Russell Haswell appreciation thread

The Lounge General Discussion
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Can’t believe this guy doesn’t have a thread dedicated to him.

So here’s a thread dedicated to him.

Russell is the shit.

I’ve been a massive fan since I first became aware of him via MiniDisc by Gescom. That album totally blew my mind. Completely changed the way I looked at how music could be put together and arranged. I still think it’s one of the best albums ever released and I’d say it’s probably the biggest influence over my own music.

The first time I saw him live was supporting AFX in London like 2001 or something. He played after AFX and all the hipsters fucked off pretty sharpish. You could still shock people with noise music a bit back then, so it was fun. My girlfriend at the time fucking hated it, but it was right up my street. Was the same sort of stuff as on his first Live Salvage album, but nastier if I remember rightly.

Live Salvage was the soundtrack to the last couple of years of university for me. Barely a day went by when I didn’t listen to at least something off of it.

But it’s probably his collaborative work that’ll earn him the biggest respect.

He’s worked with so many people, but I fucking love his work with Yasunao Tone. They’re like two halves of the same person, it just works so well.

And his work with Merzbow, obvs…

It isn’t all horrible noises though, his gentler, more musical side is just as powerful, like this absolute banger feat. the legendary Sue Tompkins (if you haven’t heard of her then go fuck yourself, she’s the greatest).

And his drum programming is about the best there is.

He really has to be experienced live though, on a decent system. He’s fucking hilarious too. Worth it just to enjoy him announcing his tracks. He’s one of about 5 people I’ve ever seen make something good with Eurorack.

He doesn’t give many interviews, but here’s an interesting one from years ago.

New EP on Kasm is excellent.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m8UevLKJ0d6Pkl1LHguULKk_qp-bOP3k4&si=vEDxVqmIM6cW6JNe

I’ll stop now.

Fucking stalking the bloke mate.

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Did he do that? Nice; I have a copy but never realised.

I have, though it was at Café OTO with Gravetemple so the PA wasn’t exactly huge. Good gig though; hard to photograph in the dark.

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His recording are ace, but his visceral live assaults is where it’s at.

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YES.

Some non capitals

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Can’t believe there isn’t a Merzbow appreciation thread…:smiling_face_with_tear:

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Hold my beer…

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A provocative artist who people tend to have strong opinions on either way. I never really got too far into his early noise stuff that deeply but I think I tuned in a bit more on the Hecker collabs and then again further when he started releasing the slightly more welcoming material on Diagonal Records, y’know with like recognisable rhythms and actual basslines n stuff.

I always had a soft spot for ‘Wild Tracks’ on Editions Mego which is a bunch of field recordings of distant gunshots and very intense swarms of insects. Kind of sums up his aesthetic, edgelordy with tongue slightly in cheek… A little bit Whitehouse-y. Saw him live ~10 years ago supporting Autechre and he was just feeding back a mixer for half an hour by the sound of it, but it definitely sounded like he had some considerable skill and intentionality while doing it.

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Yeah, pretty much sums up his craft.

Hence his membership of the current iteration of Consumer Electronics, I guess…

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His early stuff was a bit too new wave for me, but when he released Sports in '84 he really came into his own, commercially and artistically.

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:joy::joy::joy:

Brilliant

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my fav bit

saw him live with Merzbow in 2003, together with Whitehouse and AFX in Berlin

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luckily someone recorded that action 100

its funny to see me butterface in the crowd from over 20 years ago

the air smelled electric back then, Russel is also in there somewhere, standing in the crowd like a fan

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I can’t believe there is no Whitehouse appreciation thread…

Back to Russel, his live modular stuff is in the tiny fraction of eurorack performances I can get behind

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My first experience of Russell was him supporting Autechre at Brixton Fridge in the early 2000s.

Always liked his stuff especially this release with Regis on Pan records.

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She ain’t even the greatest Tompkins sister pal, so you go fuck yourself!

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I that all him?

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No, was him, Rob and Sean, as far as the credits suggest.

Gescom tho innit, so sort of murky.

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Yeah, figured :slight_smile:
But thank you for reminding me of it! It influenced my DT jam, I think, haha.

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I love that recording, great energy to it.

Saw them in London about that time at Russell’s ATP night. Fucking brilliant.

It’d just end up full of the usual people accusing them of being secret Nazis/paedos.

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Yeah, probably for the best. A friend worked / played with Wm Bennett at various points and said he was a perfectly nice chap.

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