so in case the title of this new blog didn't tip you off, i'm currently rather obsessed with the music of arthur russell. this thread on ilm—specifically someone posting that 19 minute long piece of fucking brilliance off of zummo with an x—rekindled the interest that the world of comp had piqued. but now i am goddamn hooked, dude is amazing. i have been listening to everything ar-related that i can get my hands on. the world of echo album is so worth tracking down; "keeping up" was one of my favorite tracks off the soul jazz comp, it's like an album full of russell in that sort of mode.

tracks currently being played on repeat when i'm away from the record player: kiss me again (a side), a full on disco monster, complete with wailing diva, super catchy piano riff, and bongo breakdown (!), can not get enough of this; in the light of the miracle, a crazy 13 minute long cowbell laden groove (zummo kills it on trombone here as well); keeping up, a six minute breathy-reverb-cello-swipey sad/happy makes you want to float away song; that's us/wild combination, which reminds me of a paul simon song; the aforementioned a side off zummo with an x. these are probably a rather random selection, there are so many other tracks of equal brilliance on the albums/comps/unrereleased stuff, you should go listen to them all. i'll cut you some slack if you just listen to these first though.

still looking for: 24→24 Music, the other side of zummo with an x, other stuff i'm probably not even aware of.

trying not to pee my pants after reading (at the audika site): "Arthur recorded close to four hours of music with the intention of having someone complete and remix the composition. As all of Arthur’s dance music was done in collaboration, we were committed to finding the best. We are excited to announce that our friends the DFA will be handling the chores of mixing and editing the track for release also in October."