625 Arthur Russell - World Of Echo (1986)

 625 Arthur Russell - World Of Echo (1986)

Studio Album  - Avant Garde



About the Act:

Arthur Brown was a curious figure. He lived the life of a starving artist in New York, and starting in 1973 was involved in the Avant Garde music scene there. He had lots of collaborations with lots of people, including Allen Ginsburg, David Byrne and Philip Glass. He also had his other foot in the New York Disco scene - a really odd combination. When he died at 40 in 1992 he left a vast collection of unfinished recordings and poems. He was prolific and yet released hardly anything.

About the Album:

This was Arthur's only full-length solo album.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

An album called "World of Echo" could have lots of origins. I wonder if this is the way it happened:

Record executive: So this record of yours...?

Arthur: What about it?

Record executive: There's a lot of effects on it.

Arthur: Yes, it's very Avant Garde

Record executive: Only I couldn't help noticing that there's a lot of echo going on

Arthur: I like echo

Record executive: All over every track, in fact.

Arthur: I really like echo.

Record executive: You don't think people will be like "that's a lot of echo"

Arthur: Is that a problem?

Record executive: What if they don't like echo, or.. I'm jut spitballing here, what if they think it's too much echo?

Arthur: Then they should buy a different record.

Record executive: What if they bought it before they heard it?

Arthur: To be honest I'm hoping for most of my sales that way.

Record executive: So there's thing called "Managing Expectations"

Arthur: Go on.

Record executive: If we call it, I don't know, "World of echo" then they know what they are buying into.

Arthur: Well.....


Or maybe it could have gone this way...

Record executive: So this record of yours....?

Arthur: What about it?

Record executive: I can't help noticing it's a bit bland

Arthur: Yes, it's very Avant Garde

Record executive: And you've called it "World of Echo"

Arthur: Yes...?

Record executive: But there's no echo on it.

Arthur: It's ironic.

Record executive: Can I just run this idea by you....


Arthur Russell had one foot in Avant Garde music, and one in disco. This album is definitely not disco. It is definitely Avant Garde. And arty. And echoey. All tracks have an echo effect on the whole thing, sometimes more than one. The instruments are cello, electronic sounds and voice, and hand percussion. And echo.

The cello is played in many different ways with many different implements, and some other effects like distortion. Slapping, bowing, bouncing the bow off the strings, and all sorts of other things. This is then echoed and sometimes I think multitracked.

The Electronic sounds may have been processed from the cello, but there are tweet and bleeps and glitches and rumbles. These and the hand percussion are the decoration to the music.

The singing is mostly mumbled, sometimes non-words and mostly words pronounced vaguely so they are hard to make out. His voice is quite nice to be honest.

Musically it's quite minimalist, and Avant Garde in the sense of not necessarily following conventional tuning, key, harmony or rhythms, but sometimes it does. The constant echo enforces a certain rhythmic quality, and this makes me think it was applied during recording rather than retrospectively.

It's mildly interesting, and sometimes entertaining, but is definitely the sort of thing that is more likely to interest those keen on the Avant Garde. The whole thing is a bit of a test of endurance, and feels like a performance artist who counts to 100 then slaps himself.  Repeatedly. And then ask for a grant. That's overstating, it's not that bad, and his voice is nice and it's an interesting idea for about 2 minutes.

I've done a quick search and I like his disco stuff better.

5.5/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7hodLjVNQZSsNEqvG77ZkI

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm1szpOehiwO5rmTJqgNq6qsEf0864z70

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Echo



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