Abraxas Allan Holdsworth's Soft Machine

With the inclusion of a guitarist, and not any, if not the one and only Allan Holdsworth, The Soft Machine could fully develop and deliver the jazz rock style that was featured on both previous albums, Six and Seven. While Allan was the key-factor to produce this, the other ''sections'' of the bands still offer quite a lot:

The 'rhythm section' compromised by John Marshall and Roy Babbington had already showed their capability as a team on Seven, so in Bundles they continue being relentless, Roy with his persistent bass lines and John with his variety of delicate jazz fills and rapid powerful ones.

The 'keyboard section' formed by founding member Mike Ratledge and Nucleus' keyboardist, Karl Jenkins, had also showed their capability as a team already since Six, adding lots of jazzy runs as well as some spacey stuff. However, what is highly surprising in this album, is that the keyboards are pretty much in the background, it's shocking in comparison to the complete keyboard driven Seven.

The 'solo section' while mainly being compromised by recently arrived Allan Holdsworth, being the main performer on Bundles delivering plenty of solos full of originality and energy, though not his finest I've got to admit, there's still the ocassional solo spot for either Karl's sax/oboe, Mike's synths and John's drum kit. John playing a drum solo on the tune 'Four Gongs Two Drums'.

As for the music, the trend of relating each track with the following is also present here, so again expect a flawless flow making some unrelated(by name) tunes be related forming one big great piece and that's the case from 'Bundles' up to 'Four Gongs Two Drums' making one related big piece of 14 minutes. The other standout is obviously the 19 minute splitted piece called 'Hazard Profile' which showcases all the characteristics from the stated sections.

Bundles in its essence features the line-up Soft Machine had been waiting for since Six, which is the reason why the album is so darn good and the reason why it overshadows the, similar in style, antecessors. While definitely not being in the style of the albums that made Soft Machine a popular Canterbury band, those were Third and both Volumes, Bundles shows us once again that this band is capable of playing diferrent varieties of jazz forms and still play them at full steam with all of the Machine's originality, this doesn't sound like Mahavishnu Orchestra or Retrun to Forever. This is Soft Machine's jazz rock masterpiece.

snobb Competent and well balanced,but too safe previous Soft Machine's album (Seven) was a serious sign of reaching the dangerous zone: band really was in need of new ideas and new blood.

First Soft Machine's studio album,didn't tagged by number,but name,is significant moment in band's history. In fact, newcomer and still not very well known guitarist Alan Holdsworth bring what they needed - new energy and new direction. Seriously transformed during last few years ,band was a supporting team around sax player Karl Jenkins groove-oriented soloing fusion band vision. Alan Holdswordth rock-edged guitar sound changed priorities very drastically: Bundles is album of great soloing guitarist with plenty of space (and some really excellent passages) for last founding member still on board - keyboardist Mike Ratledge.

For sure, Soft Machine with Bundles is far not the same band as Soft Machine with their debut or Third, but at least they found new energy and new direction, and they recorded another strong (if different) album.Holdsworth demonstrates great guitar playing (even excellent - as for time of album's release),John Marshall's drumming is possibly his best till now, Holdsworth's rock-oriented sound is really much closer to Marshall drumming style,than previous band's direction. Mike Ratledge sounds really inspired again, besides of Holdsworth he is a hero of the release!

It's only pity Holdsworth left the band few months after the release of Bundles,leaving the band in transition faze once again.

FunkFreak75 After two years off, Mike Ratledge, the only remaining member of the original Softs, pulls his previous lineup of former-NUCLEUS members together for one more time but this time recruiting one more recent NUCLEUS member into the fold: guitar phenom ALLAN HOLDSWORTH. What an injection of life and power he is! What results is one fine collection of jazz-rock fusion songs--one that is unfortunately often overlooked due to the band's previous history and, to many, disappointing evolution. (I think a lot of people had long given up on buying their new releases--myself included--which is sad as this is an absolutely stellar album.)

- "Hazard Profile" (5 part suite) (41.5/45): 1. Part 1 (9:18) introducing: ALLAN HOLDSWORTH, NUCLEUS, and Mike Ratledge! a song that not only cruises but grooves--and is relentless in both aspects! And the band is so tight! Holdsworth, of course, is impressive (though in a surprising Jan-Akkerman-kind of way), but Babbington and Marshall are almost equally so. Ratledge's "glue" that is is Lowrey organ really helps to hold it all together while at the same time directing the soloists with his oft-unexpected chords. Very interesting! And Holdsworth's similarity to the FOCUS guitarist's sound and style are really rather striking. In the seventh minute we get to hear a little Eef Albers-like style but it really isn't until the eighth minute that we get to start hearing any of the "destablized" notes that he becomes so well known for in the UK era and beyond. (19.5/20) 2. Part 2 (2:21) soft, delicate interlude of Karl Jenkins' piano and, later, Allan on acoustic guitar. Nothing really very interesting here much less innovative. (4/5) 3. Part 3 (1:05) a Jan Akkerman-like dramatic interlude over Ratledge's Lowrey, carrying forward the exact same chord progression and melody line of "Part 2" (4.5/5) 4. Part 4 (0:46) another transitory interlude in which the band takes have heavy, low-end-dominant approach to expressing the previous chords. (4.375/5) 5. Part 5 (5:29) with its repetitive base it sounds like something from a previous era of jazz-rock fusion--something from the earlier Tony Williams Lifetime, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, or even Mahavishnu Orchestra transition period from jazz to rock using standard two-chord blue-rock foundations to jam over. Karl Jenkins' heavily treated horns, Mike's AKS synthesizer, and Allan's soar and fly over the solid rhythm section of Marshall and Babbington (and Holdsworth). (8.875/10) - 6. "Gone Sailing" (0:59) opens with what sounds like an acoustic steel-string guitar (or Celtic harp), but then it turns into a more-advanced Steve Hackett-like guitar. Breathtaking! (5/5) (27/30)

