Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?

sorry, fifth - there's definitely more phil howard than robert wyatt in his playing!

I know it’s seen as this super minor entry in his catalogue but the little piano, voice and drum sketches of A Short Break are going down really well right now.

still get a scare when this thread is bumped

DO NOT POST IN THIS THREAD

Early ILM, getting it all wrong to be contrarian, yet again...

from the Soft Machine's SPACED thread: no lime compensates us for above video removed:

bummer about the disappeared video, seems to have vanished completely. anyway, it's available as an extra on this* which is where i first came across it.

― no lime tangier, Saturday, August 22, 2020 10:29 PM
*https://shop.bfi.org.uk/separation-dual-format-edition.html

This is from a late '07 profile that I wrote for a collegetown alt-weekly, prob emergency filler when some Star suddenly cancelled an interview and/or show, so the editor wasn't too picky---first part was the usual sort of bio, but I still like this about the musical journey:

...Rock Bottom, Wyatt’s 1974 debut solo album, doesn’t directly address his accident, but its dazzling ballad, “Sea Song,” confidently greets “...a seasonal beast, like the starfish that drifts in with the tide. So until your blood runs to meet the next full moon, your madness fits in nicely with my own...we’re not alone.” Yet in “Last Straw,” he’s “buried deep in the sand.” By 1975’s Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, he’s a little piece of pork, singing a “Soup Song”: “Now there’s no hope I’m getting out of here, I can feel I’m going soft!” But at least he can wish the soup-eater a tummy ache. On “Team Spirit,” he’s a happier pigskin, taunting the football player who’s kicking him, but also urges, “Use me to go to hell for leather and back,” because they give each other meaning.

Wyatt had recently married lyricist-graphic artist Alfreda Benge, and as he later acknowledged, “Life began to make sense.” She supported and challenged him. In the early 80s, he recorded Elis Costello and Clive Langer’s “Shipbuilding,” about a worker whose ancient trade and town’s prosperity are finally revived by the UK government’s (shady) Falklands War, to which the shipbuilder’s son is shipped off. (“But I’ll be home by Christmas.”) Wyatt also covered Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” an elegiac, then galvanizing account of and response to South African activist Steve Biko’s death, while being held by the Apartheid regime‘s police---and Nile Rodgers’ “At Last I Am Free,” a ballad that accounts, note by note, for every step toward and through strength and freedom.

“Biko” is in the Wyatt collection Mid-Eighties, which also contains his 1985 Old Rottenhat, where connections between the personal and political could get ranty, and there are some cranky moments in the middle of the new album, Comicopera. But it begins with a couple’s questions and answers for each other, settling and shifting.They make love, while beautiful music lures other characters into making war.The beauty tries to grow out of that, as Wyatt, at the height of his powers as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, leads jazz and rock players, singers, and listeners through Spanish and Italian words and melodies, like sunshine spilled through bullet holes.

And here's an excerpt from another ancient altweeky piece of mine, more re Comicopera.

from "Speculation, Notes On Three Songs Of The Year (07)":

Robert Wyatt's "Cancion de Julieta": built on, travels on an upright
bass riff, which carefully adjusts itself, then tilts forward, like a
rocking horse that almost gets stuck on a surreal extension of a bent
(fifth?) some blues note or I should say blu-u-ues note, groaning a
little, deliberately distended, before the last note, before
the rocking horse pilgrim tilts back into place. And Wyatt sings the
same melisma, much higher, like a little old man with a hole in his
head and the air pushing out and in, which is true of course, like a
little old man in a poem or a play, under the radar or trying to be
that way, in his mask (from Comicopera, and Wyatt explains he means
that album's title in the oldest school sense, the other side of
tragedy, but useful, a working piece of uniform), his parody, with the
well-timed well-pulled tear in his blues, giving just enough pause to
the listener (and even a sympathetic listener can stop listening if
the music seems too familiar, like this track never does; I keep
listening to hear what happens next, even though I "basically" or
schematically know, but it's the feeling of the listening experience
that matters here, like it always should). Also, it's not just a mask
etc in the defensive sense, or defensive in the wait for 'em to come
at you sense; the little old rocking horse rider isn't just finding
away to keep his place, he's somehow pushing forward, each repetition
of the basic riff brings some other sounds too, which suggest he's
breaking into something, pushing forward, into wreckage, the hull of a
galleon maybe (kind of an underwater moonlit quality). The bass player
is also using his bow, and overdubbing violins, scrabbling at the
push, in the push. (Wyatt also plays some kind of keyboard,
percussion, pocket trumpet, all in the arc and pull and push of the
sway of the note). "Un mar de sue-eh-eh, no. Un mar de tierra blanca,"
so not just aquatic and doesn't just sound aquatic, but like he's
entering the water, rocking back and forth and farward. Just another
sleepwalker? They can do a lot. Leading where all listeners might be
led toward making their own connections, if they want, to any possible
deeper waters. Either way, the song will keep going (not too earnest,
no time for that). It's just the damndest track, is all, first listen
every listen.

