1974’s Rock Bottom might mark the start of Robert Wyatt's solo career, but his first solo album came out four years earlier, when he was still drummer and (increasingly muzzled) vocalist with Soft Machine. CBS thought they'd be getting an album of songs. Instead, they got a sonic hall of mirrors. At moments it sounds like free jazz, at others modernist sound collage, at one point, Hendrix's ‘Purple Haze’. Wyatt does sing, but only in a wordless, voice-asinstrument scat. He also plays piano as well as drums, while, in a further pre-echo of his subsequent career, directing much of his attention to production and arrangements. It's a bit scattergun, and Wyatt is today mildly embarrassed by the album (although not as much as by contemporaneous Soft Machine output). There may be better places to begin a journey into Wyattophilia, but End Of An Ear remains a delightful part of the canon. This re-mastered version comes with new liner notes.