Search - Robert Wyatt :: End of an Ear

Forgotten classic

Dave Lang | Coburg, VIC Australia | 12/01/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of those classic records that's often sorely overlooked due to the shadow cast by similarly great records by the artist (in this case it's Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" - certainly an essential purchase in itself). Prior to Wyatt's "comeback" in experimental-rock circles in the mid-'90s this was often dismissed as a self-indulgent mess best left on the record company's deletion list... what rot! This is pure inspired experimentalism on a plate, a fantastic mix of free jazz, vocalese, musique concret and psychedelia. Very much in the same league as similar artists of the time - Tim Buckley, Can and Miles Davis - "End of An Ear" creates a seamless blend of many disparate styles, creating a new genre of its own where rock, avant-garde and jazz meet as one. Comparable in parts to Can's "Tago Mago", Buckley's "Starsailor" or electric/psych-period Miles, this criminally ignored piece of work in the Wyatt puzzle deserves some serious re-evaluation in the rock-crit circles."

Unspectacular with exceptions

IRate | 06/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Book-ended by the only two stellar vocal-driven tracks, the majority of this masturbatory attempt at psychedelic free jazz falls flat for lacking a melodic glue and plays instead like Kraut-rock throwaway tracks. Still, ideas abound, some even revolutionary in production I'm sure, plus the actual merit from those two actually developed sonic experiments which obviously were strategically placed to distract from a more hollow center."

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 10/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is creepy how you can tell if work by Robert Wyatt was done before or after his early 70s accident: he fell from a window and this left him paralized. Before this happened, he was mining the ideas he had developed with Soft Machine: Dada free jazz. After, he became much more serious and song oriented. Listen to Rock Bottom and it takes on almost tragic dementions when you put it in context.



End of an Ear had a frighteningly prohetic title. Obviously this is a pun on the phrase end of an era. Wyatt of course had no way of knowing this album WAS the end of an era--his last solo work before his mishap. Even the cover photo tells volumes. That young upstart genius with the ciggarette and Fu Man Chu mustache is almost a different man than the bearded comic-tragic music Buddha we now know as Robert Wyatt.



As my thesis says, this album contains the surreal free jazz Wyatt was doing up until the fall. If you listen to Soft Machine Volume Two's "Pig," a knot of electronic free form jamming, this will give you an idea of what the mestero is up to on this album. The differance is that End Of An Era dispences with the electronics, and may be the closest Wyatt came to pure avant gaurd jazz. Take out his voice and thin some of the textures, and you would think you are listening to Anthony Braxton or The Art Ensamble of Chicago.



This work is bubbling with dynamics and has depth of texture. Typical of Wyatt, it also has plenty of surreal humor. Listen to his bubbling scat on the opening track. When you do, you'll also notice his voice is higher and cleaner than it is on any of his post-accident work. Obviously, he is younger here, but I have always thought the fact that Wyatt cannot stand effects the way he projects his voice.





Since the accident, his voice has become a deeper instrument with a lot more soul and nuance than the young man who made this album had. He is a master singer, one of the best at conveying the profound sadness, irony, and yes, love and humor his life has unfolded for him. His music is without a doubt better for his stuggle.



But it is always fun and informative to listen to the young dada genious rascal that came before. It is a clue as to what might have been: a diffent path Wyatt started down and never got to find the end of, so long ago."