Sun Ra - Crystal Spears (2019)

Spiritual jazz enthusiasts have long talked in hushed tones about Sun Ra's mythical, long-lost masterpiece "Crystal Spears". It was recorded in 1973 and rejected by record label executives two years later. While the man himself planned to issue it on Saturn Records, for one reason or another it never came out. Happily, Modern Harmonic has finally managed it issue it, mastering the album from Sun Ra's original session tapes. It's an out-there set - an effect heightened by the bizarre stereo mixing - with the assembled Arkestra contributing waves of experimental Minimoog lines, discordant saxophone and trumpet solos, loose and layered percussion, strangely-swung organ stabs and rolling marimba motifs. For all its freeform insanity, it's also really rather good, delivering many inspired musical moments amongst Sun Ra's spiritual cacophony.