SUN RA & HIS SOLAR-MYTH ARKESTRA 'The Solar Myth Approach - Vol.2'

SUN RA & HIS SOLAR-MYTH ARKESTRA

"The Solar Myth Approach-Volume 2"

1970, Actuel Records


One of the more recent additions to my nearly 75-LP strong Sun Ra collection, this release finds the Saturnian legend in full-on beserker mode in 1970. The keyboard/horn freakout in the opener "The Utter Nots" is unchained from the get-go and only further melts down into a glorious caterwaul of pure sound as it slithers along for 11 minutes, leaving no doubt as to where Mr.Ra was really born -- outer space, dude! The unearthly sounds extracted from his rickety Hohner and RMI keyboards veer between alarming mangy-cat-strangling-inside-of-an-amplified-can tones and mellifluous heavily-reverbed chord clusters that presaged dub-reggae production techniques by 5 years. Sun Ra is one of the very few electric keyboardists who you can hear lay down one chord and tell exactly who it is without doubt. The great long-time Arkestra vocalist June Tyson sings the wonderful "Strange Worlds" with a palpable joy borne of either slavish technique or preternatural abandon while Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Pat Patrick , Danny Davis, Danny Thompson -- all stunning musicians who could have made a ton of money as session players but stayed solely with the Arkestra for 30 years or more -- provide the seriously off-kilter yet perfectly organic horn/reed charts that are their private trademark... This stuff is just completely what music should be all about. Way fun, slightly nutty and truly awe-inspiring!