Jazz Archives

This great Cuneiform album might just be the only recorded trace of SM ever being a quintet, down from a septet (as Nick Evans and Mark Charig both ex-Tippet boys had departed) before reducing to the quartet that will record the Third album (although Dobson will play a bit on it). These tapes are taken from a Jan 04, 1970 concert at Croydon just before one of their numerous tour de France and as opposed to a lot of live albums the quality of these recordings is excellent, probably thanks to Cuneiform even if they admit a bit of doodling about. Dobson still manages to make an impact on the others and is responsible for a scat/flute duo during Backwards. The repertoire they were playing by that time is lot closer to Third than the previous two albums of which only Hibou and We Did It Again are left (and greatly modified) as Wyatt was rather silent with the microphones. Even Moon In June bears no vocals, and the band was in top-notch form for a splendid night of semi improvised high-energy jazz-rock. This is maybe THE live album every SM fans was waiting for.

:::Review by Sean Trane:::

Soft Machine - Noisette (1970)

1. Eamonn Andrews (12:15)
2. Mousetrap (5:24)
3. Noisette (0:37)
4. Backwards (4:48)
5. Mousetrap(reprise) (0:26)
6. Hibou, Anemone And Bear (8:50)
7. Moon In June (6:55)
8. 12/8 Theme (11:25)
9. Esther's Nose Job (14:30)
10. We Did It Again (7:15)

Credits
- Elton Dean / alto sax , saxello
- Lyn Dobson / soprano sax, flute, vocals
- Hugh Hopper / bass
- Mike Ratledge / electric piano, organ
- Robert Wyatt / drums, vocals

By the end of the 90's, Wyatt had left rough Trade to join 60's legend Joe Boyd's label Hannibal records and this was good news for Wyatt, as he would produce some much more inventive records than OR or Dondestan. Recorded in Manzanera's studios with a batch of usual suspects, a few unknown newcomers, plus some surprising appearances such as Belgian JR/F guitarist Philip Catherine and The Jam's Paul Weller. With an Alfie booklet illustration throughout, the Sleep happens to be a delightful walk through the event of Wyatt's life at that moment.
And to say that Shleep had not started well, beginning with the album's weakest song, a Gabriel-esque tune, where Eno adds pop touches not really fitting Robert's personae. Much Wyatt-er is Duchess, filled with gurgling/bubbling/seesawing noises (courtesy of Eno), with Parker's (not Bird, you wisearse) difficult sax and Robert's unsettling piano. The album really starts with the mesmerizing Maryan, a superb Catherine-Wyatt composition, where Wyatt gives a Spanish twist with his trumpet, while Sato's violin is jerking tears from you. Emotions ala Rock Bottom; and it's not about to change with the poignant Was A Friend (Hopper co-writes with Robert). Past the strange intro, Wyatt's voice directly takes you to lands abandoned over two decades ago, with Robert playing all instruments. Last Straw is just around the bend, here!!! Awesome. The power of evocation is overwhelming, as you cannot help but thinking of RB in the lengthy sustained finale...The following Free Will & Testament didn't stand a chance matching the predecessor's dramatic greatness, but Paul Weller pulls a good Gilmour-ian guitar, while Wyatt contributes piano, organ and emotions.
Sept 9th is a mostly instrumental song with the returning Whitehead (remember RISTR?) and Parker adding dramatic horns to an already emotion-filled track. Again we are nearing the sublime of RB, with Whitehead's trombone wracking your guts out. Alien is again striking n the same area of your brains, Manzanera pulling a superb guitar solo over impeccable percussions and Merchan's fabulous bass. Wyatt's emotional voice again reminds of the poignant album resulting of that accident that put him a quarter a century ago in a wheelchair. The short Out Of Season has rob doing the whole instruments, except for Whitehead's trombone drones and is again aiming directly into your soul. Based on an Alfie visit to her parents in Spain, Sunday In Madrid has some stunning moments, with Eno's quiet synth underlines giving some excellent background tension (a bit reminiscent of Van Morroson's St Dominic's Preview), while Wyatt's constant wordy vocals is amazing. But nothing compared with his rap (that's right Robert raps superbly!!!!!) in the awesome Blues In Bob Minor. With Weller pulling some splendid guitar lines, if progheads ever had a problem with rap, BIBM might just be the key to open that door. A phenomenal bet successfully achieved, the album can only lets itself die out with the short Weller-penned instrumental Whole Point Of No Return, a dreamy drone where a trumpet evades to heaven.
Yes, Robert was on a creative high at this point, further help by the movie Little Red Robin Hood, produced by Italian enthusiasts DiLoretto and Bevilacqua, doing a documentary on Robert's activities. Shleep is definitely one of Wyatt's high point, the highest since Rock Bottom for sure and it'll take a complete miracle for him to top Shleep in terms of pure inventiveness. Sleep is just missing on the fifth star, because of a weak bonus track and a shaky start, but outside that, it's really a wonderful trip into Robert's brains.

