Spaces are the places

by JACK OATMON

Chicago was the place from which, in the mid-’30s, space aliens allegedly transported young pianist Herman Poole Blount to the planet Saturn and revealed to him that he was in fact one of their kin. They also appointed him the supreme Saturnine skronk delegate to planet Earth, and as such he was to bring the jazzy, funky sounds of outer space to humans. And that is exactly what he did for the following five and a half decades under his new identity, Sun Ra, backed by his ever-evolving Arkestra of experimental jazz musicians. He then died of pneumonia in 1993 after recording over 100 albums, leaving his Arkestra behind to continue bringing extraterrestrial sounds to earthlings.

It was in that year, 1993, that another transformation took place in Chicago. Presumable fabric enthusiast and house producer Curtis Alan Jones, aka Cajmere, entered the recording studio and emerged as the multicoloured-hair-sporting Green Velvet, a musical persona through which he frequently addresses the issues of alien abduction, UFOs and outer space via a flippant, flamboyant and frequently aggressive mixture of house, techno, underground industrial sounds and a detectable glaze of punk.

Now, this Friday, June 13, thanks to a mysterious cosmic event known as “festival season,” you will have the chance to hear the concoctions of both these shape-shifting, otherworldly groove merchants in one day, as the earthly remnants of Sun Ra’s Arkestra appear, free of charge, outdoors at Parc des Amériques in the afternoon for the Fringe festival, and Green Velvet plays Stereo later that night. The Arkestra will reappear on Saturday night in affiliation with l’OFF Festival de Jazz and Suoni per il Popolo at Sala Rossa. So get out there and let them beam you back to the mother ship.

Alas, they’re not the only noteworthy travellers to our humble island this week. On Saturday night, another thrashing, buzzing new classic of cross-pollinated house, techno and rock will appear at the SAT. France’s Ivan Smagghe’s honestly garnered reputation places him among the best new-school electro DJs and as a key purveyor of what has come to be called electrohouse. Not to be confused, however, with the bloghouse laptop poseur set, Smagghe, formerly of rock/electronic crossover band Black Strobe, has both a Fabric disc to his credit (#23) and a founding residency at lauded Parisian club night Kill the DJ.

Furthermore, DFA’s latest darling in their ongoing string of virtuosic disco producers, Hercules and Love Affair, will be out in the sunshine at Piknic Électronik on Sunday. Any of you lucky enough to have been at Zoobizarre for Hercules mastermind Andrew Butler’s December Loose Joints appearance undoubtedly remember how he relentlessly funked every booty in sight with the hyperdiscolicious sounds of New York and more than a few Chicago acid house bangers. For the uninitiated, his critically worshipped debut album is a delicately produced dancefloor gem featuring unforgettable vocal performances by Antony Hegarty as well as a touching foray into the mentality of a young American struggling with identity and the adversity faced by gay men. That’s easily one of the most exciting prospects for this summer’s Piknic programming.

So get busy this weekend, and if you see any little green men out there on the dancefloor, just tell them I sent you, and that you’re looking for the Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop.

BRING KOSA BACK! jack.oatmon@gmail.com