About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Soft Machine plunged deeper into jazz and contemporary electronic music on this pivotal release, which incited The Village Voice to call it a milestone achievement when it was released. The original vinyl release was a double album of stunning music, with each side devoted to one composition -- two by Mike Ratledge, and one each by Hugh Hopper and Robert Wyatt, with substantial help from new bandmember Elton Dean on saxophones and a number of backup musicians, including Canterbury mainstay Jimmy Hastings. The Ratledge songs come closest to jazz fusion, although this is fusion laced with tape loop effects and hypnotic, repetitive keyboard patterns. Hugh Hopper's "Facelift" recalls "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson, although it's more complex, with several quite dissimilar sections. The pulsing rhythms, chaotic horn and keyboard sounds, and dark drones on "Facelift" predate some of what Hopper did as a solo artist later (this song was actually culled from two live performances in 1970). On his capricious composition "Moon in June," Robert Wyatt draws on musical ideas from early 1967 demos done with producer Giorgio Gomelsky. Lyrically, "Moon in June" is a satirical alternative to the pretension displayed by a lot of rock writing of the era, and combined with the Softs' exotic instrumentation, it makes for quite a listen. 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's psychedelic pop side is Vols. 1 & 2, but once introduced, this is the place to go. [The 2007 remastered edition features the original two-disc vinyl set of Third on one CD plus a bonus live disc of the Softs' "classic quartet" -- Ratledge, Hopper, Dean, and Wyatt -- performing "Out-Bloody-Rageous," "Facelift," and "Esther's Nose Job" live at Royal Albert Hall in 1970; this live material (also remastered) was previously issued as the Live at the Proms 1970 CD.] Peter Kurtz, All Music Guide

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