Monday 16 March 2009

Seeing infinity

I'm not a Sasha Frere-Jones fan (due to tripe like his "Paler Shade of White" nonsense), but this really resonated:

Russell’s recording sessions were a departure from the average hit-making process: they were closer in principle to jazz than to pop or dance. Musicians received brief instructions, rehearsed equally briefly, and then played for as long as felt right. Tapes from these sessions were then edited and recombined to make multiple records, a practice common to Jamaican pop forms like dub reggae. Russell often mixed songs more than ten times, highlighting different instruments each time, seeing infinity in an inch of tape.

(re: Arthur Russell)