Rivmic Melodies & Radio Gnome Frequencies: a Pataphysical Introduction to the Canterbury Sound [Mixtape & Guide]

In mid-60s Canterbury, a new sound was germinating that would combine musical complexity with psychedelic whimsy, jazz-inspired improvisation, and avant-garde production techniques, proving to be a cornerstone of progressive music for decades to come. Unlike the prog-rock bands developing 60 miles away in London, the Canterbury bands usually refrained from taking themselves too seriously, balancing out their instrumental chops with a sense of humor and an affinity for pop melodicism. Below I’ve posted a 100-minute vinyl mixtape that includes many of my favorite Canterbury tracks, a brief history of Soft Machine, and a list of 5 albums I recommend to explore this exciting sound.

Listen:

Tracklist:

Artist	Track	Album
The Soft Machine	Joy Of A Toy/Hope For Happiness (Reprise)	The Soft Machine
The Soft Machine	As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still	Volume Two
Gong	Gong Song	Magick Brother
Soft Machine	Moon in June	Third
Caravan	In The Land Of Grey & Pink	In The Land Of Grey & Pink
Kevin Ayers	Song of the Bottom of a Well	Whatevershebringswesing
Soft Machine	Neo-Caliban Grides/Out-Bloody-Rageous (Live, 1971)	Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971
Matching Mole	God Song	Little Red Record
Hatfield and the North	The Stubbs Effect/Big Jobs/Going Up to People/Calyx (Suite)	Hatfield and the North
Gong	Flying Teapot/Wet Drum Sandwich (Live, 1973)	Live Au Bataclan 1973
Gong	I Never Glid Before	Angel’s Egg
Robert Wyatt	Alifib/Alife	Rock Bottom
Gong	Magick Mother Invocation/Master Builder	You
Hatfield and the North	Didn’t Matter Anyway	The Rotters’ Club

A Brief History of Soft Machine

Many of the primary culprits of the scene, including Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, Dave Sinclair, and Kevin Ayers, originally met at a secondary grammar school where they shared their love for dadaist philosophy, jazz LPs, and playing music. One of the resulting bands was the unassuming rock group The Wilde Flowers founded in 1964, which would eventually splinter off into some of Canterbury’s most pivotal groups, Soft Machine, Caravan, and Hatfield & the North.

Soft Machine remains the most well-known of the scene, getting their start playing psychedelic parties with Pink Floyd at London’s UFO Club. The first incarnation consisted of Canterbury natives Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals), and Mike Ratledge (keyboard, organ), as well as Daevid Allen (guitar), an Australian nomad who was renting a room at Wyatt’s family home. Allen’s tenure didn’t last long, however; after a show in France, he was prevented from returning to England with the rest of the band because of his immigration status, and stayed in France where he began a commune with local musicians and started the spacey jazz-rock group, Gong. Yet the Softs continued on without a dedicated guitarist, something that makes Soft Machine’s music very interesting in retrospect; the fuzz-drenched organs took on the lead role in a time when guitar bands were dominating pop music.

In 1968, the Softs released their self-titled album, a whimsical psych-pop LP comparable to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, although with less of Floyd’s interstellar spaciness and more technical chops and jazz influence in its place. Kevin Ayers, weary from a long US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, soon left the group and started a Prog-Pop career of his own. He was replaced by former schoolmate Hugh Hopper, already a collaborator & producer with the group and a more triumphant bassist than the whimsical Ayers. Volume Two followed shortly thereafter, incorporating more progressive structures, complexity, and avant-garde tendencies into Soft Machine’s sound.

With Robert Wyatt being the only remaining member with a love for playful eclecticism and pop vocals, Third (1970) was a much more serious affair. It brought adventurous jazz-rock and avant-garde editing techniques to the forefront of 3 side-long instrumental pieces, relegating Wyatt’s influence and vocals to the C-Side, a single composition which became his last for the group. For the first half of “Moon in June”, Wyatt performed most of the instruments himself in his creatively naive way (since the band refused to support his vocal indulgences), before a transitional tape-splice into a full-band jam. Wyatt was fired after drumming on Fourth (1971), the last classic Soft Machine album, as the band ventured into a more straight-laced jazz fusion style and lost most of the spontaneous energy that gave them such a unique sound.

Getting fired was only the beginning for Wyatt though; he soon joined up with Dave Sinclair of Caravan and a few other local musicians to start the great (but short-lived) Matching Mole–a pun on the French translation of “Soft Machine”, Machine Molle. After falling multiple stories in a drunk accident, Wyatt was paralyzed from the waist down, losing his ability to drum. He took it in stride, however, claiming it was the best thing to ever happen to him, leading to his imaginative solo masterpiece, Rock Bottom. In the decades to come, he would continue his creative solo career, get heavily involved in communist and leftist activism, and become a widely sought out collaborator with everyone from Brian Eno to Björk.