Picked this up used several years ago, no warpage, and whatever noise there was from paper sleeve debris I was able to quiet down with a wet-cleaning. Highly recommend a good copy of this one if you can find it, it sounds quite good.

Careful with these reissues. Quality control is apparently out the window with a lot of these newer labels. Cutting corners is increasingly the norm. Went through two copies, both were warped. The transfer is noisy. First copy I picked up was a mess, immediately returned it. The right channel was blown out, played REALLY low. The record had lots of static and pops. Second copy not as bad and both channels good but by no means clean. This is a noisy pressing, most noticeable in quiet sections and between songs. Not a big deal on 40+ year old lp's but unacceptable on a factory sealed release. Both records played okay despite the heavy warping. Comes in a nice gate-fold package. Shame, it's a massive album.

Does anybody know if this is a gatefold as the US release?

From the jazzy and melodic first Suite of this marvelous release to the more complex side two, the second studio Album from the Soft Machine is nothing but pure imagination. With only four credited musicians, the group was capable to create a colourful Rock-Opera-like song in the long "Rivmic Melodies", fusing a great variety of moods almost perfectly. "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still" is more hard rock influenced; a tribute to the ex-bandmate Roy Ayers; followed by the sweet -and often weird- ballad "Dedicated To You", with Wyatt singing smoothly. The "Esther's Nose Job" is the opposite to the First half of the music: a Psychedelic Rock suite with a little of Avant-Garde, but with the same energy.A rewarding listen from almost every point of view, this Album just shows an intermediary between the Rock-Pop fusion in the debut album of the group and the Jazz-Rock showed later. A fan of both musical genres will be pleased!

Ex bandmate Kevin Ayers, not Roy- blimey, imagine Roy in Soft Machine- that would be interesting ;)