What do you think of Robert Wyatt's new album, 'Comicopera'?

[Adriano Lanzi]

I like it... ;-) been listening to it almost exclusively for a week or so.
I think Robert is one of the few artist's that stayed genuinely 'progressive', in the best sense of the word, for the entire career, so this is the right group to talk about him, isn't it? Did anybody else here listen to his new release?

[Alan Holmes]

Well I have it and have been listening to it quite a bit and I think it's quite good - I like it. Then again, that's the impression I have of everything he's done in the past 30 years - they're all "quite good".
I think if I hadn't heard anything by him before, I'd be more impressed, but I just can't listen to his stuff without thinking that however good it might be, it's not one millionth as good as Rock Bottom - that was my first reaction when "Ruth is Stranger than Richard" came out in 1975 and that's what I've thought about every record he's released since.
I guess that's the negative aspect of having made a complete masterpiece - you're doomed to spend the rest of your life failing to live up to it..... a shame really, because he is still quite good.
(letting the loathesome Paul Weller play on his records does him no favours though)

[Chorlton Radiophonic Workshop]

It's on our Christmas list - more to follow

[Ian Land]

I've only listened to it once, but I like it based on that, it's much more focused than his last record, which wandered quite a bit, to no great effect.

As for the loathsome Paul Weller, he plays guitar on Free Will and Testament on Shleep, which, annoyingly enough, is one of my favourite Wyatt songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7gSzJquW8

Agree about Rock Bottom though, he's never matched it.

[Andrew]

His clutch of classic singles for Rough Trade came close though

[Nick M]

Has anyone heard the soundtrack for the film "Winged Migration"? There's a couple (maybe more?) of Wyatt tracks on that. When I saw the film I was very surprised to hear that unmistakable voice, but I've never followed it up since. I remember thinking the music worked well in the film, don't know how it would stand up outside of that context.

Another slightly unexpected Wyatt appearance was on an album with early 90s electronica duo Ultramarine- he guested on vocals on 2 or 3 tracks on one of their albums (think it was "Every Man and Woman Is A Star"). I used to have that album, and quite liked it (cf Alan's "quite good" comments above), but it disappeared in a house move years ago and seems to be difficult to find now.

And while I'm at it- has anyone else ever heard "Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports", which featured contributions from Wyatt and Carla Bley? I borrowed this album from Chelmsford public library about 25 years ago and still remember some of the songs very clearly. Quite a strange album, not in the least bit Floydian, and in fact (iirc) Nick Mason didn't write *any* of it- I think most of it was written by Wyatt and Bley. I have never met anyone else who's heard it (admittedly, I don't ask everyone I meet whether they've heard it, but you know what I mean).

[Andrew]

He's the man behind the delightfully meandering keyboards in Scritti Politti's 'The Sweetest Girl' as well as the obvious influence on Green Gartside's vocal style

80's electropoop outfit Tears for Fears even dedicated a song to him. The name of the song escapes me now but I remember they added 'if he's listening' to the dedication

[Alan Holmes]

they were great, admittedly... but not *that* close, and they were all covers...

[Andrew]

Aye, I think he said at the time that he felt there was no point in writing his own songs as there were so many much better ones he could re-interpret

[Alan Holmes]

yes, I agree it's much better than his last album.
I feel a bit bad about not liking Wyatt's recent records more, as he quite obviously makes them for all the right reasons and is as uncompromising (musically and politically) as ever - it's just that Rock Bottom was one of a small handful of perfect releases to have come out in the past half century and so he seems doomed to always churn out seemingly second-rate material in comparison.
Of course the events leading to Rock Bottom were quite exceptional and traumatic and none of us would ever wish such an experience on the man again, however great an album it would potentially result in.... I think "quite good" will suffice for now.

btw... if you want an alternative "new Robert Wyatt album", get the vinyl version of the new PJ Harvey album and play it at 33rpm. Ann did this when she bought it the other week and brought it round to my house to play. We listened to the whole album, and really enjoyed it - both of us commenting on how much like Robert Wyatt it sounded. It was only the next day when I heard the CD version that I realised the LP was meant to be played at 45rpm!
All in all, I think I prefer it at 33
; )

[Andrew]

I think that's what ought to be known as a 'John Peel Moment'

[Adriano Lanzi]

Hi all. well I agree about Cuckooland, it was not completely successfull, but it was mostly a ''production'' failure imho i.e. he tried to give a slick, uniform sound to a lot of very different pieces, Not that it was a bad album (I think the man hasn't managed to record a bad album yet) but it was the only Wyatt album of which I didn't grow as found as of all the others. This one instead, while Shleep tried very clearly to evoke Rock Bottom in the atmosphere (and yes even Paul Weller is ok in Wyatt's albums, who would have imagined that?) seems compiled (musically) having 'Ruth and Richard' in mind (I think Ruth & Richard is huge) - a lot of 'jamming', some fully instrumental tracks neatly divided from the songs, yet organic to them ... there's even a circular, almost south african kwela-jazz thing in it (remember Mogezi Feza's Sonia?). And a thing that comforts me a lot, personally, is his ability to make political statements without a trace of rethoric. Note the quasi-Hank WIlliams redition of A Beautiful Peace which is a bitter joke, a declaration of extraneouness to the present state of western civilization. I read in a forum a couple of days ago that he said, in the only press conference he gave to launch this release, he wanted to point that out with the structure of the album. In the third and last part of it, it is like he's making a series of strikes, from his role of english speaking singer first (he sings in italian ' Del Mondo' by C.S.I. and then in Spanish with the horror rendition of a Garcia Lorca poem), then he even disapperars as composer and performer (four and half minutes of a composition/performance on the vibes by a percussionist, where Wyatt limits himself to 'electric interference' from the mixing desk) then there's Fragment which is only a reverse looped... fragment from the second track, and the epilogue is Hasta Siempre. I don't know, I needed an album like that to come out RIGHT NOW.