Short Reviews [The Muffins - 2012 - "Mother Tongue"]

What we have here is the final studio album by The Muffins, released in 2012 by Dave Newhouse (keyboards, baritone & tenor saxes, bass clarinet, accordion), Tom Scott (flute, soprano & alto saxophones, clarinet, alto clarinet, oboe, bassoon, keyboards, trumpet, vocals), Billy Swan (fretless bass, acoustic bass, acoustic & e-bow guitars) and Paul Sears (drums). The original live rhythm tracks were recorded in 2008, long before the release of the previous album, ‘Palindrome’, and we have on here just one fully live recording, ‘Going Softly’, which was recorded at ProgDay in 2010. No guests on this one, just the four Muffins demonstrating their musical prowess as they develop an album which is incredibly thoughtful and multi-layered. I have not heard all of their studio albums (something I do need to fix), but this album is far more laid-back and constructed than what I have come to expect from their live works. Given that three of the quartet are multi-instrumentalists, two of them ridiculously so, I guess it is no surprise that when time is not an object that the music becomes more reflective and thoughtful, although it is somewhat surprising to realise just how different they can be to the highly improvisational quartet who first came together more than 30 years prior to this recording taking place. I do not know when they decided to call it a day, whether they knew this was going to be their final album or if that decision was made later but coming to this a dozen years after its release one can almost hear the goodbyes as the band wind down with just a few songs, such as “Beat 10” showing a more up tempo and exciting feel to proceedings. Strangely, even though this is arguably the most commercial album of theirs I have heard, this is one which took me quite a while to get into, but now I have I can honestly say it is one I have enjoyed a great deal. Yet another classic Canterbury infused jazz prog album worth discovering.