:::Review by Sean Trane:::

Robert Wyatt - Shleep (1997)

1. Heaps of Sheeps (4:56)
2. The Duchess (4:18)
3. Maryan (6:11)
4. Was a Friend (6:09)
5. Free Will and Testament (4:13)
6. September the Ninth (6:41)
7. Alien (6:47)
8. Out of Season (2:32)
9. A Sunday in Madrid (4:41)
10. Blues in Bob Minor (5:46)
11. The Whole Point of No Return (1:25)

Credits
- Robert Wyatt / vocals, keyboards, trumpet, bass, percussion, violin

Guests

- Philip Catherine / guitar
- Brian Eno / syntheziser, back vocals
- Phil Manzanera / guitar
- Evan Parker / Soprano and Tenor saxophone
- Paul Weller / guitar, backing vocals
- Jamie Johnson / guitar
- Annie Whitehead / tabla
- Chikako Sato / violin
- Alfreda Benge / vocals
- Chucho Merchan / percussion
- Gary Adzukx / percussion

This is a very unique and original record that mixes free jazz and avant-garde music with early 70s hippie jam freakouts and compositional variety. Although this record features a lot of musicians from King Crimson and Soft Machine, and occasionally sounds like either of those bands more "out" moments, a lot of this record has more in common with ultra-expressive jazz musicians such as Albert Ayler or Pharoh Sanders.
Part one mixes semi-Gregorian vocal drones with free jazz sections. Part two opens with a mellow string and soft percussion drone before heading into a bluesy funk jam that eventually slips into a free jazz jam. Part three is probably the most interesting with a long repeating string part backed with drums that is somewhat similar to Crimson's Devil's Triangle or something off of Lizards, especially when Nick Evans and the other horn players pile up chaotic solos on top of each other. This side ends with some layered vocal improvs similar to Cathy Berbarian's work with Luciano Berio. Part 4 is the least interesting, it mostly contains a very 60s sounding utopian socialist hippie chant that has not aged well.
The various soloists add what they can, but the purely instrumental sections on this album are far better than the sections with vocals.
Robert Fripp is the producer on this record and it is interesting to notice how much influence he picked up from working with Keith Tippet. Some of the Crimson cuts that show influence from this record include the quiet opening section on Larks Tounge, the vocal improvs on Formentara Lady, the bluesy funk jams that build into free jazz on Earthbound, and a lot of the improv music on Lizards and Poseidon.
This is a surprisingly good record and different from a lot of the free jazz that was coming out at this time because Tippet broke the improv sections up with unique composed sections that give the record variety in texture and volume. I highly recommend that you get this one on vinyl because the gatefold album cover art is incredible.

:::Review by Easy Money:::

Centipede - Septober Energy (1971)

Disc 1 (45:17)
1. Septober Energy - Part 1 (21:43)
2. Septober Energy - Part 2 (23:34)

Disc 2 (40:06)
1. Septober Energy - Part 3 (21:21)
2. Septober Energy - Part 4 (18:45)

