Delta Saxophone Quartet - Dedicated to you... (2007)

Delta Saxophone Quartet with their take on the music of Soft Machine.

I am a big Soft Machine fan and laps up everything by them. That includes some not so good live albums too. I am not the only Soft Machine fan out there and there are some tribute and covers albums out there. Delta Saxophone Quartet has not done a pure tribute album. They have added and subtracted to Soft Machine their own take on their music. They have also included songs from their more guitars orientated albums like Softs and Bundles. The versions of Floating World and The Tale Of Taliesin is very good. But before that, we also get Hugh Hopper on their version of Facelift too. Those three tracks are the best on this album by far. But the rest of the album is also good, although a bit untraditional.

The main difference between Soft Machine and Delta Saxophone Quartet's versions of their songs is the intensity of the deliveries. Where Soft Machine always was very intense, Delta Saxophone Quartet is taking a couple of steps back and does a lot more laidback versions of the songs. In reality; the difference is Elton Dean and his trademark intense playing.
The other difference is Delta Saxophone Quartet's use of saxophone where Soft Machine varied a lot between woodwinds, keyboards and guitars, depending on which setup were using the Soft Machine name at the time.

But Delta Saxophone Quartet has come up with a really good take on Soft Machine and I am a happy owner of this album. Soft Machine's music cannot be played often enough in my view. This album proves my point.

3.5 points