“We were looking at the porcupine7 times 7, that’s 49.” In Dave Benson Phillips’s Maths Machine, the seven times table features a visit to the zoo, while the twelves is about a dinosaur called Eric. Set to a variety of rap and dance styles, each table appears in rhyming form. Listeners first hear the whole thing done for them. Then they hear the first line - “Give us all a lot of fun“I before supplying the rhyming arithmetical reply, in this case nine times nine. Finally, the CD provides the music, while they provide all the words on their own. Dave Benson Phillips’s Maths Machine costs pound;10 + pound;1.50 pamp;p from Hillier-Stevens Music, PO Box 663, Tring HP23 5WA

www.mathsmachine.com