Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard
There was no way that Wyatt’s follow-up to Rock Bottom could be as
personal and searching, but this album that came barely a year later
instead collects some earlier material to be revamped for this
release. “Soup Song,” for instance, is a rewrite of “Slow Walkin’
Talk,” written before the forming of Soft Machine. “Team Spirit,”
written with Phil Manzanera and Bill MacCormick of Quiet Sun, would
turn up the same year as “Frontera” on Manzanera’s Diamond Head.
While some of the songs tend to plod along, the dirge-like “Five
Black Notes and One White Notes,” a lethargic cover of Offenbach’s
“Baccarole,” Charlie Haden’s “Song for Che,” and Fred Frith’s piano
team-up with Wyatt on “Muddy Mouth” are magical. As usual, the
assembled band, including the underrated Gary Windo on sax and
Mongezi Feza on trumpet, never dissapoint.
