If you're drawing blanks in the Halloween costume department, there's a wealth of inspiration in the kooky, crypto-Egyptian get-ups that cosmic jazzbo Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Solar Arkestra once wore.

There's more to the late Sun Ra than goofy gear though, and there's more to the Sun Ra film Space Is the Place than just concert footage. The obscure, low-budget 1974 flick, the soundtrack to which is possibly Sun Ra's most recognized album, hasn't been seen since its initial, very limited release. The DVD from Plexifilm fixes that, and tosses in some crazy extras, including home movies of Ra and the gang playing at the Egyptian pyramids. It's also got liner notes by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Sun Ra biographer John Szwed.

The film mashes up black power and blaxploitation, B-movie sci-fi and psychedelic nonsense, Ra's astral ramblings and of course the Arkestra in full flight. In short, the sublime and the ridiculous in a funky pas à deux. One of the weirdest figures in any musical genre, Sun Ra deserves to be seen as much as heard, and Space Is the Place is the place for that. » Rupert Bottenberg