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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

World Of Echo

Arthur Russell

1986

World Of Echo
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

World of Echo is the second studio album by American musician Arthur Russell, released in 1986 on Upside Records in the US and in 1987 on Rough Trade Records in the UK. The album is composed primarily of Russell's vocals, cello playing, and percussion, which are prominently treated with effects such as delay and reverb. World of Echo was the final album released by Russell during his lifetime. It was widely reissued in 2005 by Audika and Rough Trade. The album was named the best of the 1980s by Fact in 2013. It was ranked the 25th best album of the 1980s by Pitchfork in 2018. World of Echo has been noted as prominently incorporating Russell's "folksy tenor, cello, and scant electronic microtones". It features Russell's employment of production effects, including prominent use of echo, reverb, and distortion. Several songs included are alternate versions of dance tracks that Russell produced as 12-inch singles, including "Let's Go Swimming", "Wax the Van", and "Treehouse". Writing for Pitchfork, Cameron Macdonald noted that Russell's style of cello playing, often improvised, makes use of sporadic, imaginary sounds like "hollow thuds, window-washing brushes, chipped strings, knuckled knacks, and the boom of a floor peg dropping on concrete". He also commented that the cello "startlingly duets with his voice", leading to inharmonic sounds that makes it sound like the instrument "clears its throat during his awkward moments". AllMusic referred to the album as a collection of "spare, dubby cello experiments." Dusted also commented on the album's "skeletal framework", with "bare melodies rising to the surface, vocal lines encompassing wordless singing" and "constantly shifting textures swirling throughout".

Wikipedia

Rating

2.46

Votes

63

Genres

  • Pop
  • Electronica

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Reviews

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Oct 25 2024
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4

I likes this a lot, though it was swinging the Art stick pretty hard (some numbers like The Name of the Next Song getting into full performance art territory - though I also found it pretty funny). I like it though - unabashed wierdo art, pretty ahead of its times. The artist's young death a sad coda when researching this. I'm in my 50s so I lived through it, but it can be easy to forget (now that it is mostly tamed if not outright cured... if, I suppose, you can access and afford and manage the care regimes) those bad year when AIDS was cutting a horrifying swath through a generation.

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Oct 26 2024
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4

I decided today to listen to my album in the evening - something I never do; I normally listen to this shit at 5am. But today, randomly, I chose 8:30pm. For added context, I had a dose of my medicinal cannabis about 20 minutes ago. The medicinal cannabis has now alleviated both my back pain and most other bodily sensation, then dialled my imagination up to 11. And also today, randomly, my album is this psychedelic little number - which I am currently listening to on my noise-cancelling, sit-right-near-to-my-eardrum headphones in the dark. Russell and his producer understood the assignment. Sonically, it floats around inside your head - the panning of instruments, along with the ECHO (he said the thing!), really makes it feel like your skull cavity is a giant acoustic space, just ready to be filled with odd sounds, plings and plongs, something that could be a bass guitar played with a violin bow, sporadic wacked-out singing (it might be words, it might not, I dunno) and lots of really pointedly-empty noise. It's ridiculous and it's only borderline "actual music", but it's happy, silly and as trippy as it fucking gets. Definitely the most undeserved 4/5 I've handed out here.

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Oct 24 2024
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4

Chill, occasionally odd, moods. Very sparse. Was good for carving a pumpkin to!

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Oct 25 2024
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4

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Tone bone kone, Soon-to-be innocent fun/Let’s see, Treehouse

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Oct 25 2024
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3

It's interesting, but ultimately just not my thing. 3 stars.

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Oct 26 2024
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3

Very artsy, but kind of enjoyed (?) it.

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Oct 26 2024
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3

It does have a bit of anti flow about it, but is stylish enough. Not background music, that's for sure.

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Oct 29 2024
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3

I enjoyed this. Really creative stuff and, apparently, Arthur Russell was quite ahead of his time. This has a certain fragmented and unfinished quality, and it's really longer than it needs to be, but it somehow still works. Thanks for recommending this. Fave Songs: Being It, See-Through, Tree House, Tone Bone Kone, Place I Know / Kid Like You, Lucky Cloud

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Oct 30 2024
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3

Didn't really get anything special out of this. Not looking for anything unique, but it should have something that captures the attention or moves the soul or calms the spirit.

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Oct 24 2024
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2

What a frustrating listen – could’ve been a great amalgamation of experimental, industrial textures if it actually had any melodic content. Instead, the LP feels nearly threadbare and more a collection of assorted sounds than any real statements. There are bits and pieces of chords scattered about, and with some real melodic meat on its bones this could’ve been a pretty wild fusion of some different timbres. Instead, this just drags on forever without much reward for 70 minutes of your time.

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Oct 24 2024
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2

...or: How to make 1hr09 seem like 3 hours.

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Oct 26 2024
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2

I want to like this more, but the vocals ruin it for me.

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Oct 26 2024
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1

It sounds like music designed for an astral "tripper." It made me feel lazy and melancholic, which are not very welcome emotions for music. Sorry, but it won't be for me.

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Nov 02 2024
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1

Dub, ambient pop, electro-acoustic, experimental, art pop, outsider music. Tostonazo absurdo. Un 1.

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Nov 09 2024
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1

World Of Echo? More like World Of Boring 80s Ambient Electonica. Rating: 1.5 Playlist track: See-Through Date listened: 21/11/24

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Nov 14 2024
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1

No - mumble, murmur, bounce a bow on a string. I’m struggling to work out why you’ve chosen this, unless the submitter is in fact Arthur Russell!

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