Robert Wyatt - "Different Every Time Volume 1 - Ex Machina" 2 x Vinyl, Compilation, 2014 (Domino)

There are artists who one can follow, and it opens up to other artists and worlds.  It's similar to eating an artichoke, and as you strip each leaf, you can put different flavorings on it, which alters the taste significantly.  Then you reach the artichoke heart, and that itself is a different taste, but if you marinated it with a sauce, another element for the taste buds.  Robert Wyatt is like that as well.  "Different Every Time" is a two-volume set of double vinyl albums, where one is focusing on Wyatt as a contributor or collaborator, and the other is a selected greatest hits package, both curated by Wyatt.  Now, we focus on "Ex-Machina" which is his 'hits' package. 

 If you are a long time fan of Wyatt, there is never a perfect compilation.  Wyatt is not all over the map, but his landscape where he makes his music is physically small, but branches out in Left politics, jazz and pop standards, and his original compositions.  Some written by himself and other times with his wife and graphic artist, Alfreda Benge.   Wyatt made choices here that are superb, but there will always be that obvious song left out.  For me, it's his version of Neil Diamond's (The Monkees) "I'm a Believer."  On the other hand, we do have his version of "Yesterday Man," which is an exceptional composition by Chris Andrews, who wrote hit material for Sandie Shaw.   I do recommend a listener to track down Andrews version, which is very much a ska-pop arrangement.  Wyatt's version is soulful and a feeling of regret.  A beautiful melody and in the voice of Wyatt it becomes an emotional reflection on a lost romance.   Only Wyatt can sing a song with political overtures and make it sound like a lost soul reflecting on a grand disappointment.   His voice is unique, and there is nothing out there like a Wyatt vocal.

The album covers a great deal of Wyatt's solo work but also touches on his first two well-known bands, Soft Machine and Matching Mole.   Side one is taken up with Soft Machine's "Moon in June" which is 20 minutes long, and not a boring second is allowed.  The Wyatt humor takes place. Still, there is an English attitude of expressing oneself that's very restrained and in order.   Wyatt also made his incredible masterpiece album "Rock Bottom," but there is only one song to represent that record, and it's a live recording of the song "A Last Straw."   There is a focus at least material wise, on recordings made in the 80s, 90s and up to a few years ago.  More of exposure to Wyatt's brain working which is not nostalgic, but expressing his desires for current work.   If one has all the Wyatt recordings, including the 45 rpm single "Yesterday Man" (which to me if you don't have the song, it's worth buying the double-album set), then you don't need it. Still, if you are new in the Wyatt world, this is an excellent introduction and entrance way to a magnificent artist. 

Gary Glitter - "Glitter and Gold" Vinyl, 10", Mini-Album, Compilation, U.S., 1980 (Epic)

Gary Glitter is a by-product of the British pop industry.   "Gary Glitter" was invented by record producer  Mike Leander and Paul Francis Gadd, who first entered into the pop market as Paul Raven in 1960.   Leander is that rare combination of a visionary - both as a manager and as a songwriter.  The fact that he made the film soundtrack "Privilege" with Paul Jones, is the first step to his most brilliant creation, Gary Glitter, with incredible input by Gadd, who transformed himself into Glitter. 

A formula was made, that not only made money (all the gold in glitter) but also gave the world a sound - Glitter Rock.   Stripped down sound with a super heavy drum sound, mixed in with what sounds like a distorted electric guitar or maybe even a synthesizer of some sort.   For me, it is one of the great sounding rock n' roll records since Sun recordings.  It's all echo, compressed sound that sounds like Rockabilly, but from outer space.  There is a touch of Joe Meek in the madness (sound wise)  as well. 

