LITTLE RED RECORD

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4.5 stars really!!!

Less than seven months after recording their debut album, having toured constantly recording a few radio sessions throughout Europe, MM entered the studios in July 72 for their second (and last, but they weren't aware of it) album that was produced by Robert Fripp. Armed with an highjacked Chinese propaganda poster, the sleeve (and the album title) leaves little doubt as to their political aspirations, although I suspect that this was probably not shared by everyone in the group, because the ambiance within the group quickly became detestable and two months after its release, the group over, even if the explanation was about gigs not being paid and bankruptcy. So with Sinclair gone just after the debut's release, McRae is alone on keys, but the major difference with their first is Wyatt's songwriting that had filled almost all of the album, was reduced to absolutely none in LRR, if you'll except the lyrics and other vocals, but these holds a big part of creativity.

Starting on one of the most surprising track that Wyatt ever recorded, Drink Our Politics Away is a strange semi-operatic over some McRae keyboards and Eno synth layer. Directly and abruptly segueing into Marchides (much the same way Signed Curtain had given in to Part Of The Dance on their previous album), the group takes its vengeance with a wild and torrid 100MPH jazz-rock that veers a bit dissonant in its middle section, before coming back more relaxed. Some exceptionally inventive drumming from Wyatt on this track that had received much previous rehearsal since it was concert standard, but everyone contributes greatly. Again segueing straight into Nan's True Hole, Robert develops some very strange gossipy vocals with him, wifie Alfie and friendly model Julie just yapping away over Wyatt's jaw-dropping drumming and a Frippian guitar solo, courtesy of .. Phil Miller; the whole thing falling into Righteous Rhumba without really noticing much a change. Closing on the wild Brandy for Benj (a roadie), with McRae on a rare organ part at the start and Miller's brilliant solo.

Being shutout throughout the first half of the album, McCormick scores Gloria's Gloom as the flipside opens with the second centrepiece, which starts nightmarishly percussive and hauntingly spooky with Eno's VCS-3 deranging many listeners and remaining dissonant through a few minutes, until chattering gossipy vocals take the track slowly into the middle section where Wyatt singing his heart out until Eno's Martenot-like synth layers take us back to earth. After the popish God Song (sticking out like a sore thumb), Flora Fidgit (Frigid Flora? Yashure?? ;-)) where McRae's el piano steals the show. The closing Smoke Signal is the third highlight, a slow developing ambient cosmic piece with Wyatt's astounding drumming, and slowly dying in death throes

Although MM's last studio album is generally not as reputed as its debut album, bit it's certainly no worse an album, with this one being more of a group effort. Both MM are absolutely essential to Canterbury fans, but it's not recommended to start with them, if you're a newbie.

MATCHING MOLE was Robert Wyatt's first project after leaving SOFT MACHINE. The group released two albums with Little Red Record as their second effort. The music here sounds like a quirky combination of SOFT MACHINE, Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, Brian Eno, with even a bit of KING CRIMSON thrown in (Robert Fripp appears on a couple of tracks). The overall atmosphere is experimental and fun. Most of the album sounds like a group of prog musicians having a great time in a garage and in the studio. The music is complex, yet loose. Whether you enjoy this CD, or not, depends on your opinion of Robert Wyatt's voice. Many people have no problems with it, while others can't stand it. So I recommend this CD to people who are familiar with SOFT MACHINE, and Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom. If you're not familiar with Robert Wyatt, check out SOFT MACHINE's "Third".

Strange brew these guys were sipping when they recorded "Little Red Record" ...right from the opening vocalizations to the final track, we are greeted by some highly inventive instrumentation and clever song writing. For those hunting for the best work of Robert Wyatt I would have to put this in that shared category. MATCHING MOLE played a finely crafted Canterbury'ish styled fusion prog rock which featured the talents of Dave MacRae and Bill MacCormick (QUIET SUN), Robert Wyatt , Phil Miller of HATFIELD AND THE NORTH and even a guest appearance by Brian Eno on synthesizer. With the album being produced by CRIMSON's Robert Fripp you know we might be in for something kind of special. The end result is really a smattering of witty and often thrilling avant-fusion album bringing a slightly more gritty feel to the Canterbury scene... really hear mixes of KING CRIMSON, GENTLE GIANT, CARAVAN and HATFIELD. For me this is a superb album and one you must snang... some deep and wonderful progressive moments.

