Categories
RECORD REVIEWS

ROBERT WYATT: Comicopera [Domino]

Former Soft Machine and Matching Mole drummer Robert Wyatt has been making solo albums for more than 30 years, incorporating jazz, lounge, folk protest, the odd Caribbean rhythm and long stretches of drone and space. Comicopera is unmistakably Wyatt: There are touches of Charles Mingus and Charlie Haden, he still records with Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno, and he still likes to take his time. Here, he’s divided his work into three acts, the last one sung in Italian and featuring the poetry of Frederico Garcia Lorca. The tracks in act one slosh by slower than time itself, with Wyatt’s keyboards, cornet and gentle Canterbury voice guiding the way for long, cool horn harmonies. The tunes that make up act two provide an abrupt change of pace. “A Beautiful Peace” sounds at first like a rehearsal tape before slipping into the closest thing the man has ever come to country music. Elsewhere, in what becomes an increasingly obvious anti-U.S. foreign-policy sentiment, the act takes an odd swing. Yet there’s really no way to sum up the album’s blend of styles. And there’s perhaps nothing prettier than the steel drum-driven “On The Town Square.” Because Wyatt has been using varied instrumentation to tug at pop’s weatherbeaten coattails for well more than 30 years now, he’s no doubt an indie-rock godfather. The fact that Comicopera is a masterpiece proves it all right nicely. [www.dominorecordco.com]

—Bruce Miller