It's with my great pleasure to post some tracks from the late Arthur Russell, a Midwestern-bred baby boomer cellist who left his native cornfields of Iowa for the revolutionary climate of experimental music and culture in 1960s San Francisco. It was there we he met fellow forward-thinking people like Allen Ginsberg.
A natural folkie, Russell had been a devout student in an Indian music school/commune. His Eastern influences translate wonderfully into his work in the late 70s when he arrived in New York city. It was here where Russell garnered the most commercial success (in his lifetime) upon immersion into the burgeoning disco scene. It was when the 80s rolled around that Russell really started to record some of his best music, fusing sensibilities from all of his backgrounds, creating a form of beautiful lo-fi pop that was unprecedented and still unsurpassed. Mr. Russell passed away in the early 90s of AIDS.
So I know that this post would be more fitting in my Dead Pop Stars blog, seeing that he's dead and all. But Arthur's music has never been more relevant. His loads of home tapes have been getting released since 2004 by Audika Records and Soul Jazz Records, respectively. The first song posted below was recorded in '74, yet sounds as if it could of been a K Records single in the 90s, which is kind of eerie. The new Caribou single, Odessa (which is getting plenty of attention), sounds suspiciously close to an Arthur Russell track circa his disco era. It is unquestionable that this guy could be one of the coolest... fuck it... is the coolest artist of posthumously derived fame. Thank you, Mother Internet.
Arthur Russell - Time Away [Audika] (right-click to download)
Arthur Russell - Let's Go Swimming (Walter Gibbons Mix) [Soul Jazz] (stream)
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