Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

Okay "I Take This Time" for the win, but "Place I Know/Kid Like You" in hot pursuit.

What instantly hooked me on Russell was the early Audika website playing the first 15 seconds or so of "Tone Bone Kone," the "I'm so happy I met you and came to find you this evening" part.

yeah, "place i know/kid like you" and "our last night together" are immediate favorites. he's someone i've meant to investigate for years now but just haven't for whatever reason. he circulates around so many of my interests (ginsberg, matmos, electronic music in general, gay culture) that it's kind of crazy that i am just now really hearing him. what a fascinating guy. i really want to see that documentary that's coming out.

I can't believe World of Echo is on iTunes with bonus tracks.

I'm playing the side of the LP that starts with "Treehouse" now which is weird for me because I always kindof ignored this side because I was so overly familiar and enamored with the songs on the other side! It all sounds heavily amazing now, though. But (and I hate to admit this...) whatever that CD that came out just after he died...I didn't like that one nearly as much. It was a whole different thing. "Another Thought" wasn't it? Early 90's. It was alright, but not nearly as amazing as World of Echo was. That was a good song for the title track, though "Another Thought".

But I was completely amazed to learn later that he'd actually taken a couple stabs at dance music earlier on. That was just weird. Certainly he was a gifted individual in the creative sense. Also I could have sworn I bought some EP of his of earlier on that was very ambient. Holy hell, I just remembered this. Black sleeve. Red letters. Am I wrong? Wow, I had totally forgotten that.

You're thinking of the Instrumentals LP on Crepuscule, which is compiled with tons more stuff on First Thought Best Thought.

I think there was a time where I had Another Thought and World of Echo and loved them and also had Is It All Over My Face and Go Bang! and loved them but didn't put it all together till much later.

Yes! It was Crepuscule! Thanks Dan!

Here's a stupid question: can anybody recommend stuff (by Russell or anyone else) that sounds like "Kiss Me Again"?

"another thought" was my introduction to arthur and is probably the album i've listened to the most in the last decade or so. it's like a best friend to me as it helped me through a really hard time in my life. i wouldn't quite go as far as to say it saved my life but it came pretty close.

xpost

it's not a psyche-disco tour-de-force like "Kiss Me Again" by any stretch of the imagination, but the first thing that jumps to mind is Sylvester's "Over and Over". I always loved how "Kiss Me Again" seemed to be at least partially striving to sound like a bunch of musicians just throwing down in a room (although of course it's FAR more intricately arranged than that - I re-ripped it to post on my blog a few weeks ago and the multitracking on the flipside in particular is magnificently well-done), and "Over and Over" just hits that same spot.

See I've never really been able to understand people who heard something else as their first exposure to him than this album.

-- Bimble, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:51 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

??? he had huge underground dance tracks before that

Huge for people in the vicinity of New York, perhaps...

and chicago

jamescobo I've heard Over and Over, but thanks.

"Don't Leave Me This Way"

See I've never really been able to understand people who heard something else as their first exposure to him than this album.

-- Bimble, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:51 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

what don't you understand and when did you first hear that record?

see, i've never been able to understand that sentence.

I just meant it's hard for me to understand what it would have been like to have heard something else by him first. I first heard the record when it came out in '86. It immediately set me up as to what to expect from other releases of his and those expectations were completely dashed when I heard other things by him that didn't sound much like it at all. Then again I suppose the same thing could have happened to someone else who came at him from a completely different angle!

DJ's or patrons of clubs in New York or Chicago might have known his earlier material but it hardly made him a household name nationally and I certainly wasn't anywhere near those places at the time.

who did that "thank you arthur" edit? AR himself?

i would lay money down that many more people know, say, 'is it all over my face' than anything off world of echo.

thanks sexydancer

I feel like i know every little echo bounce on Soon to be innocent fun

so perfect

if someone could upload a lossless version of the Sire 12" long take on Kiss Me Again, I'd be the happiest boy around. this is easily my favorite track by him, I play the MP3 all the time, but it doesn't seem like there's much chance of it being reissued, Steve K told me he's not interested in licensing anything.

I just want to thank Emily for resurrecting this thread and making me dust off this old gem. There it was in the graveyard of my vinyl, in a milk crate I never give any consideration to. I think even if I had flipped through it I would have just thought "oh that's the Arthur Russell record" without playing it. But World of Echo is just what I needed back in my life. And the bonus tracks! Wow!

I think what stands out most about this album for me is it doesn't seem like it's really as old as it is. It seems very modern and it's hard for me to believe I can trace it as far back as my teenage years. Another thing that stands out is just that there is nothing in the entire world that sounds like this record. Nothing. Other than saying it probably should have appeared on the 4AD label, you can't really narrow it down any further than that.

Hey jon abbey, if you still need it, I can rip a .wav of it tonight and post it.

