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Avg: 3.5 (37 ratings)
- Date Released: September 26, 2006
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Pop, Alternative
- Label: Audika Records / Virtual
Disco's lost superstar gets found once again.
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We Say...
Among the most bumptious and thwacking of the many Arthur Russell gems exhumed in the past two years, Springfield is anchored by a title track that carries lots of weight but trades in marks of ineffable finery just the same. Busy breakbeats and synthesizers splash over parched electric cello and processed trumpet, all while Russell sings “I’ve never been kissed” in his uniquely sad and celebratory falsetto. This is the Russell of ’80s: New York dance clubs with dark corners and spinning disco balls, which the production duo DFA surprisingly tone down in a subdued remix that goes deep and mystical. Elsewhere, “See My Brother…” offers a new (and remarkably house-y) spin on the Russell classic “Let’s Go Swimming.” “Corn #3” is all warm keyboard chords and celestial cello, while “Hiding Your Present from You” makes a strong candidate for Russell’s most hands-down beautiful song with its breathy vocal melodies and melancholy flirtations.
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They Say...
Cynics might level charges of barrel-scraping against Springfield, Audika's fifth archival Arthur Russell release, which features unfinished material and alternate versions of available tracks. However, to characterize these works in progress as inessential misses the point that, as an artist famously devoted to reworking and revising, Russell focused on the creative process, not the end product. That ethos resonated in the styles he explored, eschewing conventional, well-wrought forms or a narrative movement toward closure. He gravitated to disco's emphasis on open-endedness, rhythm, repetition, and being in the moment; by contrast, on 1986's spacy World of Echo he pursued a more oceanic fluidity. Springfield incorporates both tendencies. The title track (one of Russell's final pieces) appears in three guises: an unfinished eight-minute rendering and a brief fragment, plus a DFA mix. Russell's full-length original marries beats and synth with his minimalist combination of reverbed tenor vocals, sawing cello, and slurring horns; the DFA's treatment doesn't transform the track but rearranges the order in which its elements emerge, also giving those elements sharper definition with space between them. Originally intended for the unreleased 1985 Corn album, versions of "Let's Go Swimming" and "Hiding Your Present from You" dramatize how much Russell reworked his material: here, prominent dance beats drive these numbers, whereas their subsequent incarnations on World of Echo are hushed and ethereal. Other Corn tracks are similarly intriguing: for "You Have Did the Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In," Russell abandons the dancefloor, distorting his cello to heavy metal proportions over a no-nonsense 4/4 beat; with its pulsing rhythm, primitive Casiotone, and droning cello, "Corn #3" evokes the hypnotic, motorik glide of Neu! and Harmonia. Releasing an artist's work posthumously isn't always advisable. Notwithstanding occasional gems, musicians rarely leave behind studio recordings amounting to anything more than sonic footnotes for obsessive completists. That's not the case with Russell, though, as Springfield amply demonstrates.
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| 01. |  |
Springfield |
8:35 |
|
| 02. | |
Springfield (DFA Remix) |
7:55 |
|
| 03. | |
Springfield (Detail) |
1:13 |
|
| 04. | |
See My Brother, He's Jumpin Out (Let's Go Swimming #1) |
7:54 |
|
| 05. | |
Corn #3 |
5:29 |
|
| 06. | |
Hiding Your Present From You |
4:43 |
|
| 07. | |
You Have Did The Right Thing When You Put That Skylight In |
3:55 |
|
07 Total Tracks, 39:44 Total Length
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Credits
- Arthur Russell - Cello // Arthur Russell - Keyboards // Arthur Russell - Vocals // Arthur Russell - Producer // Arthur Russell - Drum Programming // Peter Zummo - Trombone // Mark Freedman - Producer // Ray Janos - Mastering // Steven Miglio - Art Direction // Steven Miglio - Design // Todd Burns - Author
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