THE ANIMALS FILM

The music of Robert Wyatt has never been that easy to categorise ; his early solo albums are Canterbury in a strange kind of way, but afterwards he re-emerged as a left- field, 'alternative' artist, dealing mainly with politics. This mini-album, clocking in at 28min 11secs, is the soundtrack to a Victor Schonfeld film, 'Animals', and according to the sleeve notes, the film deals with how humans treat/misuse animals, and, for example, how people wearing fur coats 'love' animals - quote ; " Because it's not about animals - it's about us. It's about human nature and the atrocities some factions of it can blandly commit " end quote. Robert W obviously watched the film, and created some 'music' to go with the gruelling footage. This 'music' shows RW can still experiment, especially when handed some synths - I don't know what equipment he is using, but the sounds are unique, and the way each 'snippet' of 'music' is composed and played by this man alone, is well thought out and, I guess, relative to what the film content would be (I haven't seen it). You can hear Robert patting away on a small drum kit, noodling around with synths, piano, his Riviera keyboard (used extensively on Rock Bottom - it makes a strange, swirling sound - half synth/half organ) and his distinctive vocalizings, all of which sound very interesting and engaging, but it really is hard to describe this 'music' without actually hearing it for yourself. The moods can be quirky, dark and, at times, mysterious. It's not for everyone, but a very interesting release indeed.