We're Leaving at Five In The Morning - We Could Get Better Mileage

I write this in my second hotel room of the trip in Western Colorado. Today's drive was made even more transcendent through repeated listening of Popol Vuh's Coeur de Verre, which could not leave my CD player as ventured through the Rockies. One listen, even without seeing the movie would explain why. Download it!


Yesterday's drive, though, was through Iowa. Probably my least favorite state thus far, but I would never have dared say that to Arthur Russell!

Russell, who died of AIDS in 1992 was a genius, and if you don't beleive me beleive the likes of Jens Lekman, the Talking Heads, and even the K.L.F. who sampled his "Go Bang!" while he was still alive! He is the unifiying force of all the great music that was happening in Manhattan in the late seventies with punk/new wave, the avant-garde, disco, and minimalism. All of their influences are heard on this record, like most of his available releases is a posthumous compilation. This one may not be the best, but its general sound unifies his vast skills better than others while still remaining cohesive. That, and it contains what I would consider one of the greatest pieces of music of all time, "That's Us/Wild Combination." That piece, like many of his songs is made up of two very distinct parts that gradually unify and then disassemble, also heard in his disco classic "Is It All Over My Face?" The record also includes some great dronier tunes that still have his kind of pop and disco sensibility like the title tracks and "The Platform on the Ocean." Others are a New Wave dance party for the eccentricly genius, most notably, "Calling All Kids."

Russell was a legendary perfectionist who spent nearly all his time working on and recording his music, especially in his last days. That being said, anything you think could be better in these songs probably has been done and recorded. Hoprefully it will be released one day as well.


Arthur Russell - Calling Out Of Context (2004)

The cover photo may have been perfect for the release's time, but Russell's trucker hat is not the result of a prescient sense of fasion, but rather a relic of his Iowa roots which he always held dear.