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

In 1960s 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.

Chronological Vinyl Mix (1967-1975)

The Soft Machine – Joy for a Toy > Hope for Happiness (Reprise)
The Soft Machine – As Long as He Lies Perfectly Still
Gong – Gong Song
Soft Machine – Moon in June
Caravan – In the Land of Grey & Pink
Kevin Ayers – Song from the Bottom of a Well
Soft Machine – Neo-Caliban Grides > Out-Bloody-Rageous (Live, 1971)
Matching Mole – God Song
Hatfield and the North – The Stubbs Effect > Big Jobs > Going Up to People > Calyx (Suite)
Gong – Flying Teapot/Wet Drum Sandwich (Live, 1973)
Gong – I Never Glid Before
Robert Wyatt – Alifib > Alfie
Gong – Magick Mother Invocation > Master Builder
Hatfield and the North – Didn’t Matter Anyway

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. As teenagers, Wyatt and Hopper also played together as the rhythm section for the improvisational Daevid Allen Trio, which ended up performing improvisations for one William Burrough’s theater pieces. Allen was an Australian nomad who was renting a room at Wyatt’s family home and was somewhat of a guru for the teenagers, introducing them to an array of boundary-pushing music, literature, and philosophies. Between 1964 and 1967 a revolving group of Wyatt, Ayers and other friends (brothers Hugh & Brian Hopper, cousins Dave & Richard Sinclair) also played in the unassuming rock group The Wilde Flower, which would eventually splinter off into some of Canterbury’s most pivotal groups, Soft Machine, Caravan, and Hatfield & the North

Canterbury Scene Essentials

Soft Machine – Third

Gong – You

Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom [Promo]

Hatfield and the North – The Rotters’ Club

Gong – Angel’s Egg (Radio Gnome Invisible Part 2)

Steve Hillage – Fish Rising

Matching Mole

Caravan – In the Land of Grey and pink

Bios

Soft Machine

Soft Machine remains the most well-known of the scene, first getting notices playing psychedelic parties with groups like 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). 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 cosmic 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 the epic Fourth (1971), the first fully instrumental 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. Wyatt continued to feel an internal tension between wanting to be a singer & composer, or focus on drumming in bands. Yet the decision was ultimately made for him after he drunkenly fell multiple stories out of a window at a party, paralyzing Wyatt from the waist down and limiting his ability to drum. He took it in stride, however, claiming it was the best thing to ever happen to him. After a hospital stay he recorded his imaginative solo masterpiece, Rock Bottom with Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. 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.