Credits
- Wendy Treacher, John Trussler, Roddy Skeaping, Carol Slater, Louise Jopling, Garth Morton, Channa Salononson, Steve Rowlandson, Mica Gomberti, Colin Kitching, Philip Saudek, Esther Burgi / violins
- Wilf Gibson / lead violin, conductor
- Michael Hurwitz, Timothy Kramer, Suki Towb, John Reese-Jones, Katherine Thulborn, Catherine Finnis / cellos
- Peter Parkes, Mick Collins, Ian Carr, Momgesi Fesa, Mark Charig / trumpet, flugelhorn, cornet
- Elton Dean, Jan Steel, Ian MacDonald, Dudu Pukuwana / Alto saxophone, Flute, Soprano saxophone
- Larry Stabbins, Gary Windo, Brian Smith, Alan Skidmore / Tenor saxophone
- Dave White, Karl Jenkins, John Willimas / Baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, oboe, clarinet
- Nick Evans, Dave Amis, Dave Perrottet, Paul Rutherford / trombone
- John Marshall, Tony Fennell, Robert Wyatt / drums, percussion
- Brian Godding / guitars
- Brian Belshaw, Roy Babbington, Jill Lyons, Harry Miller, Jeff Clyne, Dave Markee / basses
- Maggie Nicholls, Julie Tippett, Mike Patto, Zoot Money, Boz / vocals
- Keith Tippett / piano
- Robert Fripp / produce

In just two double discs Hux records will release the numerous radio sessions done for the BBC, this one ranging from the Halcyon days of 67 - where the Machine was still a psychedelic caterpillar - until 71 with the most classic line-up including Dean, Hopper, Wyatt and Ratledge. These are just the studio radio sessions but there are two others BBC live concerts available also and as usual with BBC archives the sound is pristine and the interest of them is invaluable.
On disc 1, the first five tracks are due to the line-up that recorded the debut album with Kevin Ayers singing and playing bass and this is maybe the best sounding live recording from that period. With Hope For Happiness and Strangest Scene as showcase for their dynamic qualities, that session may just be the most interesting of all the ones on the two double discs set. The next session is one of the definitive ones showing on how the tracks from Volume 2 have evolved to lead into the famous and seminal Third album. Four tracks from that album are meddled into one suite while the second track from the session is a first version (pre-album) of Moon In June where Wyatt recommends Ayers, Caravan Pink Floyd and thanks the BBC and its orchestra while singing. Du grand art, monsieur!!! This session is also invaluable because those tracks are much more often played as a foursome (with Elton Dean), but more rarely as a trio.
Then comes a strange UFO in the name of Instant Pussy (that should be more at home on a Matching Mole record although it does not sound anything like the latter MM version) that was strangely separated from the rest of the session, which closes the second disc. This anti-chronological order is due to Robert Wyatt, but it is the only one of a kind on this release! Then we jump to the mid 70 session the now classic quartet doing a medley of tracks that are present on the Third album.
Disc 2 starts with an early 71 session the band presenting the rather cold fusion (sometimes right into free jazz thanks to Elton dean's influences) of their album 4, this one not being quite interesting as there are tons of other recordings available on those tracks, although maybe not of this caliber! The next session of the same year but in June and also being of lesser interest if you have any live BBC recordings or anything on Cuneiform records. Do not get me wrong, these two sessions are absolutely essential to the unconditional fan, but again if one is of that category he will already own one or two live version of these tracks. Another strange "gift" on here is another Wyatt vocal improve playing with echoes but this is messy and like the Instant Pussy does not really belong here!
Finally comes the session from late 69 and another invaluable one as this is a rare version of the Machine as a septet before recording the third album. The lengthy medley produced here is an interesting version the machine sounding a bit like a jazzier Chicago Transit Authority with a four-man brass session as they had stripped the Keith Tippett Group from most of its collaborators, but Charig and Evans leaving relatively quickly and Dobson hanging around for just a while longer!
Apart from the two odd choices Monsieur Wyatt chose to include (I would tend to say ill- advisedly as they sort of ruin a bit the record), we have another superb Hux record release that is essential to Soft Machineheads. And apart from the parti-pris (anti-jazz rock attitude) of the liner notes from some writer, the presentation and luxurious booklet make this release hard to resist.

