into one soaringly spacey new sound! The work here is a key fore-runner of countless trends to come – including recent keyboard-heavy work on the cosmic club scene – particularly 4 Hero and the generation of others that sprang up in their wake. Soft Machine have a similar British bent for blending styles here – using jazz elements that are on a par with their best contemporaries in the straighter part of that genre – but fusing them together with a more pulsating approach to rhythm that pushes all the solo bits wonderfully! There's a fair bit of groove heavy tracks here that still sound as fresh today as when they were recorded – and the album features great drums from John Marshall, keyboards from Mike Ratledge, bass from Hugh Hopper, and a wide variety of reeds from Karl Jenkins. The album's a rich tapestry of long and short tracks, all woven together – and titles include "All White", "Between", "Riff", "EPV", "Stumble", "5 From 13", "Riff II", "The Soft Weed Factor", and "Chloe & The Pirates". LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work by John Klemmer – filled with the kind of fire and emotion that you don't get on many of his other records! The set was recorded live at two different venues – and it's a choppy slightly-funky batch of modal soul jazz tunes, with an approach that makes it feel like a lost album on Strata East. On side one, Mike Nock is on Fender Rhodes, Wilton Felder plays bass, and Eddie Marshall is on drums. Titles on that set include "Blood Of The Sun" and "How Cum Ya Got Ta Rip Off Your Brothers?". Side two was recorded live at Montreux, and features more Fender Rhodes, plus backing by Cecil McBee and Alphonze Mouzon. Klemmer plays tenor with echoplex processing, and titles include "Free Love" and "Tree Of Forbidden Fruit". LP, Vinyl record album