Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

Pat Thomas's commentary in booklet for The Complete Songs:
According to Tim Lawrence’s biography of Arthur Russell,
Hold On to Your Dreams, Allen Ginsberg first saw Arthur
playing cello with the Kailas Shugendo Mantric Sun Band in
a San Francisco park in 1971. Ginsberg recalled that Arthur
“was wearing a strange composite Buddhist uniform, semi‑
military, semi‑Mongolian.” The two men quickly bonded over
“music, poetry, and Buddhism,” and they began playing music
together—focusing on Ginsberg’s Blake adaptations. According
to witnesses, the blend of Allen’s harmonium and Arthur’s cello
was delightful, and they worked on Hindu devotional songs
(bhajans) together as well.
Alan Senauke: "Arthur Russell was young, a very good musician
and quiet—nothing assertive about him at all. You’d never imag‑
ine this guy would become a figure in the avant‑garde or punk
scene. There was great depth there that I didn’t get to see. He
was very easy to work with."
Allen asked Arthur to join him at recording sessions during July
and August 1971, in San Francisco at Pacific High Studios.

Thomas also quotes AG producer (also rock writer and Beatles' Zapple label manager) Barry Miles's book In The Seventies for background on Arthur's situation at this point:
Allen . . . wanted to tape more Blake songs as well as some
mantras. For this we needed musicians and Allen made contact
with a Japanese Tantric Buddhist sect, known for their choir and
instrumentalists, who lived in San Francisco in an old house at
2362 Pine. They were called Kailas Shugendo (Yamabushi) and
practiced fire-walking. Their leader was a stocky Mussolini-
jawed Russian who spoke perfect English and claimed to have
been in Tibet, though he was unwilling to tell me exactly where
in Tibet or to name any towns when I asked him. His followers
knew him as Ajari or Vajrabhodi but he went under the name of
Mister Warwick in the outside world (later Dr. Warwick).
Their religious practices included running an ambulance rescue
service that specialized in fire-related incidents like getting people
out of plane crashes and fires, as well as mountain climbing,
playing country and western music and daily fire rituals of sev-
eral kinds . . . I understood that Ajari came on much too strong
for most women, and those that were there were coupled up
with men in the group. Allen asked one of them if they had sex.
She was driving us back to Grant and Columbus at the time.
She turned her head from the road and looked Allen coldly in
the eye and said, “Well it’s Tantric Buddhism so it’s Tantric sex,
you know.” Allen was very intrigued by the whole subject but
her attitude showed she was not interested in saying any more
than that. Allen nodded knowingly, though he didn’t know and
wanted to very much.
Thomas continues:
From this group of reprobates, Arthur Russell emerged. He
joined up with Allen and played on the San Francisco recording
sessions that summer as well as the November 1971 First Blues
sessions in New York, and soon moved there. Flutist Jonathan
Meyer remembers that: “Arthur Russell was involved in a quasi‑
Tibetan Buddhist cult. We called him ‘Jigme,’ which is a Tibetan
name (meaning ‘fearless’). Arthur was a very good cello player.
He eventually dropped out of that cult.”
There’s just over five minutes of the 1971 mantras in the Holy Soul,
Jelly Roll boxed set, but since we’ve sourced the original unedited
master tape for this release, that five‑minute Padmasambhava
mantra titled “Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum”—
which translates as “body speech mind diamond teacher lotus power
amen”—has been expanded into a soul‑searching, mind‑expand‑
ing twelve minutes! (In addition, two more unreleased mantras in
the five‑ to six‑minute range are included on Disc 2.)
Jonathan Meyer: 'I don’t remember what the source was for
the music that Allen was using for these mantras—if he got
them from monks or what—but the whole thing was fun! Allen
definitively had a very nice musical sense. I think Allen just
really wanted to make a record."

Those First Blues tracks with Arthur, mentioned by Thomas above, were incl. in last year's expanded AG reissue, The Last Word On First Blues.

To clarify (and then I'll shut up about this), here's the tracks incl. AR on Ginsberg's Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience (out 6.23.17)
DISC 2: BLAKE SONGS
1. A Cradle Song
2. The Divine Image
3. Spring
4. Nurses Song
5. Infant Joy
6. A Dream
7. On Another Sorrow
8. Holy Thursday
9. The Fly
10. The School Boy
11. The Voice Of The Ancient Bard
MANTRAS
12. Padmasambhava Mantra
13. Om Namah Shivaye
14. Roghupati Raghava
Tracks 1, 5–7, 9–11 originally issued on
Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems And Songs 1949–1993,
Rhino R2 71693 (1994)
Tracks 2–4, 8, 12–14 previously unissued
Arthur Russell: cello
Jon Meyer: flute
Allen Ginsberg: vocals, finger cymbals, harmonium,
Tibetan thighbone trumpet
Peter Hornbeck: violin, viola
Jon Sholle: guitar
Alan Senauke: mandolin
Reverend Adjari & Buddhist Chorus (Tracks 12–14)
Tracks 1–11:
Words by William Blake
Music by Allen Ginsberg
Tuned by Allen Ginsberg in Cherry Valley, N.Y. 1968
Tracks 12–14:
Old Tibetan Mantra(s) of Padmasambhava
Tuned by Allen Ginsberg (presumably in San Francisco 1971)
Produced by Barry Miles
Recorded at Pacific High Studios,
San Francisco, July–August 1971
Master for Disc 2 was taken from a Scotch Tape
box inscribed: “Arthur Russell’s Copy – Allen Ginsberg”

The Necessaries' Event Horizon reissued in September:
https://www.bewithrecords.com/products/the-necessaries-event-horizon-lp#product

Russell's keyboard melody on "Driving And Talking At The Same Time" keeps popping up in my head out of nowhere very regularly, I'll get the reissue just for that song.

