MATCHING MOLE

The well known music journalist Mick Wall described Matching Mole as a very nerdy band, only played on BBC 1 by John Peel. That has kind of scared me away until now, even though I am a nerd/village idiot.

Robert Wyatt did not make it easy for himself with the debut album from a band which name is spelled Soft Machine in English. Some lingering bitterness, I guess. The music too is pretty neurotic (sorry, Robert). This album comes in three distinctive different parts.

Part one is the pop on O Caroline and Instant Pussy. This part is a pretty pastorial pop with Roberts vocals as the main ingredient. The next part of this album then follows from Signed Curtain and onwards to Instant Kitten. This is excellent improvised melodic jazz in the best Soft Machine era with on some excellent keyboards work from Dave Sinclair. I like this part of the album best. The third part is noodling avant-garde jazz with no purpose and little quality.

Being a debut album, this is pretty good. But all the musicians here was very experienced and it is therefore wrong to label it as a debut album. This album is a rudderless affair and it lacks direction. It is a good album and that's all.

3 stars