725 Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)

Studio Album - Progressive Rock

About the Act:

Robert Wyatt was a central figure in the "Canterbury Scene", which was a revolving-door set of bands centred around Canterbury who were prominent in the Prog Rock world. They had particular elements - the birth of Jazz-Rock, and a mellow, folk-like approach that combined Hippie naivety with musical experimentation and often quite strong South England accents in the singing. Robert Wyatt was a founding member of Soft Machine and Matching Mole, and was a drummer at that point. Matching Mole were about to record their third album when Robert fell out of a window at a birthday party for members of Gong. He was drunk. He was paralysed from the waist down. He then embarked on a solo career that spanned 40 years.

About the Album:

Robert Wyatt conceived this album while he was in hospital after his life-changing accident. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd produced the album. Hugh Hopper, Fred Frith, Richard Sinclair and Laurie Allen, each from several Canterbury bands, all play. Alfreda Benge, Roberts soon-to-be-wife wrote some lyrics and did some vocals. Mike Oldfield provided multi-tracked guitars, and Ivor Cutler, the eccentric comic Scottish Poet recited nonsense poetry.

My History with this Album:

I first heard this album a couple of years ago, when it appeared on my Prog Rock list of albums I was reviewing. I remember it from then.

Review:

This is in some ways an extraordinary album. Take a slab of Krautrock and Contemporary Classical, create long expanded drones, and add on vocals, sometimes sung, sometimes muttered, sometimes chanted. It's experimental, it's progressive, it's unusual, and it's mellow. In some ways it's like a down-tempo Gong (but if you don't know Gong that won't help you).

Musically it uses unusual harmonies and chord structures. It's not rocky, and percussion is in short supply. There is quite a lot of Mellotron giving background paddy sounds, and things like saxophones. Sometimes there are snatches of playing, and sometimes it is quite chaotic and discordant. If all you have ever listened to is safe mainstream music, you might find this a challenging listen, not because it is aggressive in any way, but because it is so musically unusual. 

Vocally it's unusual in that the voice is played down quite a bit, he doesn't have a strident or strong voice, but has reasonably well turned this into an advantage. It's kind of muttery at times. Lyrically it's mostly nonsense, beyond the nonsense of Edward Lear and into surreal chains of words. Maybe they make sense to somebody, but I think you are not meant so much to understand them as experience them.

Here is a sample of some lyrics:

Not nit not nit no not

Nit nit folly bololy

Burlybunch, the water mole

Hellyplop and fingerhole

Not a wossit bundy, see ?

For jangle and bojangle

The question is, do I like it? Well... I'm not sure. I respect the craziness, but ultimately, it's lacking in listening enjoyment at times. It pushes things even for me in the progressive aspect, and this is one area I tend to embrace the weird. Coming back to it, having reviewed it before, I quite enjoyed it, and I wonder if familiarity would make it grow on me.

6.8/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/72t34rHQENHfAK5kDLZjuG

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiN-7mukU_RGeUH0dtrx72FMM_ivXGmgJ

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Bottom_(album)