A gorgeous day today. The sky was beautiful and I thought what a perfect day to post a song by one of my favorite musician/composer of all times, Arthur Russell. I first heard of him from the now defunct Nuphonic label compilation that featured a song called "That's Us Wild Combination" during the late 90's, this song was pure bliss and I fell in love with his voice and unique orchestrations. I couldn't get enough of his music and to my shock discovered he was the same man behind some of my favorite dance songs of all time such as "Go Bang! #5", "Is It All Over My Face" and "Kiss Me Again" by calling himself under different alias such as Dinosaur L, Loose Joints or Dinosaur. This past December I read Tim Lawrence's fascinating biography "Hold On To Your Dreams" and was in total awe of his genius. He was one of the most important and seminal but least known contributors to New York's downtown music scene during the 1970's and 1980's. He broke ground in experimental music, instrumental, new wave, disco, quirky rock, twisted folk, voice-cello dub and hip pop-inflected pop. He made the cello sing and and took it to new levels. Since 2004, there has been several posthumous releases that has brought new attention to this prolific artist and a documentary film called Wild Combination has been released to critical acclaim. I find great inspiration in Arthur and I could easily go on and on about him since there are so many layers to peel about him and his music. Today, I am featuring one my many favorites songs from him called "See-through" from his LP World Of Echo. In 2007, I remixed this song by simply overlaying it with a couple of back beats in order to take this song to a new plateau and yet keeping the integrity of such a masterpiece with it's sublime simplicity and purity. Enjoy
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