1 Atom Heart Mother: Father's Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung Geesin, Gilmour, Mason, Waters ... 23:44 Composed by: Geesin, Gilmour, Mason, Waters, Wright 2 If Waters 4:30 3 Summer '68 Wright 5:29 4 Fat Old Sun Gilmour 5:22 5 Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast: Rise and Shine/Sunny Side Up/Morning ... Gilmour, Mason, Waters, Wright 13:00

A wild, freewheeling, and ultimately successful attempt to merge psychedelia with jazz-rock, Soft Machine's debut ranges between lovingly performed oblique pop songs and deranged ensemble playing from drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt and organist Mike Ratledge. With only one real break (at the end of side one), the songs merge into each other -- not always smoothly, but always with a sense of flair that rescues any potential miscues. Wyatt takes most of the vocals, and proves himself a surprisingly evocative singer despite his lack of range. Like Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Volume One was one of the few over-ambitious records of the psychedelic era that actually delivered on all its incredible promise. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide