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With Cardinal's lone self-titled 1994 record just recently reissued, and compatriot Eric Matthews having just released his first collection of new songs since 1997, now seems like a good time to revisit their work, alongside that of that other half of Cardinal, the Australian-born Richard Davies. I worked at a local record store for 2 1/2 years in the mid-nineties, so I was familiar with both of these gents, and actually owned the Cardinal record for a brief time, but never did delve into their work extensively, being too preoccupied with noisy indie rock of the Touch & Go/AmRep variety at the time.

It wasn't until last year, actually, that I finally got around to examining their respective non-Cardinal catalogs. I think I picked up Matthews' first solo record for a buck somewhere, and was a wee bit surprised at how good it sounded after all these years. My time in LA last spring then turned up a number of Davies' solo records for similar prices, and all of a sudden I had a collection going.

From there, it was time to check out Davies' previous band, The Moles. I managed to land a copy of Untune the Sky on ebay for, again, a ridiculously low price, and I was certainly not disappointed. Featuring material recorded between 1991 and 1992, these eighteen songs bounce around the guitar-based indie pop map, mixing up catchy melodies with occasional feedback and some noisy experimentation. Here's a couple of numbers from that record that I really dig.

The Moles - Bury Me Happy
The Moles - Wires

N/P Salamander - Bent Hemlock