Review Summary: Beauty in echo
Arthur Russell lived something of a folk legend of a life. Born as the son of a naval officer turned mayor into rural butt*** nowhere, Iowa, Arthur studied cello before moving to San Francisco at 18 to live in a Buddhist commune before meeting and starting a relationship with famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Moving to New York in 1973, he found himself the new music director at art performance space The Kitchen where he became enveloped with the burgeoning avant garde scene at the time. In 1976, through his then boyfriend, he discovered the underground sensation of disco and quickly fell in love with its grooves and sounds. After scoring several underground hits under the names of Dinosaur L and Loose Joints, Arthur continued to release highly acclaimed but obscure dance records under a variety of aliases before finally leaving his label Sleeping Bad Records. In 1986, Russell’s sole studio album to be released under his own name, ‘World Of Echo’ was released to the world and promptly sank without a trace. Arthur died 6 years later, another victim to a HIV epidemic at just 40 years old. Broke and unknown. It wasn’t until the rerelease of World of Echo that his works became much more well known and he became something of a legend in the avant garde scene, his music even being sampled by Kanye West. Now highly regarded by many, World of Echo is often considered one of the best albums of the 80s. But does it hold up?
World of Echo is honestly, one of the weirdest things ever released. Stripping back the disco beats and bouncy electronics from his earlier work, Arthur delivers 14 tracks of unbelievably sparse, haunting and remarkably beautiful pieces of music ever set to tape. Accompanied only be a cello, the occasional bleep of a synth and boatloads of reverb and echo, the songs themselves sound more like isolated tracks, with significant amounts of bleed-through. Songs sound more like super rough demos buttered up with some studio trickery. But, sometimes less is more. World of Echo uses minimalism to fantastic effect. The screech of the strings and Russell’s folksy Light baritone ebb and flow off each other, interlocking into strangely syncopated rhythms with the occasional thud of the bow hitting the ground or the twang of a string weaving into the mix. Songs can be as short as a minute or 10 minute epics, with different rhythms and melodies stopping and starting at whim. It’s confusing and somewhat chaotic, but amazingly concise and well crafted. Nothing short of beautiful. Each song sounds like it’s own soundtrack to a photo. Landscapes of jungle along with rushing waterfalls, pastoral meadows and sandy beaches. For a record that only uses a cello, a voice and some effects, that’s pretty damn impressive.
Arthur’s lyrics themselves are also of note. While often barely legible, they tell simplistic and nostalgic stories. Fitting with the simplicity and wandering sound of the music, the words are child like and playful and sung in a stream of consciousness style Cute vignettes about going swimming or playing in a treehouse stand next to pieces about burgeoning sexuality and rain clouds. They’re naive and nostalgic and never feel forced, with certain phrases repeated often like mantras through each of the songs. Arthur’s writing is not only a perfect counterpart to his music, but also incredibly interesting to study too.
World of Echo is a difficult masterpiece. While its surreal and confusing exterior is bound to scare anyone off, once you get used to sounds that hide within this album, it becomes an immensely rewarding experience, working both as a deep and detailed headphones album and a lush piece of new age background music. Highly recommend.
5/5
Standout tracks:
Answers Me
Being It
Place I Know/Kid Like You
She’s The Star/I Take This Time
See-Through
Lucky Cloud
Let’s Go Swimming
