New Robert Wyatt albums. should i shit my pants?!

Writing about this for near-future publication right now, but the short version is:

Solar Flares = two radio sessions (inc. a gorgeous '74 one with Rock Bottom & Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard material) + '73ish instrumental experimental film soundtrack + two new instrumental collaborations with Hugh Hopper + nice new demo

Cuckooland = all new recordings, mellower & jazzier than Shleep, including three (!!) Karen Mantler covers (and four or five duets with her)--questionable production, swell songs. And anything that gets more people to hear Karen Mantler's songwriting is AOK with me.

tell me more about Mantler. i already own everything else by wyatt.

I bought 'cuckooland' yesterday and have been listening non-stop. I'm also a bit on the fence about the production; he's favoring some presets on his new synth that are a little hard to take.

Two outstanding new songs (besides the excellent Mantler covers): 'Forest' and 'Foreign Accents', the latter has been stuck in my head all day; as soon as I got home from work I learned how to play the main melodic line. I have a concert on saturday & I might have to do an arrangement of this, it's wonderful.

The tone overall is much much more laidback than 'Shleep', but more immediate-live-in-studio / less dreamy than even 'Dondestan' (original mix of 'Dondestan' much better / gauzier than the 'revisited' remix).

Don't go incontinent, but look forward to a nice dinner with a good old friend you haven't seen in a few years who's looking extremely well.

Buying 'solar flares' this weekend.

marcello carlin wrote something on a track by track base on cuckooland here in his church of me. he ends the review with

"Deeply human, full of grief and yet full of hope. A beautiful and still hopeful record."

the production on 'Forest' is great, lots of hazy, surreal sounds drifting in and out of the mix, it's a very strange listen. David Gilmour adds some very strange guitar noises and there's multitracked choral Eno.

i'm not too bathered by the synth sounds. they're obviously standard and simple but not as obtrusive as i'd read in some reviews.

i do dislike his cornet playing, though. it's on just about everything and annoys me silly.

i also miss his own lyrical whimsy and turn of phrase. alfreda benge's lyrics are fine but that spark of great wyatt humour is missing.

and... it's amazing how much karen mantler's voice sounds like her mum!

Cuckooland I've already reviewed in Church of Me. Go to post for 14 Sept, scroll down a bit and you'll find it.

I've never heard of this "Solar Flares" thing - does this include previously issued Peel session material?

Jason, Karen Mantler is as you'd guess the daughter of Carla Bley and Michael Mantler. Here is a bizarre little autobiography by her. She wears a wig that looks exactly like her mother's hairstyle. There are four albums by her, of which my favorite is the third, _Farewell_, whose songs are about a very rough patch in her life after her beloved cat Arnold died. (Her first two albums were called _My Cat Arnold_ and _Karen Mantler and Her Cat Arnold Get the Flu_; the fourth one, _Karen Mantler's Pet Project_, is a concept album about her trying to figure out what kind of pet to get to replace Arnold.)

Yes, the "Peel Sessions" disc from about 12 years ago is the same as the "Sea Song"/"Soup Song"/"I'm A Believer"/"Alifib" on Solar Flares.

my above comments were so offensively casual. and were written before spending the rest of the night listening to the album three times through with a decent bottle of red wine. All reservations are vanishing, I love the record.

is cukooland out in the US? Jason do you know if mod lang or amoeba have it?

i just called AQ and they have 2 left at 16.98$, but amoeba has a bunch for 15.98$. (am i a bigger nerd because i have aquarius' phone number stored in my cell phone or because i have Amoeba's memorized?).

Aquarius also has an album called Soupsongs Live that i guess is a live concert of other people doing Wyatt songs? anyone know anything about this?

i got solar flares burn for you the other day and i like it. it kinda scares me when i play it at night, though. it's creepy!

Now Amoeba has one fewer because I bought it. I'll give it a spin tonight.