By the mid-'70s, Soft Machine had moved from the global Columbia Records family to Harvest, a British label specializing in U.K. and European rock bands. After their pivotal albums Fifth, Six, and Seven, the group acclimated guitarist Allan Holdsworth, and eventually John Etheridge, to their more distinctly instrumental jazz-rock sound, while retaining electric bass guitarist Roy Babbington, keyboardist and reedman Karl Jenkins, drummer John Marshall, and keyboardist Mike Ratledge. Long gone were the days when Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen identified the group's more hippie-ish sound, Robert Wyatt was a driving force in their collective consciousness, Elton Dean was injecting exciting creative improvising saxophone, and Hugh Hopper was their definitive bassist…
This release includes all five of Be Bop Deluxe's studio albums, with additional bonus tracks, plus an additional disc of previously unreleased home demos, rough studio mixes and live recordings. The recordings have all been freshly remastered and the project over-seen by Bill Nelson. All bonus tracks added to the 1990 CD releases have been remastered and added to this release too, except for the bonus live tracks on the 'Axe Victim' release. This remaster is an improvement upon the 1990 releases, and has thankfully avoided being 'brick-walled'. I would suggest this is the last word on digital 16-bit releases of these studio albums.
This is a fabulous release with two albums from Shirley and Dolly Collins recorded on Harvest records and collected together. CD one brings us the album Anthems in Eden. Anthems in Eden is perhaps the most famous album and the most creative one from Shirley and Dolly Collins. This sixth album from Shirley is from 1969 and it is an incredible project. The album has been released and re released a few times. Here on this fabulous album Shirley provides her unique vocals along with Sister Dolly on portative organ. But this time there are a whole host of other musicians involved.