Soft Machine - Rivmic Melodies (1969)

Soft Machine were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (organ) plus, for the first few gigs only, American guitarist Larry Nowlin. This first Soft Machine line-up was involved in the early UK underground, performing at the UFO Club, the Speakeasy Club and Middle Earth, and their first single 'Love Makes Sweet Music' / 'Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin' was released in early 1967. They toured the Netherlands, Germany, and the French Riviera, and were highly regarded in Paris, as part of "in" crowd, resulting in invitations to appear on television shows and at the Paris Biennale in October 1967. After their return from France, Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom, so he returned to Paris to form Gong, and the group continued as a trio. The band's first album had been recorded in New York City in April 1968, at the end of the first leg of an American tour with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and to promote the album another tour of America was arranged, with Andy Summers, formerly of Dantalion's Chariot, joining the band on guitar. During the tour Summers was fired at the insistence of Ayers, who himself departed amicably after the final tour date at the Hollywood Bowl, and for the remainder of 1968 Soft Machine were no more. Wyatt stayed in the U.S. to record solo demos, while Ratledge returned to London and began composing in earnest. 
In December 1968, to fulfill contractual obligations, Soft Machine re-formed with former road manager and composer Hugh Hopper on bass, and recorded their second album 'Volume Two' in 1969, which started a transition toward jazz fusion. However, for this post we're imagining that when Soft Machine reformed in 1969, all three original members agreed to get back together, and so their second album 'Rivmic Melodies' included songs from all three composers, and was a mixture of first album-style songs and the new jazz-fusion direction that the band was experimenting with. There is a fascinating alternate timeline for Soft Machine here https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-soft-machine-rigmarole-a-soft-machine-timeline.484978/, from which I've borrowed the album title and cover, but their idea for the 'third' (in their timeline) album was for it to be a double, which included most of 'Volume Two' and Kevin Ayers' 'Joy Of A Toy'. However, on listening to it I felt that a few of Ayers' songs didn't really fit with the more avant garde Soft Machine sound, so I've condensed it down to a single album. It does include his 'Joy Of A Toy' out-take 'Soon, Soon, Soon', renamed for this album by the alternate timeline site as 'Pataphysical Conclusion', as a counterpoint to the opening 'Pataphysical Introduction', and whereas I'd loved to have used the original, slower mix of Ayer's 'The Lady Rachel', the orchestration sounded out of place so I've stuck with the original take. Ayers' 'Song For Insane Times' actually has Hopper, Ratledge and Wyatt as the backing band, so is in effect a Soft Machine recording, and so by adding these to a choice selection of tracks from 'Volume Two', we have the album that the Ayers/Ratledge/Wyatt lineup could have made in 1969. I've edited and cross-faded the tracks, as on the original 'Volume Two', and so enjoy the second album from the original line-up of Soft Machine.     

Track listing

01 Pataphysical Introduction  
02 Hibou Anemone and Bear  
03 Song for Insane Times  
04 Dada Was Here
05 The Lady Rachel
06 Hulloder  
07 Pataphysical Conclusion  
08 As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still  
09 Eleanor’s Cake (Which Ate Her) 
10 Dedicated to You But You Weren’t Listening  
11 Stop This Train (Again Doing It)  
12 A Door Opens and Closes  
13 10:30 Returns to the Bedroom