Southeast of Canterbury, England, there is a village called Lydden, where a young lad named Robert Wyatt grew up. Surrounded by intellectual Bohemian friends of his mother, his upbringing was quite free. The Soft Machine was allowed to practice in Mrs. Wyatt’s sitting room, making quite a racket on their little street. By 1967, the band had already gained a reputation as a formidable underground psychedelic band, often dual billed with Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd at UFO, the Speakeasy, and Middle Earth in London.

The Soft Machine Volume Two (1969) is a non-stop masterpiece, combining Rock, Pop, Jazz, Psychedelia, and Dada sensibilities into one massive ball of creative energy. The album is of great importance to the development of the Canterbury Scene’s sound. Gone was baritone-voiced bassist Kevin Ayers from the first Soft Machine

The Soft Machine Volume Two (1969) is a non-stop masterpiece, combining Rock, Pop, Jazz, Psychedelia, and Dada sensibilities into one massive ball of creative energy.

album, to be replaced by road manager Hugh Hopper on bass. Wyatt’s phenomenal, odd-metered drumming, paired with his sweet, soaring voice taking over all the vocal duties, transported the band to new realms of possibility. Hopper’s brother Brian contributed woodwinds, pushing this album further into jazz territory.

Keyboardist Mike Ratledge stretched his jazz muscles on this album, developing his soloing technique based on equipment limitations. During live sets, everyone (including the woodwinds) played through cranked Marshall stacks. Add fuzztone to this, and the organ would screech with feedback whenever Ratledge lifted his fingers off the keys. The continuous “sheet of sound” similar to Coltrane’s saxophone technique became a live necessity.