Ok . MORE Arthur Russell (But This Is Great)

I saved it by going to the link via plain Chrome, no Incognito, and clicking on those three dots at after the audio icon--didn't even have to use Sound Pirate (which works in plain Chrome, that's why I went there that way).
In case this goes away, here's the lowdown, for people of the future:

Arthur Russell
Saturday, March 2, 1985. 9:00 pm
The influential and profoundly brave cross-genre artist (1951-1992) presented “The Deer In The Forest,” and other extended vocal compositions with his ubiquitous amplified cello.

Update 2019: With Peter Zummo, trombone, and possibly Elodie Lauten or Steven Hall on Casio keyboard. Considered early versions of songs that became more focused later. For example, Each Step Is Moving (around 7 minutes in), is substantially This Is How We Walk On The Moon, which wasn’t released until 1994, posthumously. In this concert Russell was experimenting with repeated phrases and lines, as if testing them out, which likely emerged later in more developed versions.

of all the post arthur passing releases or shares- this is the one for me

This live set plus World Of Echo and Another Thought are sure helping me deal with this bullshit

tim lawrence's bio of arthur russell "hold on to your dreams" is quite good. pretty good balance of focus on his work vs. his personal life.

i wrote this tweet about one of my favorite revelations from the book:

I’m learning from “Hold On to Your Dreams” by Tim Lawrence that Arthur Russell collaborated with almost every NYC musician of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but I was still shocked by the reveal of this anecdote pic.twitter.com/HFypGCOhTS

— n1ck amm3rman (@somelanguage) July 21, 2020

that's a wild one

oh yeah gary lucas posted the tape of that somewhere a while back, it's wild indeed

if you go to my tweet, there's a follow-up tweet with a youtube of the music they worked on together. it's pretty bad. some very basic stripped-down '80s beats from russell and terrible rapping from vinny d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wet2Kla6c9c

vin is further from the pocket than chief keef

I had heard that story but didn't know that the recording was on YouTube. It's really not great.

Imagine if Arthur had worked with some rappers who were actually good...

As he co-founded Sleeping Bag Records he must have had the chance to consider working with some good rappers.

I also dream that there is an unreleased collaboration with Kurtis Mantronik languishing in a vault somewhere.

he worked on something with kurtis mantronik but apparently they didn't mesh well

the lawrence book says they got together a couple of times and enjoyed talking about music but ultimately kurtis thought russell was too weird

as i have read the book i have obviously completely and utterly forgotten all about this. I shall keep dreaming that it was actually the best thing ever.

Oh man, this looks good, I didn't realise that more of this performance existed.

https://arthurrussell.bandcamp.com/album/sketches-for-world-of-echo-june-25-1984-live-at-ei

On an evening in late June of 1984, Arthur Russell lugged his cello down to Centre Street in Soho, to his friend Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia Foundation, a large room in which sound searched for, and continues to find, new expression. Here, Arthur set up his equipment, which his companion Tom Lee remembers could be an excruciating process of plugging and testing and waiting. As contemporary listeners of Arthur’s ever-expanding catalogue, it’s perhaps easy to position this moment in terms of Arthur’s known trajectory—on this June evening, he was two years away from distilling this material into his solo opus World of Echo, and also from receiving the HIV/AIDs diagnosis that would cut short his vivid and restless musical career.

Harder than establishing a trajectory, however, is the task of entering Arthur’s labyrinthian musical mind. Sketches for World of Echo, Arthur’s live performance at Niblock’s space, now rewards listeners with an unprecedented chance. On this ethereal progression of songs which blend into one another almost hypnotically, their only punctuation a few coughs and some clapping at the end, we hear a thirty-three year-old laying out a kind of sonic draft for World of Echo, the only solo album he released before dying in this same city at age forty. Niblock remembers this rich stage of Arthur’s style acutely, and would capture it again, on a PCM recorder a year later in this same room, in the collaborative film Terrace of Unintelligibility. On this summer evening, though, Arthur experiments in real time with the effects of amplification on his 18th century cello, and with swinging his voice alternately between purposeful incomprehensibility and brief clarity. Snippets of lyrics rise from the performance thirty-six years ago, but often, Arthur decides to abandon clear language, and blends his voice with that of his cello, trying for an ongoing mesmeric atmosphere. Pieces of the future World of Echo float up briefly, namely in “Let’s Go Swimming.” A version of the ever-melancholic “Losing My Taste for the Nightlife” unfurls softly over the cello’s light rhythm. Meanwhile, the hovering, almost gilded stretch of cello-and-tape in the previously unheard “Sunlit Water” transports us elsewhere for more than ten minutes, a heavenly ending meditation. As ever with Arthur Russell, each new release pushes back our sense of this idiosyncratic, deeply imaginative composer’s horizon. Sketches for World of Echo now joins the rest of the music in Arthur’s huge and gorgeous ocean, into which he invites us to listen live for the first time, and to, in his words, go swimming.

