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Third (Soft Machine album)

Third is the third studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released in June 1970 by CBS Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. The album was recorded from January to May 1970, partially at IBC Studios, based in London, and was produced by the band themselves. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Musically, Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

Songs
The original release of Third had an unpolished sound quality, including tape hiss on the live recordings and abrupt editing. "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous" are the most straightforward tracks on the album, representing the jazz-rock sound that would be explored further on subsequent albums. Sides C and D "Moon in June" is the last song with lyrics that Soft Machine recorded, and their last look back to their progressive rock, pre-jazz sound. The song is in three parts. The first is a pastiche of vocal themes delivered in a stream of consciousness which varied in live performances. Wyatt plays all the instruments in this section. but largely from new vignettes recorded in a demo by Wyatt in October 1968 while on holiday in New York state. An excerpt from a different demo of Part 1, recorded in November 1968, was included on Robert Wyatt's 2001 Flotsam Jetsam archive compilation. The second part features the whole band, and is an instrumental similar to other jazz-rock pieces on the album. A demo of the second and third parts was recorded in Spring 1969, which was spliced onto the October 1968 demo to be included on Soft Machine's 2002 Backwards archival release. A live recording from 24 May 1970 in London was released on Backwards, containing a shortened version of parts 2 and 3. A pre-Third performance that includes a shortened instrumental Part 1 was recorded live at the Fairfield Halls concert and appears on Soft Machine's 2000 Noisette archive release. "Out-Bloody-Rageous" is an instrumental composed by Ratledge, with sections featuring repetitive multi-tracked electric piano parts, in a style inspired by the work of Terry Riley. and a 2-CD anthology from 2005 entitled Out-Bloody-Rageous An Anthology 1967–1973. ==Reception==
Reception
Third was released in June 1970 and became the band's first and highest charting album, peaking at No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart. A retrospective review in Allmusic praised the exotic instrumentation and fusion of genres, and concluded, "Not exactly rock, Third nonetheless pushed the boundaries of rock into areas previously unexplored, and it managed to do so without sounding self-indulgent. A better introduction to the group is either of the first two records, but once introduced, this is the place to go." ==Reissues==
Reissues
In 2007, the album was re-issued on CD by Sony BMG with a second disc comprising a complete live album, Live at the Proms 1970, which had been previously released by a small independent company called Reckless Records in 1988. This album was recorded at The BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall on 13 August 1970. The band's performance, in the second half, following the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the first, ==Track listing==
Personnel
;Soft Machine • Elton Dean – alto saxophone, saxello (all but 3) • Mike Ratledge – Hohner Pianet, Lowrey organ, piano, Hammond organ (2) • Hugh Hopper – bass guitar • Robert Wyatt – drums, vocals (3), plus on 3 (uncredited): Hammond organ, Mellotron, Hohner Pianet, piano, bass ;Additional personnel • Lyn Dobson – flute, soprano saxophone (1) • Jimmy Hastings – flute, bass clarinet (2, 4) • Nick Evans – trombone (2, 4) • Rab Spall – violin (3) == Charts ==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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