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Soft Machine - Switzerland 1974 (2015)

Posted By: v3122

Date: 26 Aug 2018 06:58:27

Cuneiform's list of stellar Soft Machine archival releases grew longer in February 2015 with this CD/DVD set documenting the group's appearance at the storied Montreux Jazz Festival on July 4, 1974. Switzerland 1974 captures the Softs taking a huge leap into electric guitar-augmented jazz-rock thanks to formidable axeman Allan Holdsworth's addition to the lineup of keyboardist/reedman Karl Jenkins, drummer John Marshall, bassist Roy Babbington, and keyboardist (and only original bandmember) Mike Ratledge. Jenkins, Marshall, Babbington, and Ratledge had appeared on Soft Machine's final CBS/Columbia album, 1973's Seven and, as Aymeric Leroy writes in the Switzerland 1974 liners, Holdsworth's arrival signaled such a radical departure for the Softs that they dropped their existing repertoire and introduced a set of all-new music on tours leading up to the Montreux show, music that would shortly thereafter be recorded for 1975's Bundles, the band's first album on the Harvest label. So the Montreux set documented here – essentially a Bundles preview plus solo/duo interludes – is markedly different than the group's previous output, but the Softs weren't making an entirely clean break with the past either. The Jenkins-penned angular and propulsive opus "Hazard Profile" introduces Holdsworth's mind-boggling, lightning-fingered fretwork in all its unstoppable force – and with his later signature fluidity not quite fully in place, his picking actually has some extra bite – but unlike the studio version on Bundles, this "Hazard Profile" also offers up some classic Canterbury sounds in Babbington's fuzz bass (a clear tip of the hat to Hugh Hopper given a full airing on the Babbington solo showcase "Ealing Comedy") and Ratledge's burning organ tone.

Ratledge hadn't completely abandoned his signature Lowrey sound in live performance even over a year later (as documented on Major League Productions' 2005 British Tour '75), but the keyboardist stopped trotting it out in the studio, so Switzerland 1974, in contrast to Bundles itself, provides the distinct pleasure of hearing – and seeing – Holdsworth cut loose on an album that also features scattered bits of Ratledge's inimitable Softs organ stylings (also heard during the "Lefty" collective improvisation/"Penny Hitch" coda). And as for the "seeing," the DVD video is essential; it's a five-camera shoot with – for the most part – each camera focused where you want it to be: on the musicians who are actually playing. Sometimes the camera might even get a bit too close to fingers flying on a fretboard or tweaking AKS synthesizer knobs – but hey, the right guy is usually on-screen (and when seen as well as heard, Marshall's powerful, crisp, precise, and inventive drumwork is particularly impressive to behold). Be forewarned about rough patches in both the audio and video, but also rest assured that Udi Koomran's audio restoration and mastering could not be improved upon. And thanks to Cuneiform, you can now get close enough to watch Mike Ratledge's hands on the keys reflected in his sunglasses. For Soft Machine diehards, what could be better?

by Dave Lynch, AMG

Soft Machine at Wiki | Soft Machine at Discogs | Soft Machine at Allmusic | Soft Machine HomePage

***********

Soft Machine - Switzerland 1974 at Discogs

Soft Machine - Switzerland 1974 (2015):

Tracklist CD:

1. Hazard Profile (16:47)
2. Floating World (5:15)
3. Ealing Comedy (4:14)
4. Bundles (3:10)
5. Land of the Bag Snake (4:28)
6. Joint (2:21)
7. The Man Who Waved At Trains (3:02)
8. Peff (4:28)
9. The Man Who Waved At Trains (reprise) (0:21)
10. LBO (4:46)
11. Riff II (3:08)

Encore:
12. Lefty (collective improvisation) (2:07)
13. Penny Hitch (coda) (5:42)

EAC

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 8. February 2015, 9:43

Soft Machine / Switzerland 1974

Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-220RS Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Wavpack\wavpack.exe
Additional command line options : -hm -w "Year=%year%" -w "Genre=%genre%" %source% %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 16:46.43 | 0 | 75492
2 | 16:46.43 | 5:15.22 | 75493 | 99139
3 | 22:01.65 | 4:14.06 | 99140 | 118195
4 | 26:15.71 | 3:09.72 | 118196 | 132442
5 | 29:25.68 | 4:27.70 | 132443 | 152537
6 | 33:53.63 | 2:20.74 | 152538 | 163111
7 | 36:14.62 | 3:01.51 | 163112 | 176737
8 | 39:16.38 | 4:28.00 | 176738 | 196837
9 | 43:44.38 | 0:21.30 | 196838 | 198442
10 | 44:05.68 | 4:45.67 | 198443 | 219884
11 | 48:51.60 | 3:08.23 | 219885 | 234007
12 | 52:00.08 | 2:07.24 | 234008 | 243556
13 | 54:07.32 | 5:42.34 | 243557 | 269240