“Biko” is in the Wyatt collection Mid-Eighties, which also contains his 1985 Old Rottenhat, where connections between the personal and political could get ranty, and there are some cranky moments in the middle of the new album, Comicopera.

you say all this like it's a bad thing somehow, but IMO these are some of the strongest moments in his catalog, are extremely emotional and human, and light years away from being "ranty" which tbh sounds pretty blithe and privileged as an alleged dismissal.

Regardless of the lyrics, I think Old Rottenhat is his strongest album musically, and it's aged phenomenally. Gharbzadegi is one of the few 8-minute songs that's far too short; I could ride that cyclical piano groove all day

maybe "ranty" is a poor way to say what I think I meant, almost 15 years ago, but seems to have been for contrast w the choices and performances of "Biko" and "At Last I Am Free"---and "Shipbuilding," for that matter, though, though the first two are peaks of eloquence.
But I can still change my archived post of it, so maybe I'll just cut out that whole sentence, mainly in there as transition (not strictly nec., more for the school paper approach). It's just my perspective at the time, meant as an intro,not presented there or here as all-time in-depth consideration, but some of the more compelling tracks, personally and then also politically, developmentally.

Okay, did that. I'll get back to Old Rottenhat and some others later on.

I just got the full 4 volume Dada INsanity which Ithink is all Robert Wyatt era Soft Machine. Oly had disc 3 before i think which is US tour from 68.

Have a few of his solo lps around in my bedroom several of which I got cheap IN FOPP a few years ago. I know I love Rock Bottom and the Drury Lane set from around the time, got both of those from elsewhere. Really like Ruth is Stranger tahn Richard and need to familiarise myself with others better.

Dada Insanity looks great

Old Rottenhat is top shelf. I love it as much as Rock Bottom. There's an interview where he said he heard one of his old tunes getting played on Voice of America and he thought 'hmm, the only way to get them to stop doing that would be to start writing lyrics they can't ignore'

favorite Old Rottenhat era tape is Radio Experiment Rome Feburary 1981. Had the bootleg a long time before the CD. In-studio improvs modest but perfect. The track 'Holy War' is an early version of 'Speechless' played backwards.

The recordings with Henry Cow in 1975 are pretty good too. I think there was a 3cd set of them one set each from London, Italy and somewhere.
Were out at one point as Freedom.

If you want songs that touch your mind as well as your heart, these are the best,” says Brian Eno regarding Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge’s recently released Side By Side, a collection of lyrics, poems, writings, and drawings from the Wyatt and painter, songwriter, Alfie Benge, longtime collaborators and partners.

Along with the release of the book, the ever-reliable Domino has begun a reissue campaign of his solo work, beginning with His Greatest Misses, a non-chronological survey of his decades-spanning oeuvre. Originally released in Japan and available now for the first time on vinyl, it’s a non-chronological look at the sonic inventor’s work between 1974—2003.

And as if all that isn’t enough, Wyatt season continues with brand new music: the forthcoming Artlessly Falling by MacArthur Genius Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl. On the new album, he joins the guitarist and composer for three angular but wide-open songs. Like his collaborations Eno, Carla Bley, Björk, Paul Weller, members of Pink Floyd, and many others on the vanguard of rock and the avant-garde, his contributions on Artlessly Falling feel singular, his voice conveying emotionality, beauty, and bewildered wonder.

