Latest DSQ review from Greece.

http://www.dprp.net/reviews/200828.php#delta

Delta Saxophone Quartet seem to have discovered rather late the heritage of a band so diverse, so dynamic and prolific as The Soft Machine. Apparently also being characterised by perpetual shifts in style, philosophy and direction, they have started doing thought provoking covers (I'm using their MySpace words!) of minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass and ended up trying to introduce law and order in the music of a band whose career before Seven showed significant despise for order. In this effort they are also assisted by original Soft member bassist Hugh Hopper. The band consists of Graeme Blevins on soprano sax, Chris Caldwell on baritone sax, Tim Holmes on tenor and Pete Whyman on alto - you guessed it - sax. Four daring mature musicians about to engage in an endeavour of unmatched challenge. And you know what? Who dares wins.

Most of the material covered here is from the "not so early Soft Machine period" - Noisette and Third (both from 1970) are the most represented albums. If you remember or know about these albums, they consist in very lengthy tracks that are not really homogeneous and that mix witty and smart ideas with lots of background themes that do not really make it to the first league and, as one might expect from the era, contain a fair amount of psychedelia. What these guys did here is smart: they filtered this amalgam of useful and useless things twice: once by eliminating the really unnecessary experimentation and a second time by adding a more jazz-oriented dimension to the music. Does that mean that imagination gets suppressed? Not at all: they recreate the rich dynamics inherent in Soft Machine's music with different means: 4 saxophones that alternate in solo's and in song building. Pretty smart if you ask me and very, very convincing. In fact, after hearing this album countless times from the day I got it into my hands for review, I have developed a clear preference for THEIR approach to Soft's music, when comparing to the original - at least when we are talking about these early tracks.

Let me give you some concrete examples here: The chamber music feel that was hidden in Kings And Queens (out of Fourth) original version; I only discovered this side of the song after I heard DSQ's Kings & Queens 33 Years Later. The incredibly turbulent dynamics of Facelift that tend to get lost due to the prohibitive length of the original (thumbs up here for the incredible work of the alto sax...) emerge triumphant in DSQ's version. Another example: Outrageous Moon which integrates and summarises two songs summing up to more than 25 minutes of music into an almost 6 minute beauty, by smartly concatenating the names of the two original tracks (Ratledge's Out Bloody Rageous and Wyatt's Moon In June). Not only the most juicy ideas from the originals are preserved, but also the band shows how they can merge ideas originating from two competing composers. Tough stuff but so well done!

Concerning Mousetrap, even if it's a good piece of work, it makes me miss a little bit the drums that I find an indispensable part of the original song construction. At this point I really want to raise a complaint: why is Six not represented here? For me, Six stands for the period of the band where the experimentation and wealth of ideas of the past are brewed together with a more mature style and approach, producing a more funky/jazzy effect. Pity! Then, there are also some picks from Soft's more tidy and more fusion era: Floating World, and Aubade and The Tale Of Taliesin from Bundles and Softs, respectively (my favourite Soft Machine albums). How do DSQ score here? Well, the result this time is less impressive, since the original works do not lack in coherence; the re-workings sound extremely well played and honest, but this is exactly an example where the original has a beauty that the cover cannot match. Also, the Soft's tracks are haunted by the majestic guitar works of Holdsworth/Etheridge, but of course that's another story! Still, I can't help hallucinating on the idea of four saxophones trying to reconstruct Hazard Profile's frantic fusion guitar work! - Maybe an idea for a future project?

The Delta Saxophone Quartet have been engaged in an extremely hard task: to revisit music that is hard to describe, categorise or even recreate. The band Soft Machine Legacy have lately tried to do something of a kind, but according to me the approach of these brass-only guys yields even better results. This is an album that complements both i) Soft Machine's legacy (literally), ii) Soft Machine Legacy (the band). It is also an album that can be heard by fans of The Soft Machine - or not. Pure jazz fans that never knew the Softs or that considered them out of the jazz repertoire might also be convinced to give all those 70's great records a try. I know many people that dislike Soft Machine's free form improvisation and psychedelic influences. It is here that DSQ come in and offer a tidy, jazz-oriented version. However, I feel like stressing that even if I might essentially disagree with those that like the idea of getting to the point via 100 detours, that like a track of a nucleus of 7 minutes to be stretched to 17, I can still understand them if they say that this is a bit too clean. All in all, this is a record with an extraordinary flow, that one can enjoy from beginning to end and, for the vast majority of its moments, simply wonder from time to time: Do I know this tune from somewhere? That's something rare for cover albums, ain't it?

Conclusion: 8.5 out of 10

CHRISTOS AMPATZIS (http://www.dprp.net/credcon/index.php#christos)