The American side of CBS (on Epic Records) released a six-song 10" compilation that is very much the essential Gary Glitter.   I don't think anyone needs any more than the six-songs here on this mini-album, with respect to the Glitter sound and aesthetic.  It's perfection as practiced.  "Rock n' Roll" Part 1 and 2 was until ten years ago, the sound of sports rallies all around the world.  The call and response approach to rock is essentially important.  Pumping the air with your fist, it has a hyper-macho beat that swaggers and straight-forward.   Rudd and Leander made a character that is truly Ziggy Stardust but without the intellect.   Dumb, and beautiful music that's pure sound, with a mighty beat.  For me, it was a series of perfect moments.  Gary Glitter was not meant to last.  Rudd's character got in the way, and Leander went on to other adventures. 

Magazine "Secondhand Daylight" LP, Album, Vinyl, 1979 (Virgin)

Out of the furnace that's punk came Magazine.  More Roxy Music than Sex Pistols, but in truth, Magazine lives within its own world.  Howard Devoto is the foundation where the music serves his lyrical and vocal talent.  Not a classical singer in the Bowie mode, but more of the street urchin who's deformed and not quite ugly, but beautiful.  "Secondhand Daylight" is the second album by Magazine.  It's different from the first in that the sound or songs are most majestic and cinematic in its scope.  It has been said that the band wanted John Barry, the film composer, to produce this album.  That would have been a natural relationship between the icy professionalism and amoral aspect of Barry's work against the Magazine aesthetic of emotional loss and slightly unbalanced in a world of harsh realities.  

Magazine made great albums, but "Secondhand Daylight" has always been a favorite of mine, and I notice hardcore Devoto fans prefer this album the most, compared to the others.  The scope is larger and the talents of the band are pretty magnificent.  John McGeoch is an underrated guitarist with plenty of elegance and orchestrational sense in playing within the band's grooves.  Dave Formula is the keyboardist with the closest abilities to 'think'  soundtrack music in the Magazine texture, and drummer John Doyle and bassist Barry Adamson are dream players, within the context that's Magazine.   Elegance comes to mind when listening to this album.   Not by wealth, but education. This is smart music made by aware musicians.  "Permafrost" is perhaps the perfect Magazine/Devoto song. It builds and builds and the language was shocking when I first heard the song in 1979. I remember it being direct and to the point, and when I hear it now, it's like honesty being played out in a world of ill illusion. 

Devoto has the Dylan bite but I prefer his poetry to the American master songwriter.   He has Johnny Rotten's snare, but there's a great deal of tenderness in his anger.   The jazzy overtures that show up here and there is close to Bowie/Mike Garson's approach to throwing that additional texture into the mix.  I'm also haunted by the beautiful opening of side two's "The Thin Air" which may be McGeoch's greatest moment on vinyl/tape.  

Twink - "Think Pink" Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, Reissue, 2017/1970 (Noiseagonymayhem Records)

One of the most insane or demented albums released in 1970.  Twink's very presence in the late 1960s to the 1970s is a badge of honor for pre-punk rock that lived on the outskirts of one's sensibility.  As I listen to this album, and if you look at my face, it looks like I'm trying to answer a question that I have no understanding whatsoever.  "Think Pink" is an album of mayhem and I suspect an exotic amount of drugs that went into the kitchen that made this aural meal.  Twink is a drummer who eventually joined The Pink Fairies and The Pretty Things.  The other musicians that make a creative mark on this album are Paul Rudolph, who became a member of The Pink Fairies as well as ending up backing up Eno on his first solo album and live tour.  The other musician is Steve Took, who was once a member of Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex (T Rex).  Together with Twink's girlfriend 'Silver' they made this anarchy in the studio into an interesting album. 

The most conventional songs are "Suicide" and "The Sparrow is a Sign."  Overall "Think Pink" can be the chosen iconic album for Psych-rock of that era.  In spots, it reminds me of the French band Red Noise, featuring the talents of Patrick Vian, Boris Vian's son.   While that band is Frank Zappa influenced, "Think Pink" is truly a unique album where I feel the major influence was Twink's everyday life at the time.  I can't imagine a serious record collector not having this album in their collection. They don't have to like or enjoy it, but it is a representation of a life that one is not exposed to anymore.  At least on that level that is Twink and his friends' sense of abandonment and fun.