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Matching Mole: On the Radio
ByMatching Mole began as a solo project for Wyatt. But the chemistry that emerged with pianist David MacRae, guitarist Phil Miller, bassist Bill MacCormick and organist Dave Sinclair (who left after the first album and appears on only two dates here) quickly turned it into a group effort.
Matching Mole and Little Red Record, both released by Columbia in 1972, may have been good, but this band was best experienced live. While only a third of these radio recordings were recorded in concert in front of an audience, the studio sessions were "live off the floor, with the same energy and excitement that's missing on the group's studio albums.
Wyatt left Soft Machine because of the band's shift from song form towards a mix of detailed composition and open-ended improvisation. While it sounds nothing like Soft Machine, Matching Mole did place a similar emphasis on improvisation. No two versions of a tune ever sounded the same, making any duplication here revealing, rather than superfluous. Even the way the group would segue from one song to the next varied from night to night.
Despite the group's loose approach to interpretation, there's a stronger sense of melodylyricism, evencompared to the Soft Machine of the same period. Miller was already a distinctive player, with a keen ear for finding unexpected ways to weave through the material. Like Miller, MacRae was consistently intriguing yet never self-indulgent. Wyattwhose career behind the kit would be cut short not long after he dissolved the group when an accident left him paralyzed from the waist downmay have gravitated to song form, but he was a loose and subtly responsive drummer. The biggest surprise about MacCormick is that he'd only been playing bass for eighteen months before joining the group.
The sound quality varies, despite Hux's fine remastering job. The opening twenty minutes are the best sonically, but even the lower-fidelity tracks are clear and easy on the ears. There's not a single track on this record that hasn't appeared elsewhere in a different form. But On the Radio is the best album to date from this short-lived but influential group, a band that ranged from elegant understatement to sheer power.
Track Listing
Medley (4/17/72): Marchides, Instant Pussy, Smoke Signal; Part of the Dance (1/17/72); No 'alf Measures; Lithing and Gracing (3/6/72); Immediate Kitten (1/17/72); Instant Pussy; Lithing and Gracing; Marchides; Part of the Dance; Brandy as in Benj (7/27/72).
Personnel
Bill MacCormick: bass, fuzz pedal; Dave MacRae: Fender Rhodes, wah-wah pedal; Phil Miller: guitar, effects pedals; Dave Sinclair: Hammond organ (2,5); Robert Wyatt; drums, vocals, echoplex.
Album information
Title: On the Radio | Year Released: 2007 | Record Label: Hux Records