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\_NL+_\CD82\Soft Machine - Switzerland 1974.wav

Peak level 95.3 %
Extraction speed 7.9 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1D77D870
Copy CRC 1D77D870
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database
Track 10 not present in database
Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3

[CTDB TOCID: 0aPg9ovA78vncTR0BXjNBdI7oS0-] found, Submit result: 0aPg9ovA78vncTR0BXjNBdI7oS0- has been confirmed
[ae7aeae9] (2/2) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum A46B76A0A447111788726CD90FB9BB0F02AFC45CF3F7951D550B581CD19CEECA ====

foobar2000 1.2.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-12-23 10:03:39

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Soft Machine / Switzerland 1974
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR9 -0.42 dB -11.75 dB 16:47 01-Hazard Profile
DR10 -2.89 dB -16.35 dB 5:15 02-Floating World
DR9 -0.58 dB -12.34 dB 4:14 03-Ealing Comedy
DR8 -1.34 dB -10.70 dB 3:10 04-Bundles
DR9 -1.20 dB -10.93 dB 4:28 05-Land of the Bag Snake
DR11 -1.24 dB -14.81 dB 2:21 06-Joint
DR9 -1.21 dB -12.98 dB 3:02 07-The Man Who Waved At Trains
DR10 -1.22 dB -12.74 dB 4:28 08-Peff
DR10 -1.22 dB -12.12 dB 0:21 09-The Man Who Waved At Trains (reprise)
DR11 -1.15 dB -16.11 dB 4:46 10-LBO
DR9 -1.20 dB -13.66 dB 3:08 11-Riff II
DR10 -1.21 dB -13.13 dB 2:07 12-Lefty (collective improvisation)
DR10 -1.23 dB -13.55 dB 5:42 13-Penny Hitch (coda)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 13
Official DR value: DR10

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 803 kbps
Codec: FLAC

CUETools

[CUETools log; Date: 23.12.2015 10:03:47; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: 0aPg9ovA78vncTR0BXjNBdI7oS0-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
2 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
3 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
4 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
5 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
6 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
7 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
8 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
9 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
10 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
11 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
12 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
13 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 0022c8d0-014004c4-b70e050d] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [563f58ff|b9ceb9e1] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
02 [ae170981|faf5f906] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
03 [55d023b5|fa6359a2] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
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05 [bf65f4b8|755df877] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
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07 [6babb0fa|e28cfc51] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
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09 [ac98df43|4c237f47] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
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11 [d17eea67|d34f1d05] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
12 [d5faed70|ba5cc116] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped
13 [f4b3a8a3|872334e4] (0+8/8) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 95,3 [1D77D870] [48FDB6FB] CRC32
01 95,3 [27C99B11] [197EF4CD]
02 71,6 [AC5175F5] [AE2FBD22]
03 93,5 [353678FB] [4B2433B6]
04 85,6 [EB1AE86C] [C6EE4D15]
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10 87,6 [E5116048] [93883D75]
11 87,0 [9BAAF3F4] [B502D2DC]
12 86,9 [E5A6EF72] [315B975C]
13 86,7 [723E1E4E] [F5A522CA]

Tracklist DVD:

1. Hazard Profile (16:47)
2. Floating World (5:15)
3. Ealing Comedy (4:14)
4. Bundles (3:10)
5. Land of the Bag Snake (4:28)
6. Joint (2:21)
7. The Man Who Waved At Trains (3:02)
8. Peff (4:28)
9. The Man Who Waved At Trains (reprise) (0:21)
10. LBO (4:46)
11. Riff II (3:08)

Encore:
12. Lefty (collective improvisation) (2:07)
13. Penny Hitch (coda) (5:42)

DVDInfo

Title: Soft Machine 2015 - Switzerland 1974 - DVD
Size: 4.09 Gb ( 4 285 470,00 KBytes ) - DVD-5
Enabled regions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

VTS_01 :
Play Length: 00:00:18
Video: NTSC 4:3 (720x480) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)

VTS_02 :
Play Length: 00:00:35
Video: NTSC 4:3 (720x480) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (Dolby AC3, 2 ch)

VTS_03 :
Play Length: 01:00:43
Video: NTSC 4:3 (720x480) VBR
Audio:
Not specified (LinearPCM, 2 ch)