Whaaaaaattt

Oh my god thank you so much for posting this because it's given me a chance to cop the limited edition cassette. Not many copies so be quick people!

Yeah thanks maresn3st, I copped one, too!

Hopped on top of
This this morning

Beautiful.

good looking out, cheers

grabbed one too. Didn't know about this performance at all. Gorgeous. Thanks Maresn3st

is this same as the Roulette set that was up earlier?

https://roulette.org/event/arthur-russell-2/

No, this new thing is a solo performance from a year earlier.

XXPs - welcome!

about five minutes in and goddamn this is good

At first I luved drone monolith that suddenly slid into foreground of "Changing Forest," but, as tends to happen with naked drones, ones without guitars etc. I slid from caffeine to zzzz, however woke up and stayed awake for all other tracks, especially re the amount of thick crunchy sustain and sometimes fuzz bundled with outright cello, behind and within mellow vocal flexing; cello is lone voice, articulate as hell, on "Sunlit Water."
But also, this was released last summer, news to me!
Amazon customer review:

reviewer: plunderphonica
5.0 out of 5 stars
in the gentle undersea rhythms of a coral reef the Blue Tang displays his dreamy coloration
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2011
This is a 4 track disc clocking in at 29:14. The first three tracks represent a reissue of the "Let's Go Swimming" twelve-inch single released on Logarhythm in 1986 [LR-1002-1]. "Let's Go Swimming (Gulf Stream Dub)" & "Let's Go Swimming (Puppy Surf Dub)" were on Side A. "Let's Go Swimming (Coastal Dub)" was on Side B.

The final track, "Make 1,2 (Gem Spa Dub)" is a previously unreleased 11:09 version of a song which appeared a few years ago on Calling Out Of Context. On that album, it was a 2:50 window into Arthur's world. This echoey, throbbing behemoth was recorded sometime between 1986-1990 and it is a gem.

This release comes with an insert. It's a six panel fold-out b/w poster of Arthur lying in the sand on a beach, bundled up against the cold, and completely absorbed in the act of singing into a microphone.

There are no liner notes. Inside the gatefold, there are some limited production and session details.

In his book "Hold On To Your Dreams," Tim Lawrence quotes Simon Reynold's Melody Maker review of LR-1002-1: "This is impossible dance music, jumbling your urges, making you want to move in ways not yet invented, confounding your body as it provokes it. In its tipsy mix, I seem to hear Can, Peech Boys, Thomas Leer, Weather Report, hip hop, but really this is unique, original, a work of genius."

As Audika Records moves forward by looking back into the Arthur Russell archives, I hope they'll release a similar package focusing on the various mixes and versions of Dinosaur's "Kiss Me Again" from 1978. If they have control of that song, that is. If not, then I'll settle for a massive box set compiling all 40 "Let's Go Swimming" tapes! There must be a killer country version lurking lurking in a drawer somewhere...

yeah that's Let's Go Swimming EP is sublime, I have it on vinyl

"Sunlit Water" is flat out incredible on this new one, all-enveloping and gorgeous

xp it's this:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rus11Kg5L._SX355_.jpg

Let's Go Swimming by Arthur Russell

Apparently a 2020 reissue of 2011 set. Is this expanded from the 2011 edition of 1986 original?
2020 details:
Manufacturer : AUDIKA
Date First Available : July 21, 2020
Label : AUDIKA
ASIN : B01JT57J7S

yes I believe Make 1/2 is a bonus but not 100% sure

O hell, it's on here with allll this, shoulda known:

https://arthurrussell.bandcamp.com/music

dow you are asking a question that you already pasted an answer to

read your own posts, ppl

Dinosaur is owned by Warner I assume and may be a hassle.

