Robert Wyatt

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  Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom ---Ink Blot Magazine - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/24/2003    Last Visited: 11/24/2003  

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  Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom
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  Robert Wyatt, "Sea Song"
  
  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt -voice, keyboards, percussion
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  Robert Wyatt first gained notice in the late 60s when he drummed and sang for the Soft Machine.That group, which was linked to the Canterbury experimental scene that also included Caravan and Pink Floyd, was both stylistically and interpersonally volatile; during Wyatt's membership it produced whimsical pot-headed pop, experimental tape loop music, and long-winded jazz fusion.Wyatt was booted from the group in 1971 due to personal and musical differences.He immediately joined another mostly instrumental group, Matching Mole, but had already begun a solo career when a drunken tumble out of a fourth floor window in 1973 broke his back.Wheelchair bound, Wyatt had to rethink his approach to music.This album, which was recorded less than a year after his accident and which was produced by Wyatt's counterpart in Pink Floyd Nick Mason, was the first step towards a new style that emphasized his gorgeously reedy voice. Robert Wyatt
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  Robert WyattGiven the tendency of most 70s singer-songwriters' towards mushy introspection and the accident that had recently rendered Wyatt a paraplegic and ended his career as a touring drummer, one might expect Rock Bottom to be an album loaded with maudlin self-pity.But a photo of his grinning mug on the tray card tells another story; this was also a guy who had just embarked on a new career and was about to get married, so he had as much cause for joy and optimism as for despair.
  
  Rock Bottom's six tracks are full of contradictory elements that coalesce into multi-leveled, emotionally complex work; on first listen it sounds pretty but oblique, but multiple spins reveal its full and endlessly flowering genius.Wyatt's fragmentary lyric to "Sea Song" links tidal and menstrual cycles in an effort to come to turns with his own mood swings."Alifib" doles out bits of nonsense that might be a send-up of the pompous art rock that was then being manufactured by his Canterbury mates (some of whom play on the record), then segues into "Alife," in which Wyatt's beloved partner Alfie tells him off for mouthing such nonsense.There are two songs called "Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road;" although musically quite different, both use the voices of Wyatt and broadcasting personality Ivor Cutler to express simultaneous affection and revulsion for English society.
  
  The music juggles illusions of stasis and motion, juxtaposing brisk percussion passages with wavering keyboard drones.Several of his art-rock buddies contribute cameos, but best of all are the densely layered trumpets played by the late South African jazz man Mongezi Feza.
  
  If you like Robert Wyatt, check out:
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  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt

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  Robert Wyatt: Shleep ---Ink Blot Magazine - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/6/2004    Last Visited: 4/6/2004  

  Astoundingly, Shleep is the pinnacle of Wyatt's spare but rewarding discography.It forgoes the musical ascetism that led him to record his last two albums by himself using only voice, keyboards and drums, in favor a subtle, multi-hued palette.
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  Shleep is a singular and gorgeous union of sound and word, and the best pop record of the year.

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  Robert Wyatt: Shleep ---Ink Blot Magazine - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/22/2003    Last Visited: 8/22/2003  

  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt: Shleep
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  Robert Wyatt, "A Sunday In Madrid"
  
  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt -voice, keyboards, trumpet, drums, percussion, Polish fiddle, bass guitar
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  Robert Wyatt first gained notice in the late 60s when he drummed and sang for the Soft Machine.That group, which was linked to the Canterbury experimental scene that also included Caravan and Pink Floyd, was both stylistically and interpersonally volatile; during Wyatt's membership it produced whimsical pot-headed pop, experimental tape loop music, and long-winded jazz fusion.Wyatt was booted from the group in 1971 due to personal and musical differences.He immediately joined another mostly instrumental group, Matching Mole, but had already begun a solo career when a drunken tumble out of a fourth floor window in 1973 broke his back.Wheelchair bound, Wyatt had to rethink his approach to music.Since then he has focused more on singing, although he has also drummed for Brian Eno and the Raincoats.He recorded two highly regarded albums for Virgin in the 70s, and a series of singles and albums for Rough Trade between 1980 and 1991. Robert Wyatt
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  Robert WyattGenerally the best one can expect from an artist who is thirty years into his career is that he won't do anything that desecrates the memory of his best work.
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  The arrangements, which range from delicate chamber jazz to punchy Dylanesque rock, are uniformly apropos settings for Wyatt's gently melodic, marvelously expressive singing.
  
  The lyrics, by Wyatt and his wife Alfreda Benge, use aquatic and avian imagery to contemplate insomnia, politics, and life cycles.
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  If you like Robert Wyatt, check out:
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  Robert Wyatt
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  Robert Wyatt

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