Soft Machine are <!-- This article is written in British English, which commonly treats collective nouns as plural. Please do NOT change "ARE" to "IS". Thank you. --> an English rock band from Canterbury, Kent. The band were formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. Soft Machine were central in the Canterbury scene; they became one of the first British psychedelic acts, and later helped pioneer progressive and jazz rock, widely regarded as the first progressive rock band. Soft Machine's lineup has undergone many changes, and has included Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth. , the current lineup consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis. The band's name originates from William S. Burroughs's novel The Soft Machine.
Originating from the band The Wilde Flowers, Soft Machine began as a psychedelic rock band, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1968. Their second album, Volume Two (1969), marked their move towards progressive rock and jazz rock, which was fully realised with the subsequent two albums, Third (1970) and Fourth (1971). By 1971, Soft Machine became a purely instrumental jazz rock band, continuing this direction across their subsequent albums, Fifth (1972), Six, Seven (both 1973), Bundles (1975), Softs (1976), and Alive & Well (1978).
The band split in 1978, though two brief reunions occurred during the 1980s, first for the recording of the album Land of Cockayne (1981), and then for a few live shows in 1984. The group Soft Machine Legacy was formed in 2004, and released three studio albums, including their self-titled debut (2006), Steam (2007), and Burden of Proof (2013). The "Legacy" suffix was dropped in 2015, and they have since released three studio albums, Hidden Details (2018), Other Doors (2023) and Thirteen (2026). Though they have achieved little commercial success, critics consider Soft Machine to have been influential in rock music. Dave Lynch at AllMusic called them "one of the most influential underground bands of their era".
History
Original run (1966–78)
Early releases and The Soft Machine (1966–1968)
In mid-1966, Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Larry Nowlin (guitar) formed Soft Machine, who were billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969 or 1970. Allen and Wyatt first played together in 1963 as part of the Daevid Allen Trio, and were occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. In 1964, Wyatt and Ayers were founder members of The Wilde Flowers; by 1966, they had both left that band and rejoined Allen to form the short-lived band Mister Head, which also included Nowlin. The four members soon joined with Ratledge to form the Soft Machine. Ayers suggested the band's name, which comes from William S. Burroughs's novel The Soft Machine (1961). The band became a quartet when Nowlin departed in September 1966.
During late 1966 and early 1967, the Soft Machine became involved in the early UK underground scene. Along with Pink Floyd, they became one of the major resident bands at the UFO Club, and played other London clubs like the Speakeasy and Middle Earth. According to Wyatt, the Soft Machine received negative reactions when playing at venues other than these underground clubs; this led to their penchant for long tracks and segued tunes because continuously playing deprived their audiences chances to boo them. In February 1967, the band released their first single "Love Makes Sweet Music" on Polydor Records. Polydor later released these demos in 1972 as Jet Propelled Photographs. Later in 1967, the band began touring in mainland Europe, becoming especially popular in France. When returning from a tour of France in August, Allen, an Australian, was denied re-entry to the UK,
The Soft Machine, who shared the same management as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, supported them on two North American tours during 1968. The band signed to Probe Records and recorded their eponymous first album in New York City in April at the end of the first tour, though it was not released until December. In London, guitarist Andy Summers, later of the Police, joined the Soft Machine. The band's new line-up began a US tour with some headlining shows before supporting Hendrix in August and September 1968. By the time the Hendrix tour began, Summers had been fired at Ayers' insistence. Ayers himself departed amicably after the final tour date at the Hollywood Bowl in September, and the Soft Machine disbanded. Wyatt stayed in the US to record solo demos while Ratledge returned to London and began composing.
Transition into jazz; Volume Two, Third, and Fourth (1969–1971)
In December 1968, to fulfil contractual obligations, Wyatt and Ratledge re-formed the Soft Machine with their former road manager Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers on bass. Hopper, like Ayers and Wyatt, was a founding member of The Wilde Flowers. In 1969, the Soft Machine recorded their second album Volume Two, which started a change to jazz fusion. The album fulfilled the band's contract with Probe and they signed with CBS Records by the beginning of 1970. In May 1969, the Soft Machine played as the uncredited backing band on two tracks of The Madcap Laughs, the debut solo album of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. Shortly after the Barrett recording, Hopper's brother Brian Hopper, another Wilde Flowers co-founder, joined the Soft Machine on saxophone. Around this time, the band recorded the soundtrack for a multimedia show called Spaced, which ran in London for five days in mid 1969. The soundtrack was commercially released in 1996 by Cuneiform Records. In October 1969, following Brian Hopper's departure, the Soft Machine expanded to a septet; Wyatt, Ratledge and Hugh Hopper added a four-piece horn section composed of the saxophonists Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson, cornet player Mark Charig and trombonist Nick Evans. After two months, Charig and Evans departed the band.
The quintet continued until March 1970, when Dobson departed. The remaining quartet recorded the double album Third (1970) and its single-album follow-up Fourth (1971). Third was mostly instrumental save for Wyatt's song "Moon in June", the last Soft Machine song to have lyrics. Third is unusual for its time in having each of the four sides feature one suite.
Fifth to Softs and breakup (1972–1978)
thumb|Ticket for a 1971 Soft Machine concert in the [[Deutschlandhalle, West Berlin, supported by Family, Yes and Man.]]
After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt was fired in August 1971 and formed Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle", French for "soft machine"; also said at the time to have been taken from stage lighting equipment "Matching Mole"). During 1977, Soft Machine recorded the live album Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris, which was released early the following year. In 1978, Soft Machine gave only one live performance, which was at the Sound & Musik Festival in Dortmund, West Germany, on 8 December, with a line-up of Marshall, Jenkins, Cook and Holdsworth. After this show, Soft Machine disbanded.
Occasional reunions (1980–81; 1984)
The name Soft Machine was resurrected for the 1981 album Land of Cockayne. Soft Machine also briefly reformed for a series of concerts at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in mid 1984