when visiting Chicago there is a lot of good record shopping to be done. too much sometimes. i tend to stick to the obvious ones Permanent & Reckless with an occasional visit to Laurie's Planet of Sound among others. however on my last tour the dudes and i decided to stop by Dusty Groove where we found this exceptionally rare Sun Ra LP "Oblique Parallax."
it wasn't cheap but what an incredible LP. full of some of the most amazing & otherwordly synth/keyboard explorations. the LP was released in 1982 and features recordings from either '81 or '80 when the Arkestra was in residency in Detroit. what's most striking about this LP is that it is primarily solo synth/keyboard work completely different from his late 70's solo piano LP's. Sun Ra really wrestles some incredible sounds outta his keyboards that wouldn't be out of place on an LP by modern day synth travelers like John Elliot, Temporal Marauder, Rene Hell, Raglani, Keith Fullerton Whitman, hell even some of the less noisy Kevin Drumm stuff. Side A is mostly solo RA with some help from French Horn (by Vincent Chancey) and some percussion (by Eric "Samarai" Walker) on a couple tracks. Side B is one long track, "Journey Stars Beyond" that is the real treat of this LP. the majority again is mostly solo Ra exploring the cosmos on synth/keyboards but is joined for a small section in the middle by the entire Arkestra for some mindblowing free jazz stew (kinda similar to some of the Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra stuff). from there it fades and closes out again with Sun Ra.
can't recommend this highly enough even for those who are quite familiar with Sun Ra. if you are lucky enough to locate an LP copy I would recommend it if you are willing to shell out some dollars. otherwise enjoy this beast right here. i believe Art Yard just did a CD reissue of this beauty too.
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