‘No plan, no budget, no promotion’: how a genre-mashing masterpiece by a forgotten New York beatnik blew gen Z away
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- Steven Hall, a 69-year-old Scottish musician driving Uber near Chicago, released the double LP "My Skyscraper" under the name Nirosta Steel, compiling material recorded between 1984 and 2025 across disco, folk, synth-pop, Chinese opera, and ecclesiastical a cappella.
- Pitchfork called "My Skyscraper" "an archival triumph and one of the year's most thrilling new releases," and the label went from a potential $2,000 debt two weeks ago to 1,000 orders, with plans to press 2,000 copies.
- Arthur Russell collaborated with Hall on songs including the disco track "Go for the Night" for Loose Joints with DJ Steve D'Acquisto, and the album features a 22-minute diptych of two of only three recordings of Russell playing drums — improvised one-takes Hall transferred from two-track tapes last year.
- Arthur's Landing, a tribute band assembled by their circle after Russell's 1992 AIDS death, produced "Go for the Night" for the album, and Hall is preparing to perform at the former Pyramid Club (now Nightclub 101) for the first time since playing there with Russell.
- Hall grew up in Glasgow's Milngavie suburb, attended Naropa University under Ginsberg and William S Burroughs, and later spent years in East Asia working with experimental theatre company Zuni Icosahedron in Hong Kong and recording location sound in Taiwan.
Why it matters: The 69-year-old Hall went from driving Uber for supplemental income to Pitchfork's "thrilling new releases" list within weeks, with no promotion budget — and two of only three surviving recordings of Russell playing drums now reach a wider audience, materially expanding the documented legacy of an experimental icon who died in 1992.
