It starts out with a mellowing ballad done by the Mellotron and
creating some wonderful structures in the Canterbury circuit as Robert Wyatt
comes in with his soothing voice about a break up in the realms of O
Caroline which was dedicated to his Ex-Girlfriend. Not to mention the
line, “If you call this sentimental crap/you’ll make me mad/cause you’ll know
that I would not sing about some passing fad/and if my attempts at rhyming
aren’t convincing to your ear/the memories betrayed you through the passing of
the year.”
It proves to be almost a humoristic taste of the silly love songs
from the late ‘60s and shows how this band could have been huge, but cut short
in 1973 after Wyatt fell down through a third story, damaging his back and
remained in a wheelchair through the rest of his life. That and the short-lived
Canterbury supergroup, Matching Mole was formed by Robert himself after he left
or was fired from the Soft Machine in 1971 with the release of Fourth and
finished up his solo debut which was a Free-Jazz Avant-Garde mass madness on
The End of an Ear in 1970.
In the band featured: Phil Miller on guitar, Keyboardist David
Sinclair from Caravan, and bassist Bill MacCormick from Quiet Sun, showed how
strange, twisted, and amazing they were with their sound and surrealism. Two of
their albums (Matching Mole and Little Red Record) have
been given the 2-CD Expanded Edition treatment done by the good people at
Esoteric Recordings including liner notes by King Crimson expert Sid Smith, who
knows his history of the Canterbury scene very well.
The first sole self-titled debut, originally released on the CBS
label back in 1972, was composed and conducted by Wyatt as it has a lot of the
Jazz structures with a lot of Fusion work and laying down the groove and having
a freak-out session at times that would haven taken the listener down into a
wonderland of out of this world time changes and sometimes laid-back as well.
Robert would do some harmonizing vocalization and some scat-singing and
screeching which is investigated on the Avant-Funk orientation, Instant
Pussy and the vicious organ work roar done by Sinclair on the Instant
Kitten where he would pay homage to Ratledge with his fuzztone garage
rock-like sound that would give you goosebumps as the flute sounds on the
mellotron would be a calm after the storm finale.
The 9-minute haunting instrumental, Part of the Dance,
is where they go into some vicious sounds on their instruments as MacCormick
would do some fusion-like bass lines that resembles a pre-Jaco Pastorious as
Phil Miller comes up with these guitar lines that kicks you right in the gut as
he makes it roar in where Hendrix and McLaughlin were doing in the late ‘60s
and early ‘70s. At times it sounds like there were some sessions that were
taken off during the Head Hunters or the On the Corner-era
as it would be roaring and laid-back to groove the tempos going.
Then it’s off to the voyages of Space with some fast movement in
which they go into light speed with Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren’t
Listening as Miller just lets it come at him with his guitar solo that
is hard, heavy, and a little bit volcanic as the band keep up with him to see
where his fingers would lay on the fret while the booming segue Beer As
in Braindeer has this anti-climatic dooming hay-wiring finale as all
of the instruments go into this Mad Scientist ruckus mixing different kinds of
potions and turning it into a monster that has been let out of the cage and
wreaking havoc across the city.
Immediate Curtain is a rumbling closer which has
Dave Sinclair, is going at it with his keyboards while Wyatt comes up with some
sci-fi elements with the strings on the Mellotron to make it an Atmospheric yet
terrifying ending that almost sounded like an episode of the Outer
Limits. Next, is their last album, Little Red Record, released
the same year in November and as a follow up to their first album in which
there was a little help from King Crimson’s Robert Fripp as a producer, Ruby Crystal (pseudonym for actress Julie
Christie) and Roxy Music’s Brian Eno appearing on one track to close the band
with a white ribbon around the oak tree, shows that they were about to go out
with a bang with a lot of electricity and voltage in their sleeves.
Beginning with a mock operetta with Dave MacRae who replaced David
Sinclair, creating some moody sounds on the organ and a concerto on the Piano
on the strange long title, Starting in the Middle of the Day We Can
Drink Our Politics Away as it segues into the attack mode fusion style
with the 8-minute terror, Marchides. Like a torpedo going at you
about to hit the water with a bang, this is a Jazz Rock attack mode with Dave
and Bill dueling between Rhodes and Bass into a Fuzz mode to see who can come
up with the best solo during the race for the first three minutes as Dave comes
in with some spooky elements that is very New Age and then coming back with
thumping closure.
Elsewhere, Nan’s True Hole is Wyatt singing the
melody with the bass line and drums together as Julie Christie speaks about how
messed up her life and dealing with sex as Phil Miller is doing some Crimson-like
guitar work to set the scenery while Brandy As in Benj is
MacRae’s moment to shine as he takes the Rhodes up a notch with soulful sound
as he comes up with some interesting Herbie Hancock lines on the keyboard to
pay tribute to him.
Gloria Gloom which features Eno as a guest
on the album, is Matching Mole becoming from a Canterbury band by transforming
them into Tangerine Dream with this space rock avant-garde nightmarish hell
that Eno is doing with the VCS3 before the conversations kick in as the
instruments follow them as Wyatt sings and make it very strange as possible.
Then there’s the lukewarm crisp acoustic folk of God Song which
has an anti-religious view on how we can understand the invisible man up in the
sky watching everyone to see how they behave, which is very atheist, but very
catchy.
Flora Fidgit resembles the Gentle Giant pre-Octopus sessions
in which the band come in together as a team and do some magic on their own
while the closer Smoke Signal pays tribute to King Crimson’s
Moonchild jazz-like improvisation that really sort of tickle Fripp’s funny bone
as if he is watching them having a ball and closing the album off with a T. The
bonus tracks feature some recording sessions for the BBC at the Paris Theatre
they did and two for John Peel, single versions, different takes of each of the
compositions, including a jazz ballad of the Soft Machine’s psych-classic cover
titled Memories Membrane and a funk orientation on Horse while
the band and Christie come up with some intro on how to start the introduction
line for Marchides on Mutter with a sense of
humor to show they had a good time.
While the band called it a day, it proves that they were one of
the most obscure bands from the Canterbury period and these two albums have
shown that they were the bees knees of collaborations and team effort. A must
have for any Canterbury fan if you’re a fan of the Soft Machine, Caravan,
Hatfield and the North, Gentle Giant, and Egg.
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