Arthur Russell was known during his lifetime as a creator of left-field dance records from the late '70s through the mid '80s that were rarely heard or appreciated beyond New York's club cognoscenti. These days Russell is a cult hero, and the recordings that were too personal or strange to be released during his lifetime, let alone played in a club, are now among his most beloved creations. Russell was a classically trained cellist who'd worked with Allen Ginsberg and Philip Glass, and although 1986's World of Echo trades the percussive elements that would animate alternate dance versions of "Wax the Van" and "Tree House" for skeletal, playfully spooky solo arrangements, the results are no less distinctive. While extroverted '80s synth-poppers were practically running things, introverted Russell instead sings softly to himself, dreaming up an alternate universe beyond fashion where disco and the avant-garde were as one.