That's great news. Awesome album cover, too.

"More Real" on that is one of my fave Arthur tunes. Absolutely amazing and so shifty.

A lot of unreleased stuff on this weeks RA podcast

Tracklist /
Arthur Russell - Another Thought
Arthur Russell - See Through
Arthur Russell - Unknown/unreleased (from World Of Echo test pressing)
Indian Ocean - Unknown/unreleased
Arthur Russell – Unknown/unreleased (from World Of Echo Test Pressing) (Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun / Let's See??)
Arthur Russell - Hiding Your Present From You
Arthur Russell - This Is How We Walk On The Moon
Jah Wobble / The Edge / Holger Czukay - Hold On To Your Dreams
Lola - Wax The Van
Arthur Russell - I Like You
Indian Ocean - This Is How We Walk On The Moon (Unreleased version from Sleeping Bag Test Pressing TLX-3)
Arthur Russell - Hop On Down
Arthur Russell - You And Me Both
Arthur Russell - Wax The Van (with extra dubbing by Dan Tyler)
Loose Joints? - Let’s Go Play Baseball?? (Unreleased acetate)
Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face (Female version)
Nicky Siano - Tiger Stripes (Re-Edit)
Loose Joints - Tell You
Arthur Russell - See My Brother, He's Jumping Out (Let’s Go Swimming #2)
Indian Ocean - Schoolbell / Treehouse
Dinosaur - Kiss Me Again (Unreleased Japanese version)
Dinosaur L - Go Bang (Unreleased version from acetate)
Loose Joints - The Only Usefulness (Unreleased acetate)
Arthur Russell - Lucky Cloud
Loose Joints - Pop Your Funk (7-inch version)
The Necessaries - The Finish Line
Indian Ocean - Untitled/unreleased (from Sleeping Bag Test Pressing)
Arthur Russell - A Little Lost

https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=594

Possibly the greatest RA podcast yet.

OMFG

These unreleased tracks are SO GOOD

yes they are!

yeah, pretty cool that there is still stuff this strong in the archives! this one sent me back to a very old beats in space show w/ some other unreleased stuff: http://www.beatsinspace.net/playlists/440

If anyone wants this to listen to on-the-go I can Dropbox it. They stopped the download facility on it.

i would be into that ...

please.

I'll upload it overnight and post the link tomorrow.

thanks. I subscribed on iTunes just for this but was too late for the d/l if there ever was one

There was for a bit.

As far as I can tell they changed it because they didn't want unreleased tracks to be available at a decent quality. I get and don't get the politics of that but I can't imagine it would apply to anyone here, regardless.

thank you thank you. this mix is incredible.

That old Beats In Space show with Ted Knutsen is a gem as well

Steve right?

Steve! Yeah, it is great — that hip hop remix is awesome. Is there any more of that kinda thing floating around?

sorry, I forgot to post the link, here it is an an mp3

https://mega.nz/#!BmonTSBQ

https://mega.nz/#!BmonTSBQ!iguPx7jyWLTPEfLzs7b2b1VZ_QKzkOsh3I9AjrPKoyQ

thank, man!

Thanks so much Jed

you're welcome!

xp doh sorry Steve Knutsen, Audika dude.

Jed you legend <3

Just got a bandcamp notification about a new album called Iowa Dream. One song, “You Did It Yourself”, available now.

brilliant news. love the track. thanks!

Can't wait to hear this!

Presumably this is from a forthcoming album?

yes

Oops’ I see I misread. One of the tracks is out on Spotify already. Looking forward to Iowa Dream

on a separate note, I had no idea that Audika label head Steve Knutson has a long history of involvement with Tommy Boy and Wax Trax.

Nice!! Seems like this is gonna be Love Is Overtaking Me pt. 2

Love Is Overtaking Me is the only country album I've ever enjoyed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGtQASRq2Ak&feature=youtu.be

dammit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGtQASRq2Ak

ah, there are at least a couple other good country albums! even if i probably prefer bluegrass and/or western swing.

so hey, while this is being revived for other purposes, i'm just going to ask:

what's a good starting place with this dude? i had first thought best thought for a while and i really liked the first run of tracks on disc one, but the rest of it kind of lost me. i know he was kind of all over the place, ranging from house records to modern composition. i seem to recall hearing this one back during my tower records tenure, but i don't think i was quite hip to the vibe just yet. perhaps a revisit would be worthwhile in that case.

so, my question is: what's the one disc that will showcase the best representation of what makes his music awesome?

well that comp (The World Of Arthur Russell) is the best place to start IMO

after that, I'd say maybe Calling Out Of Context? They are all pretty different

Or the Another Though album perhaps?

I would say Another Thought and World Of Echo

Or the Nick The Record RA podcast above

Well, it depends on what you're looking for; he was restless and at home on quite a range--for me, the gateway was The World of because I was looking for this guy, described in a blurb on the shrinkwrap: In The early 80s, Russell brought the avant-garde with futuristic music that inspired people like Phili[ Glass, Francois K, David Byrne and many more. He blurred the line between Disco, Classical, Jazz and Dub." Another blurb doesn't bother with the namedropping: "a thrill-a-minute collection of dubbed-out-disco, echo-laden acoustics, reverberating vocals and horns. Wonderful!"
According to his bandcamp, the new album will have some of this approach and the "dream-bicycle" Great Plains jingle-jangle of Love Is Overtaking Me as well.

brought the avant-garde to the dance floor, that is. He told Allen Ginsberg that he was going for "Buddhist bubblegum," though he went for several other things as well.