…While Madonna and Soft Cell nostalgize Danceteria as a lost Eden — a place where you could bump shoulders with David Byrne, Debi Mazar, and Jean-Michel Basquiat on any given night — Nirosta Steel’s essential MY SKYSCRAPER is a messier and richer document of that same cultural moment. The album offers a panoramic view of the longing, the ecstasy, and the restlessness at the heart of New York City’s artistic heyday. But there’s no nostalgia to smooth away its rough edges: MY SKYSCRAPER is a lost artifact that somehow arrives exactly when it’s needed.
Nirosta Steel is the alias of Steven Hall, a Scottish-born musician who became a close friend and collaborator of experimental music auteur Arthur Russell after moving to New York.