Jet Propelled Photographs

Though British beard-rock giants Soft Machine are famous for their combination of jazz rock and the post-psychedelic avant garde, and have achieved godhead status as fathers of the Canterbury school of prog, their beginnings were another matter entirely. JET PROPELLED PHOTOGRAPHS, whose contents have been released elsewhere under various titles, collects the band's earliest recordings. These 1967 demos are the only Soft Machine tracks to feature original guitarist Daevid Allen, who went on to form psych/prog legends Gong. While subsequent Soft Machine work points to the influence of everyone from tour-mate Jimi
Hendrix to electric-era Miles Davis, the songs on JET PROPELLED
PHOTOGRAPHS are firmly in the mid-'60s rock & roll mode, paying obeisance to the moody British Invasion sound of the Zombies and to American NUGGETS-style garage psych. Nevertheless, however stylistically unexpected, the material is of uniformly high quality, and some of these songs were reprised years later by some of the original participants (Allen and drummer/singer Robert Wyatt).|

The latest available CD version of a title which has been repackaged and retitled several times over the last 30 years. Recorded in London in April 1967 and produced by the legendary Giorgio Gomelsky, these nine demos feature the original Soft Machine lineup of Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Mike Ratledge, and Daevid Allen. Although not intended for release, these rough but accomplished performances show the band at their most pop- and song-oriented. Not far removed from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the jazzy chord changes, unpredictable bursts of scat singing, glib free-association lyrics, ominous buzzing organ, and Robert Wyatt's soulful rasp convey the freewheeling abandon and giddy high spirits that characterized the best early British psychedelia. For similar but more elaborately produced relics from the Daevid Allen lineup, check for the three tracks on the hard-to-find triple LP Triple Echo. ~ Richie Unterberger