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Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom CD (album) cover

ROCK BOTTOM

Robert Wyatt

 

Canterbury Scene

4.29 | 1002 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

friso
Prog Reviewer
5 stars Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)

One of the progressive movement its finest moments.

With a fall from a window from the fourth flour the drumming career of ex-Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt had come to a pittifull end, yet it also marked the beginning of his careeer as a vocalist and keyboard player. After eight months of recovery and learning to cope with life in a weelchair Wyatt continued working on some material he had already been working on before his excident. His artistic mindset had changed, stating that his limitations would make touring almost impossible, which let him to the conclusion he could free himself from the limitations of the fixed band and do whatever he wanted to do in the studio with whom he wanted it. The album has some nice contributions (along others) of Richard Sinclair (Caravan) and Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine). On the last track Mike Oldfield adds some great & recognisable guitarlines, whereas Ivor Cutler (a Scottish poet and musician) ends the album with an eccentric performance on harmonium and vocals which is funny and sentimental at the same time.

The highly innovative and artistic music of Rock Bottom flows from the free, almost un-sensical form and mind-set. Far away from the intellectual and logical prog of his peers, Wyatt music potraits roots of child-like playfulness and cosmic chaos - using symphonic equipment and vocals/lyrics in a totally original way. In nature complexity arises out of the way chaos and selection intertwine, a totally different way from how complexity arises from the mind. Rock bottom captures this universal principle beautifully. All this would give rise to a very personal and intimite atmosphere in which mind-states as love and fear are expressed so deeply that I just forget about myself. I'm all music.

Enough said. Five stars.

friso | 5/5 |

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