Matching Mole

• Matching Mole's Little Red Record [Columbia, 1973] C+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Matching Mole's Little Red Record [Columbia, 1973]
On the band's debut LP, never released in the U.S., Robert Wyatt proved his right to transliterate the French machine molle with the quavery, exquisite "O Caroline," then guided the mostly instrumental album through what sounded in turn like Mahavishnu with a sense of humor, gently chaotic musique concrete, and the folk-rock of inspired amateurs. But here, in another installment of that endless soup opera The Curse of the Art Rockers, he changes keyboard players. The villain's name is Dave McRae, and I grant you he's not as highfalutin as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman--this is avant-garde fatuity, very modular and/or atmospheric. Guitarist Phil Miller tries his best with songs about God and the initiation of a lesbian virgin, and Wyatt plays mouth and drums. But both of them let McRae take the album away. C+