MATCHING MOLE — Matching Mole (review)

MATCHING MOLE — Matching Mole album cover Album · 1972 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
Robert Wyatt's first album as a band leader, following his exit from Soft Machine, shows the broad range of his musical interests - almost all of which were being ignored by his former band at this point, with their fourth and fifth albums being devoted to fairly strait-laced jazz fusion. Not that there's no jazz influence here - far from it - but the album is infused with Wyatt's hitherto-stifled personality, from the touching love song O Caroline that opens the album (the simplest track) to the more challenging, free jazz-influenced material that follows.

At times, the album sounds like a more approachable, tighter, and interesting version of Wyatt's An End of an Ear, his voice-as-instrument solo album; at other points, it sounds like rough sketches for Hatfield and the North. The latter part isn't so surprising, since after the demise of the Mole guitarist Phil Miller became a founder of Hatfield and the North, and the most Hatfield-sounding song on the album, Part of the Dance, is actually a Miller composition.

The second Matching Mole album was a bit more diverse in its songwriting - the majority of the material here is by Wyatt, but that's really no surprise considering that by the time of his exit from Soft Machine he must have had quite a stash of juicy musical ideas which had been glossed over by his former band. I think it's a vitally important album both to Wyatt's discography and to the development of the Canterbury scene as a whole.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Yass Big Band : imMATHEMATICS Eclectic Fusion
TYMAŃSKI YASS ENSEMBLE / YASS BIG BAND
Buy this album from MMA partners
From the Mars Hotel : The Angel’s Share Jazz Related Rock
GRATEFUL DEAD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Maria Grand & Marta Sanchez : Anohin 21st Century Modern
MARIA GRAND
Buy this album from MMA partners
My Prophet Post-Fusion Contemporary
ODED TZUR
Buy this album from MMA partners
Relentless Big Band
FERNANDO HUERGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Twilight
RANDY SCOTT
js· 18 hours ago
Trifecta - Beck and Call - official video (taken from The New Normal)
TRIFECTA
js· 1 day ago
Phoenix
GRÉGORY PRIVAT
js· 1 day ago
Karrin Allyson EPK for NEW Album "A Kiss For Brazil" Available May 17, 2024 ©Origin Records
KARRIN ALLYSON
js· 1 day ago
Bill Laurance & The Untold Orchestra - Bloom (Official Music Video)
BILL LAURANCE
js· 2 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed