Matching Mole are usually seen as a transitionary stage in the career of Robert Wyatt. The group formed in 1971, in the aftermath of his departure from Soft Machine, when Wyatt was still, in his own words, “a drummer biped.” And they lasted only a year. In a superficial biography, the next significant stage is the launch (with 1974's enduringly affecting Rock Bottom) of Wyatt's solo career as a singer and songwriter, an infamous drunken party plummet having left him paraplegic and thus unable to drum. But though patchy compared to Wyatt's work both before and, in particular, since, the band's two studio albums both have their moments of glory. Even the self-titled debut, at times close to a Wyatt solo effort, veers from the nakedly honest break-up song ‘O Caroline’ to instrumental jazz-rock, via the pataphysical and postmodern ‘Signed Curtain.’

Fans, however, will know and love these tracks already. These “expanded editions” get the thumbs up for the re-mastered audio, but also for the inclusion of extra material, some of it never previously released. On Little Red Record, more of a collective effort than its mellotron-soaked predecessor, we hear the full skit that would, in edited form, kick off the finished record. And if it sounds like they're having a blast, it's in no small part because one of the voices belongs to Alfie, Robert's new girlfriend – and, subsequently, manager, album covern artist, co-lyricist and wife. So much else is here in seed form, from the flirtation with communism in the title and cover image, adapted from a Chinese propaganda poster, to the exploration, on the mischievous ‘God Song’, of the difficulties of being a “secular Christian”. But more than anything, these new releases allow the group – brown and underground and myopic – to once again be enjoyed musically, and in its own right… even if it would be a little while longer before Wyatt fully nailed his goal of “upside down jazz rock.”