Seven (Soft Machine album)

Seven
Studio album by Soft Machine
Released	1973
Recorded	CBS Studios, London, July 1973
Genre	Progressive rock, jazz fusion
Length	43:15
Label	CBS (UK), Columbia (USA)
Producer	Soft Machine
Soft Machine chronology
Six (1973) Seven (1973) Bundles (1975)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Seven is a 1973 album by the British progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine who were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene. Roy Babbington, who had previously contributed to Fourth and Fifth on double bass as a session musician, replaced Hugh Hopper on bass guitar, who left to begin a solo career.

The album was issued on CBS Records with a colour gatefold cover in the UK, and on Columbia Records with a completely different black and white cover in the USA. The title on the USA front cover is the numeral 7, but is spelled out as Seven on the spine and label. Although this is a 1973 release, USA copies show a copyright date of 1974 (and a phonographic rights date of 1973), suggesting the North American release may have been delayed. It was the last of their studio releases to carry a numbered title.

The titles of the final two tracks are clearly intended as a joke. The preceding track, "Down the Road", fades into a swirling abstract jumble of notes on keyboards which plays with little variation for three minutes before fading out, and there is nothing musically to indicate the transition from German to French lessons, and no explanation as to why these two tracks are credited to different composers.

This album is also the last to use a numbered title, as in the previous albums - the next album being called Bundles, thus ending the pattern.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Nettle Bed" (Karl Jenkins) – 4:47
2. "Carol Ann" (Jenkins) – 3:48
3. "Day's Eye" (Mike Ratledge) – 5:05
4. "Bone Fire" (Ratledge) – 0:32
5. "Tarabos" (Ratledge) – 4:32
6. "D.I.S." (John Marshall) – 3:02

Side two

1. "Snodland" (Jenkins) – 1:50
2. "Penny Hitch" (Jenkins) – 6:40
3. "Block" (Jenkins) – 4:17
4. "Down the Road" (Jenkins) – 5:48
5. "The German Lesson" (Ratledge) – 1:53
6. "The French Lesson" (Jenkins) – 1:01

Personnel

• Roy Babbington - bass guitar, acoustic bass
• Mike Ratledge - (Lowrey Holiday De Luxe) organ, (AKS) synthesizer, (Fender Rhodes) electric piano
• Karl Jenkins - oboe, baritone and soprano saxophones, recorder, (Fender Rhodes & Hohner) electric piano
• John Marshall - drums, percussion

References