The Moles were an Australian chamber pop band led by
Richard Davies, a gifted singer/songwriter who later found success on American soil both as a solo artist and as one-half of the short-lived duo
Cardinal. Formed in Sydney in the late '80s, the Moles debuted in 1990 with the EP Untune the Sky, followed a year later by another EP, Tendrils & Paracetamol. After the 1992 release of their first full-length release -- also titled Untune the Sky -- the group relocated to New York, where they released a pair of 7" singles (packaged together as the Double Single EP). A move to London followed, and although they garnered great acclaim from the British press, the band nonetheless broke up around the beginning of 1993. In 1994, however,
Davies resurrected the Moles aegis for the album Instinct; a band effort in name only, it essentially marked the beginning of
Davies' solo career, although he did not make his formal bow until 1996's There's Never Been a Crowd Like This. In 2016, after releasing a flurry of albums under both his own name and with
Cardinal and
Cosmos, the latter a collaboration with
Guided by Voices'
Robert Pollard,
Davies issued the sprawling, 24-track Tonight's Music, the first new Moles album in over 20 years. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi