Check out the clips at Amazon to get an idea of how these tracks sound. A majority of the material is new to CD, and the audio quality ranges from "acceptable" to good or very good. This compilation is geared towards Soft Machine completists, especially if you're always seeking out more of their early UFO Club-era recordings like I am.

CD1:
Tracks 1-4 are home recordings from 1963
Tracks 5-8, 11, 12 are in-studio recordings from 1967
Tracks 9 & 10 are live from The Middle Earth in 1967

CD2:
Tracks 1-4 are live from Iowa, USA in 1968
Tracks 5 & 6 are from Paradiso, Amsterdam
Tracks 7-11 are from Fairfields Hall in 1970

I'm in. Like you Linda, I like their early stuff as well.

Rick A.

Actually, the music on the collection has been released in other forms already, just re-packaged. Most of the music is taken from stuff that had already been on Voiceprint, Cuneiform and related labels. Also, I was very disappointed in the sound quality. The best thing about it was the cool looking cover shot. I already traded my copy in.

But there is a very cool new 4 disc live compilation that I discovered on RSD called "Live In The 70's" from Voiceprint. It is a companion piece to the 4 disc "Live 1970" collection that they put out earlier. The shows are from Paris (May 2, 1972), London (no date), Croydon (January 4, 1970) and Germany (Autumn 1971). The sound and the shows are really good!

I hope the sound is good. The problem with the myriads of early SF "rarities" is the sound is a 100% crapshoot in my experience.

Thanks for the forewarning Willie.

Rick A.