Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

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Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom

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Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
EAC/FLAC(img)+CUE+LOG | Scans | 207 MB
Progressive Rock | Virgin Records #CDV 2017 | 1974 (1989 reissue)
"One of the 20 greatest albums of all time."

Prog Archives review

In the middle of 1973 Wyatt fall out of a window and broke his backbone, during a party. For a Drummer this is, like you can imagine, a profoundly change in life, including genral and musical life. After this event he concentrated on playing piano and organ as well as various percussion instruments. But the main part of his music for sure is his beautiful voice. Rock Bottom is the first album after this momentous event. Various popular musicians supported him on this album and encouraged him to go on. Featured are amongst others Mike Oldfield and Richard Sinclair.
"Sea Song" is a beautiful lovesong as well as a duett of Wyatt and Richard Synclair's bass. Organ and bass are dominating this song but you also get guitar and piano. The song raises slightly in the end. "The last Straw" commences in a similar way, organ and bass build a musical basis and Wyatt's voice impends over it. The drums stay discreet all the time. "Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road" is an extension of "The last straw", the melody commences and Mongezi Fesa adds some trumpet. This song is kind of hypnotic due to Wyatts voice and the melody, terrific! "Alifib" is a homage to his significant other and again, a duett, this time between Wyatt and Hopper on bass. In the beginning you just hear Wyatts breathing and gasping over some beautiful, mellow and muted Keyboard sounds. After a time Wyatt begins to sing, just as alsways, very melanciloc. After the song gets more and more intensive, it passes into the next track "Alife" wich is a bit madder mainly because of the saxophone. Nevertheless the two songs seem to belong togher, two great and melancolic tracks, beautiful. On "Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road" Mike Oldfield, Fred Frith, Laurie Allen and again Richard Sinclair gathered to attend Wyatt. The vivid beginning is dominated by Oldfield's guitar and Waytt's voice, later on Frith's viola affiliates. The end is quite funny because somebody tries to tell you something about a broken telephone, drinking tea and some other weird stuff. The song dies away with laughter.
"Rock Bottom" is a timeless Canterbury classic and a masterpiece of this genre. A terrific journey through Wyatt's psyche. It is mainly settled, calm and very melancolic. Wyatt's voice is for sure the main part of this release but you also get beautiful instrumentation wich is very Canterbury typical. For me "Rock Bottom" is one of the most beautiful records in my collection and I don't want to miss it. Five Stars is a MUST for this Canterbury Masterpiece.

Reviewed by Andy Gill
Friday, 17 October 2008

Recorded in the aftermath of the accident that lost him the use of his legs (though mostly written earlier in Venice), Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom remains a landmark in British music. It's hard to think of another prog-rock creation that has so evaded the tarnish of time – its airy drones, jazz leanings and unhurried pace still as refreshing as upon its 1974 release. While marked by striking guest contributions – a guitar solo from Mike Oldfield, restless probing by trumpeter Mongezi Feza and saxophonist Gary Windo, and Ivor Cutler's hilarious conclusion to "Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road" – it's Wyatt's forced switch to keyboards, and particularly his approach to singing, that define the album. These six pieces are songs that reject the expressive tyranny of words, his voice evaporating into a wordless realm where meaning is conveyed more by texture and inflection: in "A Last Straw", his vocal trails off into an impression of muted trumpet, while in "Sea Song" it seems to be floating into a serpentine, muezzin space. It even shifts into reverse during "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road" with no discernible loss of meaning. And in the "Alifib" and "Alife", he seems to be confirming his devotion to partner Alfreda Benge through improvisation around her name. One of the 20 greatest albums of all time.