Cuneiform can always be counted on to unearth some gems from the late-'60s and early-'70s
Soft Machine live concert archives, but with the 2006 CD/DVD release
Grides the label might have outdone itself. The audio CD features keyboardist
Mike Ratledge, bassist
Hugh Hopper, saxophonist
Elton Dean, and drummer
Robert Wyatt performing material mainly from
Third and
Fourth before what sounds like a huge (and hugely appreciative) audience at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw on October 25, 1970. This is a well-recorded document of the "classic" quartet caught live less than four months after the landmark
Third had been released and midway through the recording of
Fourth, which would be the last of
the Softs' studio albums featuring
Wyatt. As one might expect,
Third and
Fourth are guiding principles, positioning the band in entirely unique territory with
Ratledge as the main composer ("Out-Bloody-Rageous," "Slightly All the Time," "Teeth") and
Hopper ("Facelift," "Virtually") not far behind. This is one of
Ratledge's best showcases for his patented fuzz organ techniques on both thematic material and blistering solos, and also for
Hopper's precise use of his foot pedal to kick in a thick fuzz tone when the composition calls for it. Meanwhile,
Dean (whose death less than four months prior to the release of
Grides lends a touch of sadness to hearing him here) sounds marvelously fiery throughout, with a particularly sharp tone on saxello that nicely complements the timbres produced by
Ratledge and
Hopper.