Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell
The new project from the head of XL Recordings features collaborations with Sampha, Kamasi Washington, and Ghostface Killah’s son.
Richard Russell and pals play with the theme of past and present, cutting and pasting to create a collage of something completely new.
Another Russell-driven XL project, Everything Is Recorded debuted in 2017 with three 12" releases that led to this largely downcast yet comforting album. Despite what the project's name implies and Russell's busload of rappers, singers, and fellow players -- a head count that greatly exceeds the 13 names listed beneath the track list -- Everything Is Recorded is the opposite of an unfocused mess. Triumphal XL rapper Giggs does sound mismatched with sampled dark prince of reggae Keith Hudson, and Wiki's string of non sequiturs disrupts one of Sampha's turns. Otherwise, the set comes across as remarkably crafted and measured, from its predominantly slow tempos and recurring elements to the coalescence of shrewdly applied samples and participants who also include pianist Peter Gabriel and saxophonist Kamasi Washington. Amid the rotation of over a dozen vocalists, Sampha and the equally vulnerable-sounding Infinite (son of Ghostface Killah) gradually emerge as the central figures, aching for companionship and expressing sorrow about betrayal and misunderstanding. Most apt is a moving Ibeyi-fronted cover of "Cane," written by Gil Scott-Heron -- to whom the album is dedicated -- and based on two of the women in Harlem Renaissance author Jean Toomer's novel of the same title.
As this debut album's title plainly spells out, Everything is Recorded is the new project from XL Recordings' founder Richard Russell. Its c...
It's fair to say that Richard Russell has paid his dues. By this point, the record producer and co-founder of XL Recordings, has spent 20 years out of the studio whilst his label landed some of the biggest starts in music—including Adele, Radiohead, and
Thirty seconds from the close of ‘She Said’, Kamasi Washington’s saxophone erupts out of hiccupping rhythms, as if compelled into action
As head of XL, Richard Russell shaped UK music for three decades. His own debut release finds its voice in many singers
Everything Is Recorded shows how creative a producer can be as a writer in our review of 'Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell'