― djdee2005, Wednesday, 25 February 2004 19:47 (twenty years ago) link
― earlnash, Wednesday, 25 February 2004 20:31 (twenty years ago) link
the verdict is SEARCH.
especially searchable is vol. 2 (they're sold seperately). it starts out with a very mellow, quiet introduction called "friendly galaxy #2" with june tyson and some other fellows alternating on chants/calls with the band tuning up and stretching out in a trad/bluesy style. this segues into "spontaneous simplicity" which has some stunning percussion, everyone rattling away on shakers and congas while two drummers play rolls in the background, and the band sketching lovely, optimistic figures over it. it's actually very reminiscent of "prince of peace" or "summun ummun bukmun", makes you wonder if Sun Ra caught some Pharoah Sanders shows in france.
then we get versions of "world of the lightening" and "journey through the outer darkness" (as part of the "black myth" suite). "outer darkness" is the really gnarly synthesizer solo from "concert for comet kohoutek", here it's teamed up with some poetry from june tyson.
there's a sense of narrative that's implied or hinted at in ra's work. here, the excellent pacing makes the narrative definite - it's a space adventure with a beginning, a middle and an end. probably one of a few albums i have that deserve to be called "a trip".
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 18:40 (twenty years ago) link
(i'll probably pick up "cosmos" this weekend when i go to get the new roy ayers, unless anybody can recommend an alternate quiet/mellow sun ra set from the 70s)
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago) link
That 'Concert from the Black Forest' circa 1974 (?) with the 15- minute synth freakout, that's great
this is the same as the "it's after the end of the world" album i keep bringing up. and i have to admit, yeah, the synth freakout is pretty astounding (even if the rest is pretty weak and there are other all-around probs. with the reissue). i am sort of sorry i let it go, the white noise bit is keerazy.
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago) link
those really are my favorites. they've got aspects of everything he does.
will have to search for 'black forest'.
― (Jon L), Friday, 16 April 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago) link
I almost bought La Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, last week I guess, but I wanted to try some new things. I mostly like Assif Tsahar/Cooper-Moore's America, one of the things I picked up instead. Also, I'm listening a lot to Borah Bergman's Meditations for Piano, though I'm having trouble making up my mind about it. (It does make good, if brooding, background music, but I'm afraid Bergman wouldn't be thrilled with that observation.)
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:06 (twenty years ago) link
is the US version of Cosmos a 24-bit remaster? (i'm an audiophile i'm a tool)
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 16 April 2004 19:16 (twenty years ago) link
i wish they had more band pictures on sun ra albums, i think maybe you can learn things about the album before listening by looking at their costumes, a la the message in herbie's shirts
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 19:21 (twenty years ago) link
I don't agree. I don't like it as much as I initially did. (Maybe with Ra it is a bad sign when I immediately like one of his CDs?) But I'm not aware of any other Sun Ra CD with that sound, so to me it seems to justify its own existence by having a distinctive style. If anything, it might be too accessible though, for vahid.
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:34 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Friday, 16 April 2004 19:38 (twenty years ago) link
I keep waiting for someone who knows enough about Sun Ra and Miles Davis to do a comparison of their work in the 70's. In a loose way, they were doing something similar--I think. (I'm not really into Miles, so don't know that material.)
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:46 (twenty years ago) link
Yeah, did he ever! He was a big fan. Only, I can't think of an album that was entirely comprised of that stuff. But on the early records, he often threw in an exotica-styled track or two, like the title cut on Sun Song or "Paradise" on Sound of Joy. All those early 50s records are great, even though some slate them for being too trad big-band like or some nonsense like that. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Actually, you should look for the record called The Futuristic Sound of Sun Ra. I think it has been packaged under a number of titles, but that was the original title. It's on CD on Denon. I think it was a quintet date; it's got a few tracks of cocktail-derived, chill-out kind of sounds that the band of course warps slightly in its way. It doesn't have the guys cawing like tropical birds as on say a Baxter record, but the vibe is there..
Yeah, I think my problem with Cosmos was that after owning like 30 Ra records it just didn't take me someplace strange or anything. But yeah, as I said, certainly not a bad record, just not one I'd start with.
― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 16 April 2004 19:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 16 April 2004 19:58 (twenty years ago) link
Did ra use the fender rhodes often, or was it just organ, or piano, or synths/moog and so on?
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:19 (twenty years ago) link
But this has Ra's "Reflex Motion," which I don't think has appeared on any official recording before, and when I've heard it live, it's been great. (Actually, very much from the out end of things but it works for me. Great mix of dynamics, colors, and textures.)
I will probably buy this, but I might wait to by it directly from the Arkestra. I don't know why I'm being so negative, anyway. I've enjoyed the Arkestra a lot the last several times I've seen them (all after Sun Ra's departure).
I can't believe how long it's been since I've seen them. I will have to watch my local weeklies.
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 15:24 (twenty years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 13:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 16:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link
i am listening to "the realm of the lightning" from vol. 1 right now and it's very much like black dice. there's long blippy sections where the horns and synths imitate a herd of elephants battling martian invaders which give way to these banging rolling five-minute tribal drum beatdowns. both discs are sort of like that.
it's not so much like the boredoms as it is like the AEC covering EYE's "Rebore vol. 0".
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:11 (nineteen years ago) link
I can't comment on Allen's compositions. I've seen the Allen-led Arkestra once before, and they played some of his pieces, but I don't remember much about them. However, his out blowing is classic, classic, classic. Listening to Allen's playing on some of those 60s and 70s Arkestra albums you can really hear where John Zorn got a lot of his ideas from.
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:16 (nineteen years ago) link
I whole-heartedly agree with this. I love the 50s Arkestra records that I've heard. In some ways I find that era of the band even weirder than the later, more definitively "out" stuff. I think that's because the whole Fletcher Henderson-style swing band has disappeared from the culture and to hear a band playing in a style like that, but with Sun Ra's exotic flourishes and odd harmonizations peeking through the surface is a real time warp. Nowadays, the really "out" stuff has become paradoxically more normal sounding.
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:29 (nineteen years ago) link
(Uh oh the Marxist puritan who disapproves of people communicating on the internet (or something) from the department next door just walked through.)
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
Live:
Angels and Demons at PlaySpontaneous Simplicity Space Aura 'S WonderfulIt Ain't Necessarily So How High the MoonChina Gate
Studio:
Majestic 1Ankhnaton Posession Tapestry From an Asteroid Majestic 2Majestic 3Majestic 4VelvetA Call for All DemonsInterstellar Lo-Ways
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 17 June 2004 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― People love Gravity and Ebullition! (ex machina), Thursday, 24 June 2004 15:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 24 June 2004 22:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 24 June 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 24 June 2004 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 24 June 2004 23:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 22:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Saturday, 17 July 2004 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link
Since "El Viaje" is going to be on at 9:00.
(I could go hear Charles Ellerbee tonight at the Tritone, but I'm too tired and that place gets very smokey.)
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Saturday, 17 July 2004 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Monday, 6 September 2004 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link
I listened to We Travel the Spaceways/Bad & Beautiful on the way to work.
Anyone wanna do a POX sonny tunes?
― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 02:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 02:47 (nineteen years ago) link