That’s all on display in The Free Will and Testament of Robert Wyatt, a playlist featuring Wyatt favorites and deep cuts selected by Aquarium Drunkard founder Justin Gage. From his majestic cover of Elvis Costello’s “Shipbuilding” to pioneering work with the prog/jazz fusion combo Soft Machine to late period classics like the Benge/Wyatt-penned “Just As You Are” from 2007’s Comicopera, these songs align mind and heart. As Eno says, “English music has produced some fascinating personalities but few are as unusual as Robert Wyatt.” Unusual, yes. Wonderfully so.
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/10/22/robert-wyatt-playlist/ (links to Spotify)

Replying to
@aquadrunkard
Some Robert Wyatt Rarities / Radio Shuttleworth, BBC May 23, 2000 (the entire show + 2 songs edited out as separate tracks)

https://we.tl/t-oRaXvVZQLk (WeTransfer, downloaded quickly, haven't had time to listen yet)

Sorry, thanks to this guy! Observations of Deviance AntiFascist
@AtBestIsKorny
Observations of Deviance / a readiness to find strange and singular what surrounds us; a certain relentlessness to break up our familiarities. KXCI radio DJ
Tucson, AZkxci.org/programs/obser…Joined November 2011
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Followed by Milford Graves Full Mantis, Sunwatchers, and 46 others you follow Although looks like I muted him for some reason, only saw the above via ilxor tylerw's tweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2GRJmIZKk

Franklin Bruno
@humanfranklin

“I am a real minimalist, because I don’t do much. I know some minimalists who call themselves minimalist but they do loads of minimalism. That is cheating.” -- Robert Wyatt.
3:25 PM · Nov 28, 2020

He's good on that Code Girl album--sounds old, but vivid, to lingering impression after tracks are over--- and alb is all good, by far the best Halvorson set I've heard so far, maybe because she's an accompanist here, to singers and instrumental "chamber" (but non-antiseptic) jazz combo & soloists.
Seems like this might pertain:
Long before the modern British jazz explosion brought us Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia, and the like, their forebears filtered rock, funk, electronics, international influences, and the avant-garde through an open-ended but idiosyncratically English mindset. The roots of U.K. progressive jazz reach all the way back to ‘50s modernists like Joe Harriott and Tubby Hayes. A decade later, the countercultural boom brought mavericks like Elton Dean, Keith Tippett, and Alan Wakeman, who enlarged their audiences by working with simpatico proggy legends such as King Crimson and Soft Machine, along the way.
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/british-jazz-list

i was a little cooler on the album overall, maybe it needs a few more spins to grow on me, but agree that Wyatt is fantastic on it

It's a great setting for him and he sounds perfect on it even if I am not as high on as I was the first Code Girl record, but agreed I need some more time with it

I dunno what it is about "Worship" but that song can never receive enough praise. It is my calm zen.

Shleep is so damn good, can't believe I shlept on it for so long

oh god yeah, the title track is basically an Eno tune

Pretty much every song they’ve worked on together is a career highlight for both men.

Cuckooland is probably the one I go back to most often these days, it's probably not his best album but there are a few songs on there I dearly love.

I can’t quite explain it but there’s something about the digital keyboard sound I love on that record. Karen Mantler is a beast.

listening to this now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osxAOZEGyV8

Soft Machine - "Out-Bloody-Rageous" from 'Facelift France and Holland' (Cuneiform Records)

...It is the earliest footage of the band to be commercially released and also the only video footage known to exist of the quintet line-up that was active from January to March 1970. The broadcast contains the only professionally-recorded performance of “Out-Bloody- Rageous” with Lyn Dobson on second sax and it also is the only professionally-recorded alternative performance by the quintet of “Facelift” (the original appearing as the opening track on Third).

Facelift France and Holland marks the first official release of the entire show in both audio and video format. Footage of the concert was previously released in 2008 on DVD, but we have gone through the original footage once again to improve video quality as well as remove or lessen soundtrack issues including fake applause and hard edits.

In addition to the March, 1970 material presented here on CD and DVD in splendid stereo sound and looking better than it ever has before, Disc 3 presents a previously unreleased soundboard performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw from January 17, 1970.

"...With the Softs flying high sans safety net and previewing material from their upcoming album Third, the audience in raptures, Robert Wyatt looking like the younger brother of Brian Jones and the sight of Orangina bottles decorating the top of the amps, this is a hugely evocative period piece made all the more vivid by the warm hues of the colour film stock. They sure don't make 'em like this any more." – Grahame Bent, Record Collector

Elton Dean – Alto sax, saxello
Lyn Dobson – Soprano and tenor sax, flute, harmonica, vocals
Hugh Hopper – Bass
Mike Ratledge – Hohner Pianet, Lowrey Holiday Deluxe organ
Robert Wyatt – Drums, vocals

CD One: Recorded at Théâtre de la Musique, Paris, France, March 2, 1970. Licensed from I.N.A.
CD Two Recorded at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, January 17, 1970.

I'm only into them because of him, but that was pretty refreshing overall.
here's the 7 minute trailer, also sounding good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UobaL1aCdUM

Robert/s upfront right away!