'Little red record' is Matching Mole's second and last studio record. As you might have noticed there are some political allusions on the cover (and in the lyrics as well: "Like so many of you I've got my doubts about how much to contribute to the already rich among us/How can I pretend that music is more relevant than fighting for a socialist world."'Gloria Gloom'). The cover was originally a propaganda postcard with the title "We are determinated to liberate Taiwan". The heads of the soldiers being replaced by those of the members of Matching Mole. Now, On the first record the majority of compositions was by Robert Wyatt with a little help of his friends. On 'Little red record' there is not one(!) Wyatt composition; he wrote all the lyrics so. Since the release of the first record the band had toured and developped a 'band sound'.Dave Mc Rae, who guested on the first record had become a fulltime member and is very present on 'Little red record' in terms of compositions and sound, it is a keyboard oriented record.The record was produced by Robert Fripp and a part from the band you got the 'Mütter Chorus' (Dave Gale, Robert's wife Alfreda Benge and her friend the actrice Julie Christie), on background vocals and 'occasional smalltalk'. The record is a mixture of Jazz-Rock, tongue in cheek humour and political lyrics. On the first side of the vinyl all tracks were seagued into each other and formed a long suite, with a strong presence of Dave Mc Rae's distorted and treated e-piano. There is a nice equilibrium between the instrumental and vocal passages. Side Two started with 'Gloria Gloom',a Bill Mc Cormick composition and the most openly political statement on the record, followed by a Phil Miller composition 'God's song', a beautiful ballad played on acoustic guitar. The record ends with a beautiful theme by Dave Mc Rae 'Smoke Signal' , a signature tune for Matching Mole and it's swan song. My personal advice would be to listen to this masterpiece from start to beginning to enjoy it as a whole and to discover it's subtilities.

This is the lesser of the two Matching Mole albums IMO. That being said, this is still quite an enjoyable album. The two studio releases only differ by a half star as far as I'm concerned. If I remember correctly, Fripp and Eno both appeared on this album, with Fripp taking the seat as the Producer.

The album opens with "Starting in the Middle of the Day, We Can Drink Our Politics Away," a song just as good as "O Caroline" from the first album. This track bridges into "Marchides," a Mole classic as far as I'm concerned. Among the rest of the album, I also enjoy "Gloria Gloom" and "Smoke Signals," another classic. The longer tracks on this album are for the most part, more enjoyable than the shorter ones. However, I can't say that there is one particularly bad or weak part on the album. I just don't feel that this album deserves more than four stars, since the first and more importamt of the two, gets 4.5.

Great effort from Wyatt's post-Soft Machine group, and definitely worth checking out by all Canterbury fans, although I still say start with the first. 4 stars, excellent sophomore album.

"How long can I pretend that music's more relevant than fighting for a socialist world?" (Gloria Gloom)

In spite of Robert Wyatt's ideological doubts about his musical activities, LITTLE RED RECORD is much better than its predecessor. This time it sounds as if Matching Mole really care about what they are playing. On 'Marchides' and 'Flora Fidgit', for example, Phil Miller shines on electric guitar, and Dave McRae produces memorable phrases on electric piano. 'Righteous rhumba' equally features a superb guitar solo accompanied on organ. On 'Brandy as in Benj' McRae gets another chance to shine on piano; his playing is far more subtle than David Sinclair's was on the band's first album, and Miller accompanies him by strumming jazzy chords on guitar: premonitions of Hatfield and the North!

Judging from the album's cover, Matching Mole were in thrall to Maoist ideology at the time. They must have been blissfully unaware that, had they lived in China, their music and lifestyle would soon have landed them in a re-education camp in the countryside. But maybe it was all intended as a joke? I don't know what to make of lyrics such as: "My radical cheek is soft and meek / but I'll kill if I must. / I'd rather have the Chinese here than Europe on me thrust"... And then there's the fact that, in the early 1980s, Wyatt started recording songs that were close, at times, to old-fashioned agitprop. Oh well, to tell you the truth, I was never able to make out Matching Mole's lyrics until I checked them on the Calyx website. (Apart from 'God Song', Phil Miller's lovely anti-religious diatribe.) And at least all the playing here is first-rate. Recommended!

