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Album reviews Music

SUN RA

Rating: NNNN


Released as an ultra-limited 12-inch single in the wake of the Three Mile Island meltdown, Nuclear War is commonly referred to as the Space Is The Place of the 1980s. Ra and cosmic crooner June Tyson riff free and funky on the downsides of nuclear war (“It’s a motherfucker”) while the Arkestra lurch through an apocalyptic groove. It’s a rare bit of space funk worth the price alone, but this overdue reissue by John Corbett’s Unheard Music project also includes cuts not heard on the original single. Songs like Celestial Love, Retrospect and a swing through Ellington’s Drop Me Off In Harlem fall halfway between Ra’s interstellar jazz of the 70s and his quaint Disney covers of the mid 80s, with the Arkestra simmering and putting more emphasis on Ra’s arrangements than on raw noise. It’s not the most explosive recording Sun Ra ever did, but it is one of the most essential.

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