Shleep

Robert Wyatt

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 15, 2005)
• Original Release Date: November 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B000024U24
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #230,412 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1998
Robert Wyatt described the recording of Shleep, his first album in six years, as a "beavering away" process; you'd be hard pressed to find a more accurate term. It is a painstakingly assembled, lovingly executed album of warm, delicate beauty. Like the deep sleep that inspires this work, and eludes its creator (Wyatt suffers from "fevered insomnia"), Shleep soothes like few records can. --Matt Hanks

Product Description
Founding member of art rock group Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt, helped set the tone of the sixties psychedelic scene in the UK. With his distinctive drumming and vocals, Wyatt attracted a massive following across Europe. An accident in 1973 left the drummer paralyzed forcing him to shift efforts on solo recordings. His distinct style of mixing simple and effective keyboard melody lines with poignant lyrics, often filled with personal and political references, have proved both haunting and reflective. Rykodisc is proud to introduce you to 4 re-mastered Wyatt classics - Old Rottenhat, Nothing Can Stop Us, Dondestan (Revisited), Shleep.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solar, May 14, 2000

By	"undeletablearchive" (Hove, East Sussex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shleep (Audio CD)

`Shleep' has been compared to `Rock Bottom', Robert Wyatt's early masterpiece made after he was paralysed. It's his best since `Rock Bottom', but the comparison goes further than that. `Rock Bottom' seemed to yearn for bodilessness and mobility thro' submergence in moonlit water. But `Shleep''s gorgeous, moving central track, `Alien', longs for the opposite: ascent into the ether, effortlessly supported by air in sunblind instinctual motion. Elsewhere, the delicious `Maryan' is just skybound because of its gorgeous melody; and back on Earth, `Free Will and Testament' again finds Robert wondering what it would it be like `to be not me'. Very varied and - despite insomnia - extremely poised, `Shleep' is a beautiful record. I think it's the best in the progressive rock genre for the last 20 years.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music for Body AND Mind, November 13, 2003

By	vxppl (GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shleep (Audio CD)

For an album that's as cerebral as it is emotional, Shleep is amazingly enjoyable the first time you hear it, unlike the brittle dreck of self-avowed alternative music that must be listened to countless times to be appreciated. Yet unlike pleasant pop, Shleep reveals new meanings and perspectives each time you listen to it.

Two examples of Wyatt's lyrical brilliance:
(1) In "Was a Friend," the speaker dreams about meeting a former friend. "I almost forgot where we buried the hatchet." As the meeting becomes increasingly uncomfortable, he wonders "Where WAS the hatchet?"
(2)The post-Cartesian musings of "Free Will and Testament," including "So when I say that I know me, how can I know that? / What kind of spider understands arachnophobia?" end not with self-congratulation at asking such questions but with the plea "Let me off please, I am so tired. Let me off please, I am so very tired."

Wyatt's always shone as a collaborative musician, bringing out the best on other brilliant players who in turn bring out the best in Wyatt. EVERYTHING works together here. And Wyatt even seems to bring out the best in reviewers, as the perceptive comments from Amazon and customers here attest. But you don't have to be a Soft Machine junkie or an old school proggie to be moved by Shleep.

Money where mouth is: If you buy Shleep based on anyone's comments here and don't like it after just one listening, e-mail me and I'll arrange to buy your copy for what you paid plus shipping. This offer limited to the first three takers (there are a lot of people who lack discernment).

Let's get Shleep out of the 5-digit Sales Rank.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing, January 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shleep (Audio CD)

How anyone can have been around as long as Robert Wyatt and end up putting out an album this good - easily the best of the best records he has ever made is completely beyond me. There could be no smoother blend of folk, pop, mingus style jazz meandering, and even at times almost a musique concrete feel. My hero!