Matching Mole

2CD version. Robert Wyatt formed Matching Mole after leaving Soft Machine in 1971, and the name is a pun on the French for soft machine, machine molle. The group's first album, released by CBS in 1972, was recorded at CBS Studios in London over the winter of 1971-72 and produced by the band itself. Wyatt plays drums and sings, with Dave Sinclair, formerly of Caravan, on organ and piano, Phil Miller on guitar and Bill MacCormick, formerly of Quiet Sun, on bass. Dave MacRae appears as a guest on keyboards and would take over from Sinclair for the second album.

Most of the writing is Wyatt's. The exceptions are O Caroline, with music by Sinclair and words by Wyatt about the end of his relationship with Caroline Coon, and Miller's Part of the Dance, which runs past nine minutes. The record alternates short, oblique songs with long instrumental stretches: Wyatt's voice, light and a little crooked, sits against organ, electric guitar and a rhythm section that leaves room to improvise, and the album closes on the six-minute Immediate Curtain. Titles such as Instant Pussy, Signed Curtain and Beer as in Braindeer keep the Canterbury habit of comic names and serious playing. A second album, Little Red Record, was recorded that summer and released in the autumn of 1972; by then the band had already split.

Esoteric Recordings expanded edition, remastered from the original master tapes. The first disc adds the single versions of O Caroline and Signed Curtain and a 21-minute Part of the Dance Jam; the second collects studio session recordings from December 1971 and January 1972, previously unreleased, and two BBC sessions. Booklet with liner notes by Sid Smith.