RP Boo & Armand Hammer – “Blood Running High”
Later this week, Red Hot will release the new Sun Ra tribute compilation Outer Spaceways Incorporated – Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra. It features a number of experimental music greats, spearheaded by Kronos Quartet, paying tribute to the late astral jazz pioneer. We’ve already posted covers that Kronos Quartet did with Laraaji, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Jacob Garchik, and the album also features luminaries like Laurie Anderson and Jlin. Today, we get to hear what RP Boo and Armand Hammer do with some Sun Ra samples.
The new track “Blood Running High” is the first collaboration from RP Boo, the Chicago footwork pioneer, and Armand Hammer, the team of New York abstract rap greats billy woods and Elucid. It’s a scorched, damaged track that seems to lurch in 15 directions at once, and somehow its trips into relatively traditional jazz are its most disorienting moments. Listen below.
The Red Hot people have also shared “Kiss Yo’ Ass Goodbye,” a 10-minute track that the Kronos Quartet made with minimalist giant Terry Riley and Japanese improviser Sara Miyamoto. It’s a far-out take on “Nuclear War,” the spaced-out 1984 Sun Ra classic that was already plenty far-out on its own. Listen below.
Outer Spaceways Incorporated – Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra is out 6/21 on Red Hot.