Search - Matching Mole :: On the Radio

HATFIELD OF THE NORTH?

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 04/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"That's what the product description says. Oh, well.



This is nearly 78 minutes of live material drawn from various John Peel sessions and a live set from BBC Radio 1. The sound quality is uniformly undistinguished, but the music and the playing are very distinguished indeed. Some of it pre-dating Little Red Record, given the line-up here of pre- and post-Caravan, Hatfield, Soft Machine, Quiet Sun / Random Hold types, MM comprises nothing short of a Canterbury Super Group, and lasted about as long as any other super group. Never the less, even in earliest stages the music has that indefinable quality that so defines Canterbury -- and so absolutely applies to nothing else. Of course, you've heard much of these on the studio releases, and the live releases Smoke Signals and March. But not these performances, which here provide more insight into the workings of MM, their interpretations of the work and their responses to each other's playing. Absolutely no reason to not add this fine document to your MM file and extend the life of this too short-lived group by, uh, nearly 78 minutes."

The soundtrack for a rainy afternoon

metal riffer | IL | 06/28/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like sparkling apple cider, tastes may differ, but I greatly enjoyed the 20+ minutes of the first track, nothing wrong at all with the sound quality. Tracks 2, 3, and 4 do unfortunately suffer from varying amounts of dynamic range inefficiency (to put it nicely). The rest of the tracks lie somewhere in between.



Regarding the performances, this is finely improvised avant fuzz-jazz and if you're familiar with Robert Wyatt (and keeping in mind that *this* is what he left Soft Machine to do) then you'll know Matching Mole emphasizes mood and attitude over structure, and values coloring outside the lines over following a score.



I assume I'm writing this review for fans. If you know nothing of Matching Mole then I would recommend starting with one of their studio albums (or even Soft Machine *Third*) to provide some small, fleeting amount of context."