Customer Reviews

Smoke Signals

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the punning name suggests ("soft machine" is "machine moelleux" in French), Matching Mole is how Soft Machine might have evolved had drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt stayed with his former group. By the time Smoke Signals and its companion release, March, were recorded in concert, Matching Mole was an outstanding performance unit that excelled in extended improvisational pieces. I think these two recently released live albums demonstrate the musical excellence of Matching Mole even better than the two studio albums that were released back in the day. Highly recommended.

What a treat it is to have live evidence of one of the quirkiest, unfulfilled and most short-lived bands in the whole prog-rock arena. The recordings are surprisingly good, and the playing is considerably harder-edged than their studio recordings.

A very nice package too.

Live performance of their past releases. Again the instrumentation is brilliant very hard to discern whether they are going by the notes or an absolute improvised and impromptu jam. The sound quality is powerfully clear and crisp. The art work and wealth of information found on the booklet adds up to the satisfaction. Very nice packaging indeed. Robert Wyatt and his crew are beyond expectation in this record. The title smoke signal is very unique that precisely encapsulates the whole album. The music is left for the listener to distinguish the abstract from the concrete, to create such signals as a performance with sounds for the band. Very deep but comprehensible. If you would like to have a best of collection and not to spend on the other expensive albums this is sufficient. Robert Wyatt is very innovative not only in music but also in appropriate and musically related titles like The end of the *EAR,*ROCK Bottom", "Little Red *RECORD" and this album smoke *SIGNALS.

Where? to where your psyche wants to...The extreme 'arrangements' found in these already known Canterbury gems are going to put a smile on your face if you like groups like Soft Machine, National Health and Hatfield and the North. Excellent raw playing from all. Great fender Rhodes work all the way through! and excellent sound (considering the source). This was somehow put in the back burner in the piles of cds in my apartment and got rescued recently...i am glad i did finally paid attention to it! Get it if you are tired of re-hashed symphonic rock and want some real 'prog' music as the inventors intended it to be.

Progressive rock has always had this one element that seemed to be in opposition to the melodic, flowing, uplifting music of Yes, Camel, Focus, to name a few. This congenital growth out of prog was unusually dark, with angular movements and usually dissonant without melody or form. This style, probably more jazz-like than progressive, was interesting at times, but on this release, it is not. Harsh feedback, abrasive, incoherent ranting, uninteresting time changes, this is for the stout,

so-called, "intellectual", Rock-In-Opposition (RIO) crowd, and Soft Machine fans, I guess. I didn't find much of anything of interest on this album. Glad this Mole was short lived.