:::Review by Sean Trane:::

Soft Machine - BBC Radio 1967-1971 (2003)

Disc 1 (66:45)

1. Clarence In Wonderland (2:57)
2. We Know What You Mean (3:11)
3. Certain Kind (3:38)
4. Hope For Happiness (4:37)
5. Strangest Scene Recorded (aka Lullaby Letter) (4:55)
6. Facelift / Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise (11:54)
7. The Moon In June (13:02)
8. Instant Pussy (3:19)
9. Slightly All The Time / Out Bloody Rageous / Eamonn Andrews (19:12)

Disc 2 (60:51)

1. Virtually (9:58)
2. Fletcher's Blemish (12:11)
3. Neo-Caliban Grides (7:34)
4. Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening (2:46)
5. Eamonn Andrews / All White (7:11)
6. Mousetrap / Noisette / Backwards / Mousetrap Reprise / Esther's Nose Job (21:11)

Credits
- Kevin Ayers / bass, guitar, voice (tracks 1-5 CD1)
- Robert Wyatt / drums, voice
- Mike Ratledge / keyboards
- Hugh Hopper / bass (tracks 6-9 CD1, CD2)
- Brian Hopper saxophone, flute (track 6 CD1)
- Elton Dean / axophone (track 9 CD1, CD2)
- Marc Charig / trumpet (track 6 CD2)
- Lyn Dobson / saxophone, flute (track 6 CD2)
- Nick Evans / trombone (track 6 CD2)

Wow! How one does not commit suicide after falling from the window on the fourth floor and realizing that he will never walk again. I think I have never heard such a personal album like this one and the Syd recordings do not come close as those were so sloppy. This is rather a healing job as the open wounds just start to cauterize , but as he says in the booklet of the remaster, he realized also that he would not have to write music according to his different band mates as it will be impossible to tour again especially with a band, so this would give him more artistic freedom in the writing dept. Everyone ot these tracks is an absolute gem and his voice has never been so fabulous. Nerve-wracking, hair-raising, flabbergasting, spine-tingling. But nevermind me, I'll let my trusted collabs talk about this album.

:::Review by Sean Trane:::

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)

1. Sea Song (6:31)
2. A Last Straw (5:46)
3. Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road (7:38)
4. Alifib (6:55)
5. Alife (6:31)
6. Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road (6:08)

Credits
- Robert Wyatt / vocals, keyboards, percussion, guitar
- Richard Sinclair / bass
- Hugh Hopper / bass
- Laurie Allan / drums

With

- Mongezi Feza / trumpet
- Ivor Cutler / voice, baritone concertina
- Gary Windo / bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
- Fred Frith / viola
- Mike Oldfield / guitar
- Alfreda Benge / voice

A surprising step after his earlier work with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra and their juxtaposition of avant-garde soloists in a modern orchestral context, Mantler created a virtual prog rock album, setting Edward Gorey's Freudian/gothic texts to music that owes far more to Henry Cow than Cecil Taylor. Enlisting ex-Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt on vocals and Jan Garbarek alumnus Terje Rypdal for some soaring guitar work, he managed to create a very convincing, enjoyably literary recording with potentially large appeal. The song structures are fairly consistent and the melodies often catchy, alternating from somber dirges (quite appropriate to the text) to up-tempo rockers. Much of the success accrues to Wyatt, whose reedy, intelligent voice gives exactly the right ironic inflection to Gorey's eerie tales. When in the title track he lightly sings the opening line, "There was once a little girl named..." then drops into a minor mode for, "Charlotte Sophia," you know things don't bode well for the song's heroine. Indeed, all of the lyrics are compelling little stories and it's to Mantler's credit that his compositions couch and project them instead of competing for attention. The Hapless Child has assumed a bit of cult classic status as a one-off prog rock project and it largely deserves the rep, holding up reasonably well over time.

:::Review by Brian Olewnick:::

Michael Mantler - The Hapless Child (1976)

1. The Sinking Spell 5:10
2.The Object-Lesson 5:00
3. The Insect God 4:58
4. The Doubtful Guest 4:47
5. The Remembered Visit 6:27
6. The Hapless Child 7:02

Credits
Bass Guitar - Steve Swallow
Drums, Percussion - Jack DeJohnette
Guitar - Terje Rypdal
Lyrics By [Words] - Edward Gorey
Mixed By - Nick Mason (tracks: 1 to 5)
Music By, Engineer - Michael Mantler
Narrator - Alfreda Benge
Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer [String], Producer - Carla Bley
Vocals - Robert Wyatt

Notes
Recorded July 1975 through January 1976 at Grog Kill Studio in Willow, NY, with the Manor Mobile at Robert Wyatt's house and Delfina's farm in England, and at Britannia Row in London. Mixed January 1976 at Britannia Row / "The Hapless Child" mixed November 1975 at Scorpio Sound.
Originally released 1976.
Title on front and back cover: The Hapless Child and other inscrutable stories