IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 3 lines every now and then i see idm'ey artists mention sun ra as an influence.

> every now and then i see idm'ey artists mention sun ra as an influence. > which of his albums are best? what about his latest cd 'spaceways'? please > reply off-list if you think the idm contest of this q is low :)

it's very hard to go wrong with sun ra especially if you buy the saturn reissues on evidence (which are very easy to find). i would suggest you check out 'sountrack to space is the place' (not to be confused with simply 'space is the place' on impulse). the impulse & esp disk releases, or the early albums on delmark, are also generally to be trusted. perhaps the only albums to avoid are those with sun ra not listed as a leader. a quick classics list (listmembers feel free to add to it): ~ magic city ~ atlantis ~ demons & angels at play ~ monorails & satelites (sun ra solo ~ very recommended) one thing to keep in mind when digging through sun ra material is that there's a LOT of stuff out there bearing his name, & some songs are dupes (although it usually means that they're 2 different takes). the earlier stuff (55-60) is a bit more swingy although i tend to like it better than any other jazz from that period. starting from the 60s sun ra's music became more & more abstract & even up to his death he has never suffered the 'selling out' phase so many luminaries go through. why is sun ra relevant to idm? well, for one, he brought jazz to a level completely unheard of before. not just by extending the tonal possibilities proper (this was the work of cecil taylor, ornette coleman, john coltrane & other free jazz inventors) but also through the impressive amount of _sound research_ achieved by sun ra & his arkestra. listening to even the most far out sun ra albums ('other planes of there' or 'cosmic tones for mental therapy' for example) is to me akin to hearing excellent abstract ambience: the narrative is varied & playful but the story told is often grave, litterally encompassing cosmic proportions! this attention to 'sound for the sake of sound' & abstract narrative can be found, in a form or another, in the most forward-thinking researchers of idm today. of course, another reason why sun ra, & the arkestra as a band, are so important in the history of music is because they're such great musicians. sun ra did something that was almost suicidal at the time: that is, making abstract music out of a big band setting. nowadays, we can replicate the big band in our laptop so it doesn't seem like an outstanding achievement, but historically, it is. :) anyway, that's a lot of blabbering & there's probably a few historical mistakes in there, but that's the jist of it. feel free to ask if you have anymore questions. ~ david np: the solenoid/metatron split. just finished. good stuff! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

quoted 1 line why is sun ra relevant to idm?

>why is sun ra relevant to idm?

In a way, I can't imagine anything more antithetical to idm's repetition, minimalism, and general coolness than Sun Ra and his Arkestra's exuberant, sprawling jazz cacaphony and campy eclecticism. And if a typical IDM show is a couple guys adjusting their power books, well, it's just not the same as a stage full of guys dressed up in crypto-egyptian space suits maniacally playing instruments straight out of Dr. Seuss. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org