March 3, 2004

{ Arthur Russell 'Calling out of Context' }

Knowing that Wire creams over Arthur Russell monthly, I decided to pick this one up. Russell was a cellist, songwriter, composer, and producer in NYC in the 70's, 80's and early 90s. He passed away in 1992 leaving over a 1000 tapes of his work. Sadly, at the time, most of his work went unnoticed because it was considered not commercial enough and too eccentric, but over the years has made its way into the right ears. It's like the music of New Order with an angelic voiced man like Jeff Buckley or Nick Drake singing over it. It reminds me somewhat of a more hetero The Associates. The sound is dated and contemporary at the same time, in a good way. While remaining completely original, you can hear influences taken from the best things going on in NYC in a 30 year period. Like hearing ESG for the first time, you're like 'what is this, and why haven't I heard it before?'

     » The Audika Records site.
     » Buy 'Calling out of Context' on cdbaby.com.
     » A great site for Arthur Russell info.

By Lindsey in Music | Comments: