Overview
The second project in this exciting new series, Red Hot & Ra – Nuclear War LP – The Remixes is available now! We are so excited to continue the Red Hot & Ra – Nuclear War LP series with a collection of eclectic reinterpretations and electric remixes of Sun Ra’s track ‘Nuclear War’.
Remixers include dub and post-punk legend Dennis Bovell, who douses the incendiary recording by Malcolm Jiyane Tree-o in space and echo. Bovell, who produced debut albums by The Slits & The Pop Group in 1979 , was the in house producer at Y Records, the UK label that originally released Sun Ra’s Nuclear War EP in 1981.
Angel Bat Dawid’s track from Red Hot & Ra is completely reimagined by Oui Ennui, the mysterious electronic polymath from Chicago, who also collaborates with Angel Bat Dawid under the name Daoui. With this mix, he conjures otherworldly magic with the raw materials, reshaping it into an unexpectedly melancholy electro-dance track narrated by Sun Ra himself. The original Sun Ra recording of Nuclear War is also remixed here, in very different ways.
Moon Medicin is a psychedelic r&b band featuring global art-world superstar Sanford Biggers who embraces the slower Detroit dance sounds of Theo Parrish. Joel Tarman and Kronos Quartet also remix the original, blending several styles over the course of the 4-minute track, mixing jazz drum breaks and the original vocals with the ‘Duck and Cover’ atomic bomb instructional film that was required viewing for school children in the 1950’s.
Sun Ra
Sun Ra’s music was not just a product of his time, but a precursor to future developments in jazz, fusion, and electronic music. His work was a celebration of blackness, an embrace of the cosmic, and a challenge to the limits of human imagination. Even decades after his death, his influence on music and culture remains profound.