ROCK BOTTOM

Recorded in the wake of Wyatt's life-changing accident which left him without the use of his legs and therefore unable to drum as he previously used to, Rock Bottom is the most beautiful and haunting album Wyatt ever made, and one of the best to come out of the Canterbury scene. Haunting submarine soundscapes construct an album packed with love (especially when the subject of Alfreda Benge, Wyatt's partner who he married on the day of the album's release comes up), anger, frustration and hope. Love songs are ten a penny in rock music, but it takes a rare sort of confidence to invite the object of said song on to cap off the performance by fondly rebuking your hyperbole; this is precisely what Wyatt does. The closing performance by Ivor Cutler is the eccentric capstone on a very strange structure indeed, and one which has yet to cease yielding its secrets and treasures.