All Music Guide
Though it is scarcely discernible from the CD box sets that listeners now take for granted, Triple Echo was all but unique when it first appeared in 1977, a three-LP boxed anthology that trawled across an entire career, unearthing outtakes, rarities, radio sessions, and more, to paint a career-spanning portrait of one of Britain's best-loved, if least-appreciated, bands. The Soft Machine, after all, had never scored a hit single, never had a number one album -- had never, to be truthful, disturbed the U.K. pop mainstream in the slightest. But their tale was one of the most extraordinary of the age, from their humble beginnings as the launching pad for Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, and Robert Wyatt, on through the ceaseless convolutions of nine regular albums and -- according to the accompanying Pete Frame family tree -- no less than 15 different lineups. Lovingly compiled by the band's latest label, Triple Echo opens with both sides of the Softs' first single, the almost whimsical "Love M...akes Sweet Music," before plowing into a sweet version of Hugh Hopper's "Memories," cut during early sessions with producer Giorgio Gomelsky -- material, of course, that has since become ubiquitous in Softs collecting circles, but had hitherto appeared only on a badly packaged French import compilation. Spellbinding, too, is the band's unreleased second single, Joe Boyd's production of Ayers' "She's Gone." The remainder of disc one is devoted to generally unimpeachable highlights from the band's first two albums; disc two, however, opens with a genuine treat, a John Peel Session version of "The Moon in June," radically different from the version subsequently recorded for the group's third album, and frequently regarded as superior, too. Further Peel material follows, as Triple Echo delves into the sole studio legacy of the group's short-lived seven piece lineup. Again, the Softs' BBC output is now readily available in a variety of forms, but this not only marked its debut release, it also stands alone among the very first Peel Session-style releases ever. After so much excitement, the third disc returns to the band's regular output, with two (again well-chosen) tracks apiece from Fourth and Fifth, and one each from the four albums thereafter -- it closes with "The Tale of Taliesen" from the recently released Softs album. A very well-designed eight-page booklet completes the package with the aforementioned family tree, some great rare photos, and reasonable track annotation -- everything, in fact, that you could possibly hope to find in a modern box set. Now, if you could just figure out how to get those big black round things into the CD player.... - Dave Thompson, All Music Guide Read more Less
