Search - Sun Ra :: Space Is the Place

Philip S. from NORWICH, VT
Reviewed on 9/23/2006...

Sun Ra and His Astro Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra. Recorded October 19 and 20, 1972.

Not a Spinoff, Not the Soundtrack

d | 09/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a CD release of the album "Space is the Place," originally on Blue Thumb. It is neither the soundtrack to the film of the same name, nor a spinoff. It predates the film by a couple of years. It is an essential Sun Ra release from the 1970s."

Sun Ra in glorious orbit!

Laszlo Matyas | 11/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Space Is The Place opens with its title track, a twenty-minute freeform freak-jazz-psychedelic-soul-funk meltdown, a thundering acid-bop meltdown full of squirming melodies, dramatically repurposed instruments, head-splittingly chaotic vocals, solos that seem to spin off in multiple directions at once, and layers of percussion that'll make you dance and have a seizure at the same time. It sounds primitive and futuristic and progressive and playful and high-minded and juvenile and logical and psychotic all at once, and it's a masterpiece. And that's just the first song on the album.



Flip the record over, and you've got four more gems. "Images" is the sound of post-bop teetering on the edge of free jazz. Led by Sun Ra's oceanic piano, the song swerves from a gorgeous theme into regions of near atonality before spiraling back into beauty again, with the kind of high-minded grace reserved for geniuses. "Discipline" is a rolling, apocalyptic drone, and "Sea Of Sounds" is sheer scorched earth freeform noise. "Rocket Number Nine" is willfully cheesy, utterly irresistible space-age jazz pop.



Classic freak jazz. Get it."