7. "Bundles" (3:14) sounding very Return To Forever-ish, this one launches with some very complex and intricate whole-band play, but then shifts into jam-formation using a two-bar riff from Babbington's bass repeated ad infinitum to support the soloing of Holdsworth and Jenkins. (9/10)

8. "Land Of The Bag Snake" (3:35) carrying seamlessly forward from the previous song as if it was just another stylistic shift into another motif that slowed down the previous one, Holdsworth continues soaring and racing around though with a muted effect on his horn-like guitar sound. Ratledge's Fender Rhodes work beneath is awesome. Marshall's ride cymbal is a little loud and Babbington's bass mixed a little fun, but this is a pretty good groove. (9.25/10)

9. "The Man Who Waved At Trains" (1:50) again, no separation from the previous song--as if the band just slides into this totally new, completely softer Weather Report/Chick Corea-like motif. Jenkins gets a turn to solo with his soprano sax, at times being shadow/mirrored by Holdsworth. (4.5/5)

10. "Peff" (1:57) yet another slide--this time into fourth gear, yet while still holding on to the softer, gentler sound palette of the previous motif--a motif that reminds me of GINO VANNELLI's wonderful "Storm at Sunup" suite (form the album of the same name that won't come out for another six months). What starts out so great, however, eventually becomes stale and boring. (4.5/5)

11. "Four Gongs Two Drums" (4:09) a Carl Palmer-like drum and percussion exhibition. (8.75/10)

12. "The Floating World" (7:12) gentle Fender Rhodes doubled with Lowry organ provide a gently floating foundation for the first 55-seconds before Karl's oboe and guest Ray Warleigh's flute present an equally etheric melody line in harmonized tandem. Another Fender Rhodes comes forward at the three-minute mark as the keyboard weave seems to take on a thicker, more intentionally-disorienting polyrhythmic pattern while Babbington's steady bass stays just below the surface--as if anchoring the floating world above. Oboe and flute pick up the melody-giving again at the 4:15 mark. Very Alice in Wonderland-like--and very aptly titled. Great piece. (14.5/15)

Total Time: 41:55

Many people refer to this album as the Allan Holdsworth breakout album as he would go on to work with many of the jazz fusion superstars in the next couple of years. I believe that this "breaktrhough" is made possible by the amazing cohesion of the Nucleus support crew--Babbington, Marshall, and Jenkins. As a matter of fact, this album, in my opinion, should have a different band name cuz they're not really the Soft Machine (history says that with Bundles Ratledge had given the reins over to Karl Jenkins). They're more Nucleus but not Nucleus: they're really the Allan Holdsworth Debut Project.

A/four stars; an excellent masterpiece of evolving and eclectic jazz-rock fusion: on the level of Newcleus, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea/Return To Forever, Tony Williams Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Brand X, but NOT a Canterbury style album. Definitely in my Top 20 Favorite Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums of prog's "Classic Era."

Warthur I find this album rather a disappointment after Six and Seven, two albums in which the band established a new sound for itself - still with its own unique personality, but more carefully positioned in a fusion context with heavier leanings towards jazz than rock. Bundles continues to provide technically competent fusion, and provides an early platform for the talents of Allan Holdsworth, but what gets to me is just how unimaginative and middle-of-the-road it is. Play a snippet of it out of context and all but the most dedicated fusion fans will struggle to guess which band is playing. Is it Passport? Brand X? It can't be Return To Forever, or Mahavishnu Orchestra, or Weather Report, or one of Miles Davis' mid-70s groups, those all have a far more unique and vibrant sound.

The fact is that whilst the music on Bundles ticks all the genre boxes and is competently performed, there's no enthusiasm, no verve, no personality to it. It's the sound of a band going through the motions, in other words. This would be Mike Ratledge's last album as a full member of the band, though it's clear on here that his heart really isn't in it any more anyway - he contributes only a tiny snippet of music in terms of compositions, and as for performance he's barely a presence in the band's sound any more. Allan Holdsworth's guitar playing is decent but doesn't really capture the imagination here. And as for drummer John Marshall - well, all I'll say about his performance is that the Robert Wyatt era never yielded a drum solo as predictable, cliched and tedious as Four Gongs Two Drums.

I won't go as low as one star on this one because it doesn't have any absolutely fatal flaws which make it a chore to listen to. But at the same time, it has absolutely nothing to make it memorable once you've listen to it. Bundles is a disposable album of disposable music, made by a once-essential band which at this point in its existence had, sadly, become disposable itself. I honestly consider it to be greatly overrated, possibly because it's the last Softs album with Mike Ratledge as a band member, and the last one before the long drawn-out death of the band, which would see increasingly unsuccessful attempts to revive its fortunes and convince the listening public that the band was a) still alive and b) still worth listening to.

I can understand this perspective. Certainly, at its best, Bundles is miles better than the great majority of the post-Ratledge material the band produced. But at its worst, Bundles makes it abundantly clear that the rot had already well and truly set in. I said that it's the sound of a band going through the motions - perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it's the sound of a dead band walking.