Soft Machine are an English rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, and Mike Ratledge .
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14 Facts About Soft Machine
2.
Soft Machine were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Mike Ratledge plus, for the first few gigs only, American guitarist Larry Nowlin.
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3.
In December 1968, to fulfill contractual obligations, Soft Machine re-formed with former road manager and composer Hugh Hopper on bass added to Wyatt and Ratledge and recorded their second album, Volume Two, which started a transition toward jazz fusion.
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4.
In 1969 the trio was expanded to a septet with the addition of four horn players, though only saxophonist Elton Dean remained beyond a few months, the resulting Soft Machine quartet running through Third and Fourth, with various guests, mostly jazz players .
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5.
Soft Machine was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard.
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6.
Soft Machine was replaced by Roy Babbington, another former Nucleus member, who had already contributed double bass on Fourth and Fifth and took up bass guitar successfully, while Karl Jenkins took over as bandleader and composer.
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7.
Soft Machine name was used for the 1981 record Land of Cockayne, and for a final series of dates at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in the summer of 1984, featuring Jenkins and Marshall leading an ad hoc line-up of Etheridge, Warleigh, pianist Dave MacRae and bassist Paul Carmichael.
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8.
Soft Machine Ware formed in September 1999, featuring Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall and longtime friend Keith Tippett.
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9.
Soft Machine Mountain named themselves after Hoppy Kamiyama, whose name translates to "God Mountain" in English.
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10.
Later on, Soft Machine Legacy released three albums: Live in Zaandam, the studio album Soft Machine Legacy recorded in September 2005 and featuring fresh material and the album Live at the New Morning .
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12.
On 7 September 2018, Soft Machine released Hidden Details, their first new studio album in five years .
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13.
On 20 March 2020, Soft Machine released Live at The Baked Potato, their first original live album in decades.
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14.
Soft Machine's music encompasses progressive rock, experimental rock, jazz rock, jazz, proto-prog, psychedelic rock and art rock, as well as being a part of the Canterbury scene of progressive rock.
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