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Review: The Soft Machine, Jam Jar – ‘Much more than mere nostalgia’
It’s been six decades since the beginnings of the Soft Machine and guitarist John Etheridge has been there for fifty of those years. By contrast, drummer Asaf Sirkis was recruited in 2023 following the sad passing of John Marshall, the band’s percussion powerhouse since 1973.
So it was great to see from the outset how comfortably both John and Asaf sat together in the Soft Machine sound world as they launched into Visitor at the Window.
After some electronic meandering Theo Travis’ snappy tenor sax led a tight 4-bar riff with Fred ‘Thelonious’ Baker’s bass, Asaf rolling into the groove and John letting loose the first of many sizzling barrages of guitar.
It’s a recent composition that could easily have come from the mid-70s jazz-rock period when the band’s sound coalesced, as epitomised by 1976’s Tales of Taliesin which followed it with it’s hippyish start and John McLaughlin-esque flamboyance.
It wasn’t all high energy flash stuff – impressive though that was – and Song of Aeolus held a steadier slow waltz beat under a poised guitar solo that somehow combined echoes of flamenco with Gary Moore.
Fred Baker’s bass provided a perfect underpinning, a solid fluency well matched by the drummer, and his eventual bass solo on Joy Of A Toy was a rare but well-deserved spotlight moment.
Asaf’s place in the sun came when the fuzzed bass of 10.30 Returns To Bedroom ushered in a solo driven by a rigorous quarter-note bass drum engine over which he could ride his rhythmic choices .
The tidy stateliness of Backwards with its mellifluous flute solo from Theo led to the closing notes of Noisette, a majestically sweeping anthem of classic prog proportions and a very fitting end to this satisfying evening of time travel.
The contemporary Soft Machine sound has a crisper clarity about it, largely due to music’s technical progress since the early 70s but also perhaps due to a clearer focus on what that sound should be. The musical results certainly seemed equally pleasing to grey heads and younger folk alike – a reassuring indicator that the Soft Machine can deliver much more than mere nostalgia.
All images: Tony Benjamin
Read next:
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- Ian A Anderson: ‘I’m going to try to keep the body count down’
- In the Know: Hadie Abido, the Jam Jar – ‘We do things because they feel good’
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