Spotify has an expanded Virtually. 6-17-71 performances now up from 11 to 16, followed by 10-19-71: 25 total. At bottom:
February 11, 2022

© 2022 Soft Machine

℗ 2022 Lo-Light Records Haven't seen any other info yet---yall know it?

I will always have time for more '68-'70 Soft Machine in my life, even if it gets released in Greatful Dead proportions.

I've been wavering on that Facelift France and Holland release, worth getting?

A guy I know saw Robert Wyatt in Louth last week, took a picture of him. I think he was sitting outside a Greggs.

I was reading the comments on one of the yt links above (2nd, I think) and a guy said he walked past Robert's place once and saw the door was open, peeked in and Robert invited him in and they chatted for a good while. Someone else said they mailed him a letter and Robert replied with a hand-written letter.

what is going on with Rock Bottom, where every chord feels like it's a quarter tone off or something? its like the mellotron effect. is there a term for that?
this album is such a trip. haven't listened to it in years and certain parts are etched in my brain

The sound it's building on is summed up nicely in Bob Stanley's "English Weather" compilation (which of course features Robert as part of Matching Mole) but Rock Bottom is also its own thing of course.

(xp) I don't know if you mean there's mellotron on the album because there isn't afaict.

oddly enough wyatt himself has supplied* the word (or a word) for this effect = desafinado**

*in an 80s interview, i ?think? in ref to the excellence of the raincoats (tho it's possible i subsequently supplied this in my head as a good example)

**meaning the deliberate pitch bending or detuning of notes and melodies, as made popular in 1959 by the brazilian jobim/gilberto hit (which was an ironic embrace of the term bcz ppl were saying that bossa nova was music for ppl who couldn't sing). tuning that veers away from classical piano tuning is of course present all across all kinds of folk and popular musics, so the term has plenty places it can be used beyond bossa nova

i am prepared to argue strongly that wyatt's (and soft machine's) taste for this effect derives from their experiments with tape loops (which often introduce tuning glitches as a likeable effect you'd want to repeat) as well as mike ratledge's sometimes wayward organ (same argument)*** -- and of course tuning effects are also a feature of the wing of minimalism that isn't reich and glass

***and mellotrons are organs made of tape loops! so it all fits

"as made popular in 1959" -- i mean this made the word popular, i don't think the song itself does any pitch-bending (tho the argument critics were making was that bossa nova's whispery vocal style wasn't proper singing i guess)

You could "bend" the notes on a Hammond organ by switching it off and on again - I'm sure the same was true for the Lowrey organ Mike Ratledge used in Soft Machine. Didn't Wyatt use some cheap (probably) Italian organ on this and subsequent albums?

google says yes: a riviera that alfreda benge bought for him in veinice to doodle around on when they were staying in julie christie's villa as don't look now was being shot (benge was asst editor to roeg, something i did not know until three minutes ago)

asst to roeg's editor is probably more precise but even so

There are some v. interesting experiments with tape loops etc. on the Canterburied Sounds compilations, though Daevid Allen is of course the lead experimenter (Ratledge is an odd figure, always central to the project right up to 1976 and responsible for a good deal of the sound, but never seeming to express his own personality / ideas)

some time this year (i hope) i have a big long essay coming out in a collection abt terry riley which does a little digging into exactly this topic (riley and tape loops, plus who was listening and where they took it all) (it could have done with more on daevid allen tbh but it was already much too long and i was finding useful interviews with him abt that topic hard to source)

(xp) I don't know if you mean there's mellotron on the album because there isn't afaict.

― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Thursday, February 2, 2023 5:38 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I brought up the mellotron because to me the signature element is that the tapes get worn out quickly which gives them that distended, detuned sound. which wound up becoming a sought after thing in its own right - I find it very amusing that there's a site (Planet Mellotron) which is dedicated to determining which albums use the real thing and which are sampled. not just that someone would catalogue it but that apparently hundreds of bands are sampling this giant, unwieldy machine that doesn't even really work. I am pretty sure the thing wasn't designed to ruin the tapes but it sure makes an interesting sound. Anyway Rock Bottom has that same detuned sound which you don't often hear out of those kinds of organs. I feel like the album itself is supposed to exist half in this world and half in the spiritual realm and playing these chords which seem kind of unearthly...they're like slightly off, sticking a thumb in your brain...is what really drives that home for me

tbh I think the notes Robert Wyatt plays have something to do with it! He does tend to play unusual scales or else flirts with dissonance, he's always done that.

i mean, he sings that way too