Robert Wyatt's psychedelic odes are sprawling pieces of the Canterbury sound. Literally. For example, Different Every Time, the new career-spanning collection of the jazz fusionist's rarities and deep cuts, introduces Wyatt's career with an 18-minute psychedelic Moog-led epic. But, beyond the physical length of a Soft Machine (Wyatt's first band) surrealist soundscape, Different Every Time presents the progressive musician's legacy in respect to a sprawling longevity, digging into his psychedelic years with Soft Machine and Matching Mole before traveling onward into avant jazz staples and beyond.
It can be a lot to take in, so Different Every Time is divided into two discs. The first, titled Ex Machina, spans Wyatt's career releases from Matching Mole's wry piano ballad “Signed Curtain” to the synthesizer-tilling of the avant garden in 2003's “Cuckoo Madame.” Wyatt's loosely structured progressive jazz epics feature the musician transcendentally navigating layered organs—with his affinity for precision percussion, which subtly sounds off only at a song's request. Centerpieces shine early: Rock Bottom cut “A Last Straw,” featured in a natural setting where Wyatt sings with falsetto dreams and the skronky-yet-gorgeous “Yesterday Man.”
Disc two, subtitled Benign Dictatorships, takes on Wyatt's influence. A collage of language and sound, Benign features a more straight-forward Wyatt as he collaborates with the likes of Bjork and an Elvis Costello alumni (Steve Nieve in a French psychological opera number, no less). The cast list diversifies, and everything from Costello covers to Latin jazz pop songs led by Roxy Music veterans is thrown in. It’s an impressive set, one that shows Wyatt as the uniquely talented musician he is.
Different Every Time is a daunting collection. Grand psychedelic jazz epics oppose casual listeners, while understandably, Wyatt's penchant for the experimental and weird appears with the same precision as his sharpshooting percussion. It never drifts into feeling like “one-song-too-many” (though Benign Dictatorships comes close), but Different Every Time is an experience meant to be taken as a marathon if one truly wishes to delve into the artist presenting it.
And that dive is a dive worth taking. Different Every Time personifies the fabled Canterbury sound (the avant garde and progressive jazz sound Pink Floyd could only flirt with), doing so with a documentary of one of its most renown practitioners. Robert Wyatt has had a storied career, one of tragedy (a crippling fall in his early years) and transcendental masterpieces (Rock Bottom remains an art rock staple to this day). Naturally, his musical biography is intimidating. It's also brilliantly illuminating.
Rating: A-
