Soft Machine

This article is about the rock band. For the band's debut album, see The Soft Machine (Soft Machine album). For the William Burroughs novel, see The Soft Machine. For other uses, see The Soft Machine (disambiguation).

Soft Machine
Group circa 1970: l-r: Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper
Group circa 1970:
l-r: Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper
Background information
OriginCanterbury, England
Genres
DiscographySoft Machine discography
Years activeSoft Machine:
1966–1978
1980–1981
1984
2015–present
Spin-off bands:
1978–1988[1] (as Soft Heap / Soft Head),
1999–2002 (as Soft Ware),
2002–2004 (as Soft Works),
2003 (as Soft Mountain),
2004 (as Soft Bounds),
2004–2015 (as Soft Machine Legacy)
LabelsABC Probe, Columbia, Harvest, EMI, Major League Productions (MLP)
Spinoffs
  • Planet Earth
  • Soft Heap / Soft Head
  • Soft Ware
  • Rubba
  • 2nd Vision
  • Rollercoaster
  • Soft Works
  • Soft Mountain
  • Soft Bounds
  • Soft Machine Legacy
Spinoff of
Members
Past members
Websitesoftmachine.org

Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive and jazz rock, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971.[2] The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean,[3] John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.

Though they achieved little commercial success, Soft Machine are considered by critics to have been influential in rock music.[4][5][6] Dave Lynch at AllMusic called them "one of the most influential underground bands of their era".[2] The group were named after the novel The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs.

  1. ^ "Elton Dean chronology (Soft Head / Soft Heap concerts)". calyx-canterbury.fr. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b Lynch, Dave. "Soft Machine". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  3. ^ Sutcliffe, Phil (5 March 1991). "Where are they Now? Soft Machine". Q Magazine. 55: 33.
  4. ^ Jones, Mikey IQ (24 March 2015). "A beginner's guide to Daevid Allen". FACT. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  5. ^ Keepnews, Peter (16 March 2015). "Daevid Allen, Guitarist and Singer in Progressive Rock, Dies at 77". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  6. ^ Lynch, Joe (13 March 2015). "Soft Machine & Gong Co-Founder Daevid Allen Dead at 77". Billboard. Retrieved 26 August 2018.