MATCHING MOLE's second and final studio album was produced by Robert Fripp, and featured a guest appearance from Brian Eno.This is more of a band effort than their debut was,and the lone lineup change is David Sinclair going back to CARAVAN to record "For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night",and being replaced by Dave Mcrae who guested on the debut album. Rather an awkward opening track in my opinion,as "Starting In The Middle Of The Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away" is the worst song on here.The song features piano and vocal melodies with organ coming in late. "Marchides" and the next three songs all blend together like they are one long suite."Marchides" opens with someone speaking and laughter before guitar? or fuzz organ? comes in with an uptempo soundscape.It sounds great! Some atmosphere 3 1/2 minutes in as the melody stops.For 2 minutes we get different sounds that come and go.We then get a nice melody to conclude the song that is a little slower than the original one. "Nan True's Hole" opens sounding very much like GENTLE GIANT.We then hear a conversation between a supposed prostitute and her 40 year old customer as angular guitar melodies are played.Nice.This sure sounds like Fripp playing."Righteous Rhumba" features male and female vocals that are spoken.More great guitar in this one as drums pound away. "Brandy As In Benj" has some amazing drumming from Wyatt.The instrumental middle of this song is very enjoyable,and it ends with organ. "Gloria Gloom" is sort of an odd experimental song.Eno is on synths here.There are conversations going on as the music is playing.The last couple of minutes feature Eno on synths in a calm but dark ending. "God Song" like "Nan True's Hole" would be easy targets of my complaining but this is Canterbury and these lyrics though perhaps offensive to some are silly and not to be taken tooseriously.As for the music it's typically beautiful with Wyatt's wonderful vocals and acoustic guitar.Both songs in question are so good instrumentally but lyrically,well... "Flora Fidgit" features electric piano,guitar,bass and drums.I really like this tune.It blends into the final track "Smoke Signal" that seems like the same melody only slower.The drumming after 4 minutes is incredible.It has a spacey,psychedelic ending. Tough one to rate really.There is so much great music here reminding me of the middle part of their debut album.It's the talking and conversations,along with the first song that bring it down a little for me.If you want to hear what a great drummer Robert Wyatt was, this is the album to check out.3.5 stars.

With some personal changes, Matching Mole, Robert Wyatt´s band after leaving Soft Machine, released their second album, which unfortunately would be their last, since Wyatt´s accident would finish the band. The style is Canterbury sound, less jazzy than Soft Machine, more closer to what Caravan was doing.

My album has a somewhat different track listing (side two before side one) and starts with Gloria Gloom, an eight-minute song with Eno´s synthesizers helping. The first minutes are synthesizer soundscapes combined with tape collages of spoken parts. The song blends itself with these spoken tapes, creating a crazy effect. The song is very good, with the traditional mix of psychedelic and jazz from Canterbury Sound. More Eno´s synth soundscapes come after, till the end of the song. God Song, the following, is a semi- acoustic song, with strong bass lines, beautiful acoustic guitar riff and nice singing. The next song, Flora Fidgit, is a psychedelic jazzy song, with a good organ and drums intro. The song gets more jazzy with great piano solos, nice percussion and bass rhythms. Smoke Signals picks up where Flora Fidgit ends and is a superb jazz song, with great keyboards, a strong rhythm section and some excellent guitar lines. The song changes a bit including some experimental parts, with synthesizers and great percussion work. What a pity this would be the last album with Wyatt playing drums like that.

Starting in the Middle of the Day, We Can rink Our Politics Away has a long title, but the song is short, keyboard lead, with very weird vocals, like mocking a Gregorian Chant. The organ lines are very beautiful. Marchides, the following song, is the longest of the album and it is a superb instrumental, with psychedelic and jazz touches. Superb rhythm section playing jazzy rhythms while the guitar and the synthesizer plays some acid solos and weird sounds. The song has a great change near the three minute mark, keeping the blend of jazzy and psychedelic sounds, but with another rhythm and melodies. It is the best song of the album, with many variations and impressive sounds. Nan True´s Hole has a very interesting haunty melody and some craziness, with spoken words over a psychedelic background. Righteous Rumba, the last song, is another jazzy song with some more spoken words. The music in it superb. The last song, Brandy as in Benji, is another great jazzy song, with superb keyboards and drums. The vocals once again are just weirdness. The jazzy bass lines are excellent as well.

Overall, is a great cross of early psychedelic Soft Machine with their late jazzy style, but not the heavy jazz-fusion Soft Machine went to adopt. Outstanding musically, it is not so great lyrically, but still a great effort. Unfortunately Wyatt would suffer an accident that would cut short the band´s career, because based on this effort, the band had a lot of potential to do great albums in the whole seventies decade.