Soft Machine - Drop (Remastered 2025) (1971/2025) [Official Digital Download]

In 1971 the ever-evolving Soft Machine entered yet another period of transition following the departure of one of their founding members, drummer Robert Wyatt five months after the release of their Fourth album in February 1971. His replacement was Phil Howard, who had come to the UK along with a wave of other top-drawer players from Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s and was part of Elton Dean’s group, Just Us.

Whilst this decision may have been born out of necessity, Howard's arrival was a boost to Dean’s desire to move to a looser mode of expression, something he'd been doing since Fletcher’s Blemish (from Soft Machine’s Fourth) and their live blow-out, Neo Caliban Grides, which had been opening live shows of the day to startling effect.

Howard's arrival altered the band’s sound with a challenging approach that tipped the group into a deeper improvisational direction that fully embraced a more strident and uncompromising presentation during their live shows. When observers describe drummers as 'whipping up a storm' this is certainly true in Howard’s case. His playing often sounds more like a force of nature than anything remotely to do with keeping time or adding rhythmic emphasis, reminiscent at times of Stu Martin or Tony Williams’ polyrhythmic salvos, constantly pushing the group out to the very edge of their material.

TRACKLIST

1. Soft Machine - Neo Caliban Grides (2025 Remastered version)
2. Soft Machine - All White (2025 Remastered version)
3. Soft Machine - Slightly All The Time (2025 Remastered version)
4. Soft Machine - Drop (2025 Remastered version)
5. Soft Machine - M.C. (2025 Remastered version)
6. Soft Machine - Out-Bloody-Rageous (2025 Remastered version)
7. Soft Machine - As If (2025 Remastered version)
8. Soft Machine - Dark Swing (2025 Remastered version)
9. Soft Machine - Intropigling (2025 Remastered version)
10. Soft Machine - Pigling Bland (2025 Remastered version)



Thanks to the Original customer.