Cheap Smoke Signals (Music) (Matching Mole) Price

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Customer Reviews of Smoke Signals

Mole Extricated
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.

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Soft Machine by another name
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.

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Rare Live Mole!
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.