Third (Soft Machine album)

Third
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 1970
Recorded4 and 11 January 1970, April–May 1970
StudioCroydon and Birmingham ("Facelift"); IBC, London
Genre
Length78:28
LabelCBS (UK), Columbia (USA)
ProducerSoft Machine
Soft Machine chronology
Volume Two
(1969)
Third
(1970)
Fourth
(1971)

Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

"Facelift" is a live recording by the previous line-up of the band, a five-piece with Lyn Dobson on saxophone and flute alongside Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper and Dean. The remaining tracks are studio recordings by the four-piece line-up, augmented by a few session musicians. Jimmy Hastings (brother of Pye Hastings from Caravan) makes substantial contributions on flute and clarinet on "Slightly All the Time", free-jazz violinist Rab Spall (then a bandmate of Wyatt's in the part-time ensemble Amazing Band) is heard on the coda to "Moon in June", and Nick Evans (who had been a member of Soft Machine during late 1969 when they spent a short time as a seven-piece band) makes brief appearances on trombone in "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous".

  1. ^ Lynch, Dave. "Soft Machine | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (1999). All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. p. 120. ISBN 0-7535-0354-9. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
  3. ^ "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference am was invoked but never defined (see the help page).