As
Soft Machine moved further away from rock on
Third and Fourth, drummer/vocalist
Robert Wyatt's dissatisfaction with the band's direction grew and, by the time sessions started for
Fifth in late 1971, he had left permanently to form
Matching Mole. While the instrumental Fourth had forayed deep into jazz-rock territory,
Fifth found
Soft Machine working almost completely in the jazz idiom. At the time of
Wyatt's departure, keyboardist
Mike Ratledge commented that the band's co-founder had "never enjoyed or accepted working in complex time signatures." However,
Wyatt's replacement --
Phil Howard -- didn't prove to be the kind of timekeeper
Ratledge and bassist
Hugh Hopper had in mind, and his free jazz orientation led to his dismissal during the recording of the album.
Howard's propulsive rhythms nevertheless make a vital contribution to memorable
Ratledge compositions like "All White" and "Drop" as they gather momentum and coalesce into driving grooves. "All White" is focused largely on
Elton Dean's sax performance, while "Drop" ultimately showcases the intense busy fuzz of
Ratledge's organ. In places on
Fifth, there does seem to be an element of tension between the more structured approach of
Ratledge and
Hopper and the free-form inclinations of
Dean. The looser style of
Dean's squalling sax playing is foregrounded particularly on "As If" -- another
Ratledge piece. A certain constituency among
Soft Machine fans tends to concentrate on the band's earlier releases and to consider everything from Fourth onward less compelling. That attitude has something to do with not being especially interested in jazz, so it's not entirely fair to dismiss this album without qualifying such a judgment. Anyone expecting to hear a rock album or a jazz-rock album will probably be disappointed with
Fifth. This is essentially a jazz record, more concerned with texture and interplay than with song-based structures. [The 2007 remastered edition features a previously unreleased version of "All White" as a bonus track.] ~ Wilson Neate