The various Kiss Me Again mixes are up on Spotify since last year fwiw - https://open.spotify.com/album/1jDWFLM7HsGgVc4gh3ePbK

(not the same as a nice physical release I know)

Another Thought is the one that you can't find on digital afaik

xp are there more than two?!?!

Two additional edits of the two existing mixes

i love "Make 1,2 (Gem Spa Dub)" so much. absolutely love the line "Someone tried to call me up/But I don't even have a phone", i find it so evocative.

"world of echo" is probably my favorite album of all time, but it's so tied to the summer for me that as a rule i don't play it after labor day. might have to take advantage of the warm weekend to listen to this; i wanted to wait until i can really give it my full attention for many hours.

whoa at “make 1,2 dub”, loved that track on calling into context

let's talk abt Sketches For World Of Echo here

No better thread to type it, I guess: every time I see people fawning over a new Arthur Russell thing that has been unearthed, I wanna scream we get it. you like your music fags to be dead. it makes the music so much more meaningful. thank you for reminding me. I feel like you're just rubbing it in my face at this point. "oh, haven't you heard the new Arthur? also, why don't you die? die, die, die."

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:46 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

A million times this.

― "Bi" Dong A Ban He Try (the table is the table), Sunday, December 13, 2020 12:47 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

And I too am a huge fan and rinse every new thing that is unearthed!

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, December 13, 2020 12:50 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I honestly never thought of it like that, and although I'm really glad Knudson is doing that work I can see the point

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:18 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

but y'know dead artists sell, that's certainly true across the board

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:19 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

My thing with him, which obviously is coming from a less invested place but nonetheless, is how people seem really intent on reinventing an artist who was known as much for making (brilliant) dance music as an indie singer songwriter

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:20 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

well he was really fuckin good at both things tbh

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think Sault are good. Don’t have strong feelings abt it but do think it’s a bit 30 something record collector to make them the center of your musical universe but there’s nothing wrong w that per se and it’s a really well done version of it ? Idk

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

the LCD Soundsystem of the 2020s

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:24 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

well he was really fuckin good at both things tbh

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 3:22 PM (nineteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure (tho I’d hesitate to pigeonhole his non dance work as “indie singer songwriter) but only one of those gets a real commercial emphasis (i guess ? Because that was what was on the tapes, regardless if there are good reasons for it or not it feels like it’s remaking his story a bit to me)

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:24 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

well there's also been releases like "Corn" and "Calling Out Of Context" that were "on the tapes" so idk about that

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:31 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

and he played in The Necessaries! ffs

sorry for derail

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 1:32 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was good at everything basically

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:12 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Tbh his Echo demos are super-stunning, very pleased to have them in my earholes

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:16 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was more just... surprised when I got Love is Overtaking Me, like no fuckin way this guy who was so good at dance music and experimental (modern classical adjacent? but basically the world of echo type stuff) could be that good at singer songwriter stuff....I almost kept thinking I was fooling myself, but those songs are just really good songs

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:20 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this thread is getting alarmingly positive

― Lily Dale, Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:22 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol otm

― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:27 PM (0 seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

sorry for not editing out the Sault part of that

but seriously "Sunlit Water" is one of the most amazing things I have heard from this dude yet

Christ that batch of comments is insufferable. Including the Sault parts. Is that from that thread with the bizarre definition of "hype" where it means "people like it but not me"?

'Sketches' is great (as was the other live performance from the era that was unearthed recently). He was the definition of sui generis--"indie singer songwriter" yeesh.

Let us never speak of that paste again---all yall know this year's treat, right?
https://arthurrussell.bandcamp.com/album/sketches-for-world-of-echo-june-25-1984-live-at-ei Not to mention soooo much before it:
https://arthurrussell.bandcamp.com/

https://www.discogs.com/Arthur-Russell-The-Sleeping-Bag-Sessions/master/48677

lol that was actually an interesting stretch of commentary ffs, relative to the “buncha 30+ dudes explain why they don’t like Taylor swift” thing goin down before

still holding out for the loose joints album sessions (there was more recorded than just all those takes of “pop your funk” etc right?)

^^ yes, including "Let's Play Baseball" and probably a ton of other awesome shit we haven't heard