Arthur Russell

Thanks to Declan for the Arthur Russell documentary now available to download from the r-n-d site. Untill listening to this, I only knew of Arthur for his disco productions under Loose Joints and Dinosaur L. While I always thought it was great music, I was unaware of the greater body of Arthurs work (and, as declan points out, the music he was more interested in making) which is an almost minimal, acoustic sound, consisting of just cello and voice, a musical myriad of such disparate worlds (or words) as disco, avant garde jazz and classical.

Like so many great artists it seems Arthur was vastly overlooked during his lifetime (he died of Aid related illness in 1992) apart from a small band of fans among new yorks downtown DJ's and musicians (among them Larry Levan, Steve DAquisto, Phillip Glass and David Byrne from Talking heads who supposedly wanted Arthur to join his group). This sad reality is highlighted all to clearly in one of the few known radio interviews with Arthur in which the College radio Disc Jockey who sounds like he knows very liittle about the music is merely enduring his guests presence. Meanwhile Arthur is quite forthcoming and candid (if a little quiet) however none of this seems to register on the other side of the desk.

One of the first things i read about Arthur that grabbed my attention was a quote from Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 that read "If NIck Drake had lived long enough to make records with New Order, they might have sounded something like this" While being a little reductionist if not innaccurate (Elvis Costello i think said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture" and comparisons such as this make rolling stone seem plain lazy) it offers some clue as to just what an original sound and musical vision it is.

Anyway, dont take my word for it, listen to the documentary yourself. Youd be hard pressed to find music filled with us as much sadness and joy in tracks like See through love, this is how we walk on the moon and little lost. If your ears could thank you, you would probably go "holly shit my ears can talk" but once youd calmed down a bit they'd thank you for finding something new.

So yes I dont always talk about things i dislike here. Occasionally I like to praise something. Or at lease praise someone else for praising something before me. Ladies and gentleman I'd like you all to raise your glass in honor of praising things! Also while your over at r-n-d check out P-Moderns Scene watch its amusing and they have some anonymous ginger contributing now.