Soft Machine: Bundles (1975)

The group finally gets a guitarist, and what a guitarist they got. Woodchuck.

Kronomyth 8: A bundle of joy.

Soft Machine waited years to bring a proper guitarist into the fold. Suffice it to say that Allan Holdsworth was worth the wait. Bundles is their best album in years. The material is excellent, yes, but it’s the musicianship—particularly from Holdsworth and John Marshall—that will blow you away. Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge actually recede into the background on Bundles, with Roy Babbington somewhere in between. From the opening Hazard Profile Part 1, with its obvious shades of Also Spracht Zarathustra, it’s clear that Soft Machine has big designs in mind. The five-part Hazard Profile ventures into some proggy terrain, sounding at times like Camel (notably their Snow Goose album). By the time Hazard Profile Part 5 arrives, you’ll be convinced you’ve gone from Seven straight to Heaven—and that’s before Mike Ratledge’s mind-bending synthesizer solo rolls around. Holdsworth is that rare creature: the guitarist who can play with emotion and momentum. That said, writing songs has never been his strength; Gone Sailing is pleasant (if brief) in a Steve Hackett sort of way, while Land of the Bag Snake is a little bit guilty of being, well, boring. The two songs from Ratledge are also merely good, similar to the jazzy, elusive pieces that appeared throughout Five, Six and Seven. It’s the writing of Jenkins and the playing of Holdsworth and Marshall that stand out on Bundles. The title track, Bundles, is mathematical in the best of ways, and The Floating World, which closes the album, is a solo study on meditation that I could have listened to for fifty minutes. Four Gongs Two Drums is a drum solo from a drummer who hasn’t stopped soloing since the opening moments. Whether it’s cause of coincidence, the addition of Holdsworth produced a proggier sound for Soft Machine that will appeal to fans of Brand X, Gong and the leading prog-fusion bands of the day. After an album like this, I’d eight to see them go back to playing amorphous jazz.

Original elpee version

A1a. Hazard Profile Part One (Karl Jenkins)
A1b. Hazard Profile Part Two (Toccatina) (Karl Jenkins)
A1c. Hazard Profile Part Three (Karl Jenkins)
A1d. Hazard Profile Part Four (Karl Jenkins)
A1e. Hazard Profile Part Five (Karl Jenkins)
A2. Gone Sailing (Allan Holdsworth)
B1. Bundles (Karl Jenkins)
B2. Land of the Bag Snake (Allan Holdsworth)
B3. The Man Who Waved at Trains (Mike Ratledge)
B4. Peff (Mike Ratledge)
B5. Four Gongs Two Drums (John Marshall)
B5. The Floating World (Karl Jenkins)

The Players

Roy Babbington (bass guitar), Allan Holdsworth (electric, acoustic and 12-string guitars), Karl Jenkins (oboe, piano, electric piano, soprano saxophone), John Marshall (drums, percussion), Mike Ratledge (organ, electric piano, synthesizer) with Ray Warleigh (alto flute & bass flute on B5). Produced by Soft Machine; executive producer: Sean Murphy; engineered by Bernie O’Gorman; tapes operated by Doug Bogie and Damian Korner.

The Pictures

Cover painting by Reg Cartwright. Photography by Barrie Wentzell.

The Plastic

Released on elpee in April 1975 in the UK (Harvest, SHSP 4044) and Japan (EMI, EMS-80222).

1. Re-issued on compact disc in 1990 in the UK and France (See for Miles, SEE CD 283).
2. Re-issued on remastered compact disc in 2010 in the EU (Esoteric, ECLEC 2916).
3. Re-issued on expanded, remastered 2CD in 2022 in the EU (Esoteric, ECLEC 22812) with bonus disc, Live at Nottingham University 11th October 1975.