Review Summary: Sun Ra's not quite as WTF as usual, making this album a bit more cohesive than you'd expect from this weirdo jazz keyboardist.
Sun Ra is one seriously blazed up dude. Have you heard his music? Sun Ra’s main interesting point throughout his career is that, the whole time, he thought he was abducted by aliens. Bizarre, believe you me. What’s stranger, is the fact that his most famous album, produced in the 70s under the name
Space Is The Place, is a record that revolves around his obtuse, stoned out of his mind thoughts, and has Sun Ra trying to relate to listeners through hypnotic jazz revolving around spacey effects. It’s horrible, but it’s beautiful, truly wonderful and a highlight in his career. This was in the 1972, when jazz wasn’t supposed to be existing other than the already fading Jam jazz of Miles Davis. Just six years later, Sun Ra, still embracing his craziness, releases a much more sane-appearing record that illuminates his same ideals in much different ways.
Lanquidity. Although much less Sun Ra than it is just a regular jazz record, still soaks the listeners brains in.
You see, Sun Ra isn’t really the highlight of this record. Although his keys sort of undertone everything going on in the record, and the repetitive nature of the drums causes some of the music to overlap itself, creating a hypnotic, revolving effect in the music that puts the listener in a sense of lull. Swaying compositions like oddly calm “That’s How I Feel” and the Arabic motions of “Lanquidity” groove to a point while disjointed horns squeal in a way that would make Electric Miles jealous. It’s more of a sum of it’s parts really. The culmination of regular jazz elements to create an off-beat, cruising piece, to where it isn’t quite
Space Is The Place Sun Ra, but it is obscure enough to work. At least it is until the harrowing space paranoia of “There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of”, sort of halting the almost-too-peaceful feeling of the rest of
Lanquidity. Whispering vocals seethe into whining flutes and loopy keys. It’s truly a trippy experience, and to truly enjoy Sun Ra as much as they can, one must be under the influence. Thank god this album doesn’t QUITE require that much of a listener.