I finally found the Dinosaur L full length and it is so awesome...Ive never heard world of echo. Might have to pick it up after reading some of these comments...

i'm glad to have finally listened to him, bimble. it's been nice to come home from some rather stressful situations in work and interpersonal relations and listen to this.

"Hey jon abbey, if you still need it, I can rip a .wav of it tonight and post it."

this would make me so exceedingly happy, you have no idea. thanks in advance!

Sorry Jon, didn't get the message last night. Will do tonight.

Apologies again for only giving you half of my lovely red vinyl Sire promo 12" (http://www.discogs.com/release/95382). Getting my three-year-old to bed took way more of my evening than anticipated, so I only had time to rip the A side. It sounded a bit muffled coming out of my computer speakers as I was ripping it too, so let me know if the sound quality isn't great and I can give it another go when I rip the B side tomorrow. Here's the whopping 129 MB .wav file of the A side:

http://www.divshare.com/download/4111056-606

The new Wire has a review of the film in it - anyone else seen it?

thanks a lot, Matt! DLing now, I'll report back tomorrow...

hmm, somehow the 192 MP3 I got off Oink a while back sounds decidedly better, or maybe I'm just used to it? anyway, no need to continue on this for me, but the effort is much appreciated, thanks again!!!

Yeah I listened to this today at work and it doesn't sound that great. I have a pretty basic setup for ripping my vinyl. I also didn't do any amplification or anything cause I didn't want to distort any of the sound, so that may be why it's kinda hard to hear. I thought it sounded pretty okay if I really turned the volume up, but that's annoying. Sorry it didn't turn out better. Try these rips at 320, they may be better:

http://www.greenpeaness.org/2008/03/justice-vampire-weekend-leona-lewis-lil.html

that's me! and yes, they came out a billion times better when I re-ripped them for that post; the b-side in particular benefits outrageously. you can hear studio patter and traces of other takes and everything!

Yeah, may cheapo turntable run through some Radio Shack cables and recorded using Audacity's "Records What U Hear" feature = not so great results. Maybe I need to fidget with the turntable pre-amp/computer amplification stuff. One day.

good call on the Zombies unreleased album, thats some of the best stuff ever.

that whole record's a stunner back to front, but since I was only awakened to it a few weeks or so ago I'm still kinda stuck on I'll Call You Mine (a fine place to be stuck).

http://acuterecords.com/042508.jpg

did anyone get to the instrumentals recitals after the ny film screenings? i'd like to see them performed as much as anything.

I missed this playing in Portland and it makes me so mad. I would totally have driven down there and everything. Grrr.

I've even managed to turn my new 24 year old music-loving friend on to him, too.

so is this available in any capacity anywhere? or am i going to have to wait for a while for it to go on netflix or whatever.

The film was wonderfully well done. Visually striking, enough of the "story" told to make it interesting to the uninitiated, and featuring a great deal of the only voice Arthur can contribute at this point--his music. For me, it mainly served the purpose of making me very anxious for the release of the "country" or "folk" recordings Audika has up next (September?). Even when accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar, rather than the more comparably expressive cello or kinetic disco setting, his unique voice (literal and figurative) comes through crystal clear. The couple of featured tunes were pure, beautiful Russell--I just wish I had somehow mentally recorded them, so I could hear them now. Steve Knutson--you've still got the best job in the world. And Dan--I bet you've been able to hear a lot of this stuff, what with your special DJing role (congrats on that). I saw it in Portland, and just missed being in town for the NYC screenings by a day.

saw Matt Wolf on the subway. think he said Plexifilm is releasing the DVD in November.

Steve Knutson's job is running Rough Trade in the US.

He's no longer managing Audika/Arthur Russell's archives?

I think that's more a labor of love.

The keyboard line in Springfield makes me ache

There's a DFA records mix available for fee download from Fact Magazine

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=641&Itemid=28

Which as far as I can tell has a peeviously unavailable loose joints dub. Doesn't sound like a re-edit.

1. Ghost Note 'Holy Jungle'
2. Fred Cherry 'Busride To The Zoo'
3. B.E. 'Party'
4. Wuthering Heights 'Shake It Baby Love' (40 Thieves edit)
5. DJ Cole Medina 'Buffalo Bill' (Cole's O.G. mix)
6. Fern Kinney 'Groove Me' (Cosmo Vitelli edit)
7. Chicken Lips 'White Dwarf' (Freakslastdaysofdiscoredo)
8. Babytalk 'Chance' (Hercules & Love Affair remix)
9. Time Machine (Jacques Renault Edit)
10. Repopulous 'My Piano'
11. Smith N Hack 'To Our Disco Friends' (Tribute)
12. Motor City Drum Ensemble 'Raw Cuts 1'
13. Black Meteoric Star ­ 'World Eater'
14. Plastique De Rêve 'Lost in the City'
15. Extended Family 'Ulysses' (Harvey's Crowd Control Mix)
16. Loose Joints 'Tell You In Dub'

Anyone (Stirmonster?) know anything about this track?

peeviously = previously, obv