Soft Machine - Third (1970/2007) [Complete 2xCD] Europe

Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

"Facelift" is a live recording by the previous line-up of the band, a five-piece with Lyn Dobson on saxophone and flute alongside Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper and Dean. The remaining tracks are studio recordings by the four-piece line-up, augmented by a few session musicians. Jimmy Hastings (brother of Pye Hastings from Caravan) makes substantial contributions on flute and clarinet on "Slightly All the Time", free-jazz violinist Rab Spall (then a bandmate of Wyatt's in the part-time ensemble Amazing Band) is heard on the coda to "Moon in June", and Nick Evans (who had been a member of Soft Machine during late 1969 when they spent a short time as a seven-piece band) makes brief appearances on trombone in "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous".

Tracklist:
CD-1 The Original Album
01 - Facelift 0:00
02 - Slightly All The Time 18:50
03 - Moon In June 37:04
04 - Out-Bloody-Rageous 56:15
CD-2 Recorded At The Promenade Concert At The Royal Albert Hall For BBC Radio Three On 13th August 1970
05 - Out-Bloody-Rageous 1:15:22
06 - Facelift
07 - Esther's Nose Job
07a. - Pig
07b - Orange Skin Food
07c - A Door Opens And Closes
07d - Pigling Bland
07e - 10.30 Returns To The Bedroom

Audio: 195 kbps, 48.000 kHz

Soft Machine
Elton Dean – alto saxophone, saxello (all but 3)
Mike Ratledge – Hohner Pianet, Lowrey organ, piano, Hammond organ (2)
Hugh Hopper – bass guitar
Robert Wyatt – drums, vocals (3), plus on 3 (uncredited): Hammond organ, Mellotron, Hohner Pianet, piano, bass

Additional personnel
Lyn Dobson – flute, soprano saxophone (1)
Jimmy Hastings – flute, bass clarinet (2, 4)
Nick Evans – trombone (2, 4)
Rab Spall – violin (3)