SOFT MACHINE Seven 1974 UK CBS 1st PRESS ONCE PLAYED
£
21
$
28
£ 21
Sold For
Apr 17, 2015
Sold Date
Apr 7, 2015
Start Date
£ 20
Start price
2
Number Of Bids
Great Britain
Country Of Seller
eBay
Auctioned at
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
SOFT MACHINE Seven 1974 UK CBS 1st PRESS ONCE PLAYED
SOFT MACHINESeven
UK CBS (65799) FIRST PRESSING (May 1974)
LOVELY COPY - ONCE PLAYED
PRESSED WITH THE FIRST SOLID ORANGE CBS LABELS
MATRIX: S 65799 A1 / S 65799 B1
THE RECORD IS HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL HEAVY GAUGE MATT GATEFOLD SLEEVE PRINTED BY “Shorewood Packaging Co. Ltd., England” WITH FACTORY SEALED LEFT SIDE EDGE
COMPLETE WITH THE ORIGINAL CBS COMPANY INNER SLEEVE (Issue Pop 3)
Soft Machine's revolving door of personnel changes continued with 1974's Seven, the last Softs album with a numbered title and also the last released by Columbia. Bassist Hugh Hopper was gone, replaced by Roy Babbington, a guest musician on 1971's Fourth who had played bass with Nucleus. Two other Nucleus alumni, keyboardist/reedman Karl Jenkins and drummer John Marshall, were on board as well, and since keyboardist/composer Mike Ratledge was now the band's only founding member (actually, Hopper wasn't an original member either, having replaced Kevin Ayers for Volume Two), the group's links to its early years seemed increasingly tenuous -- and would become more so. Yet when Jenkins had joined the group prior to Six, following the departure of saxophonist Elton Dean, he seemed to bring an intuitive grasp of how Soft Machine could continue moving forward in the band's jazz-rock years while retaining touchstones to the past. A less assertive saxophonist than Dean, Jenkins played multiple reeds but didn't really match Dean as an improviser; his main contributions in the future would be as keyboardist and composer in the ever-evolving Soft Machine style of jazz-rock. And on Seven, he penned seven of the album's 12 tracks, beginning to assume the band leadership role that Ratledge -- who composed four tracks -- shied away from. With Jenkins edging closer to the band's creative centre, the Softs forged ahead with their riff- and ostinato-based music, keyboard and reed melodies intersecting at unexpected angles with streamlined yet often odd-metered bass and drums, all flowing forward with muted, spacy sonorities and sometimes hypnotic repetition (and, of course, bridges or codas of echoing keyboard loops).
Ratledge composed a trio of connected tracks for Seven, a mini-suite beginning with the modal 9/8 "Day's Eye," including a solo feature for him to cut loose with his patented fuzz organ tone, bridging through the brief burst of "Bone Fire" (which puts Jenkins through his paces on baritone sax) to the truly heavy "Tarabos," its bass/keyboard vamp pulling upward and resolving at skewed points along an 18-beat sequence while Jenkins solos wildly with a signal splitter on his horn. But Jenkins sets the album's pace, beginning with the upbeat fuzzy riffing of the opening "Nettle Bed" and the drifting, dreamy "Carol Ann" through his own suite of connected tracks during the second half, including the trance-inducing "Penny Hitch," the full-throttle "Block" (building to an abrupt staccato unison conclusion), and the comparatively relaxed 5/4 vamp of "Down the Road" (featuring a fine arco acoustic bass solo from Babbington). The album ends with three minutes of spacy looping keyboards, split in two with the first part, "The German Lesson," credited to Ratledge as composer and the second part, "The French Lesson," credited to Jenkins, but there is no discernible division or musical difference between them -- no doubt intended as a joke, but also an apt comment on the passing of the torch during Soft Machine's '70s jazz-rock years
Side 1:
Nettle Bed (4:47)
Carol Ann (3:48)
Day's Eye (5:05)
Bone Fire (0:32)
Tarabos (4:32)
D.I.S. (3:02)
Side 2:
Snodland (1:50)
Penny Hitch (6:40)
Block (4:17)
Down The Road (5:48)
The German Lesson (1:53)
The French Lesson (1:01)
LABELS: MINT/NEAR MINT
An immaculate set of labels with no spindle traces on Side One and only one on Side Two
VINYL Visual: MINT/NEAR MINT
Both surfaces shine like new - Side Two has some superficial harmless brush marks - Side One is unmarked
VINYL Audio: EXCELLENT+
Always a difficult record to find in decent playing condition (even unplayed copies) and this one, even though it has seen little play (or no play of Side Two) still has the occasional click/touch of surface on the quietest moments - still one of the cleanest I’ve heard and in my experience they really don’t come much better - sounds great
SLEEVE: EXCELLENT
The matt sleeve (printed on thick card stock) is crisp, clean and sharp with just a little wear to the corners and spine
INNER SLEEVE: NEAR MINT
The original CBS advertising inner sleeve (Pop 3) is clean and unmarked - no seam splits
POST & PACKING:
A PROTECTIVE POLY SLEEVE, NEW ANTI-STATIC INNER, QUALITY BOX (NOT ENVELOPE) MAILER AND AMPLE STIFFENERS ARE ALWAYS USED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR RECORD ARRIVES SAFELY
UK: FREE (2nd class standard)
UK: £9.00 (Royal Mail Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm)
EUROPE: Airmail: £14.00 (International Signed For delivery)
INTERNATIONAL: Airmail: £17.00 (International Signed For delivery)
I will combine postage for items purchased within any 10 day period.
However, at the end of each 10 day period, all outstanding items will need to be paid for in full and will be posted to you.
Any items purchased after payment will be included in the next 10 period.
I am continually adding new items which may be of interest to you and it is impractical for me to allow payment to be postponed indefinitely in the expectation that you might wish to bid on future items. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation
Guarantee: All records are unconditionally guaranteed (including sealed and/or unplayed) and I will offer a complete, no quibble refund upon return of the item should you not be pleased with it in any way I will email you when payment has been received to let you know when the item will be posted. Please leave feedback upon receipt of the item so that I know you have received it safely. Thanks 606 (GS 6.9.3 (606))
price rating
