Each step is moving, it's moving me up
moving, it's moving me up
Every step is moving me up
moving me up, moving, moving me up
Every step is
moving me up
One tiny, tiny,
tiny move
It's all I need
And I jump over
Every step is moving me up

This is how we walk on the moon.

The other day I was really hung over. It was the first Sunday of my 25th year and it would be mild to say that our little Neukoln abode was experiencing a lack of smiles. "We've got to start having some positive moments here," Rosie said to me."

We do have positive moments," I said. "Just never on Sunday."

That's a lie, by the way, we've had some positive moments on Sunday, Rosie and I, just maybe not too many in this new house, as we've only lived there a few weeks. Also, Rosie probably wouldn't say "positive moments," that's something I would say. But you get the idea... Anyway, she went into the living room and put on this song which I had never heard, but which also happened to be the most soothing sound to gracemy ears in quite some time. The never-changing key, the continuous flow of reassurance. "This sounds like Arthur Russell."

"It is Arthur Russell." I've been thinking about Arthur Russell quite a lot recently, about how his voice is the closest thing to liquid, about how cool he looks in that photo with the cello and the baseball cap, about New York 30 years ago-all the electric energy ofthousands of men running through it, flooding the streets of the West Village as though they were birthed, unannounced, from the banks ofthe Hudson River.

During the production of our last record, I spent many a day holed up in Victor's mixing studio on Christopher Street. Whenever I had a free moment I would walk to the edge of the water and take in the silence of the now-dilapidated pier. I would think to myself (as Ioften do), "Something happened here, something worth noting, and now it's over." Primarily, it would cause me to consider freedom, liberation, although that's a bit redundant as freedom is merely the byproduct of liberation.

As Arthur Russell would probably agree (judging by his later composition, "Losing My Taste for Nightlife,"), nightlife isn't everything. But it is something, it can feel like freedom, and I get the sense that, maybe, to a few marginalized populations in the late seventies and early eighties, it carried some emotional weight. Or maybe it made them feel weightless-I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like that.

Positive Times.

Love,
Ramesh

"First Thought/Only Thought (Thirty Minutes of Summer)" mix

1. Neu - Leb Wohl
2. Arthur Russell -This is How We Walk on the Moon
3. Shocking Pinks - This Aching Deal
4. Mary Lou Lord - Some Jingle Jangle Morning (When I'm Straight)
5. Marianne Faithful w/ Beck - Like Being Born
6. Arthur Russell - Wild Combination
7. Desmond and the Tutus - Kiss You (King of Town Remix)
8. Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains - Night Lights

Download from the Voxtrot Podcast

Podcast Episode 20 comes is a cover of The Talking Heads' song "Heaven" from our 2006 KEXP session.


To hear the track, click on the podcast icon below. It will open your iTunes and take you to our podcast's page. Hit SUBSCRIBE, and you'll receive all future podcasts from us automatically.

Podcast Episode 19 comes courtesy of Vincent Moon and Take-Away Shows, as Ramesh performs "Soft & Warm" solo at a piano rehearsal room that we ran into while walking around Paris.


To view the video, click on the podcast icon below. It will open your iTunes and take you to our podcast's page. Hit SUBSCRIBE, and you'll automatically receive all future podcasts from us automatically.