Ras G - El-Alylien Part 1 (2010)

Gregory Shorter Jr has been releasing his own take on cosmic, instrumental Hip Hop under the moniker Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program since 2008 but has been heavily involved with the Los Angeles music scene since the early 1990's.

El-Alylien Part 1 is a six track EP of abstract dub-hop head pressure and spaced out astral bump of the very highest order. With this set, it soon becomes obvious that Ras is at his most way out and downright esoteric. The first four tracks are a bong-eyed blend of rich field recordings and crackly samples knitted together into a bed of psychoactively charged sub bass. There’s almost no telling where each track starts and stops lending an intuitive and expressionist collage feel to the whole EP. The final track - Discipline09-2 GB Remix brings up the rear with a completely spherical re-rub of the second track, sounding for all the world like Delia Derbyshire sharing a blunt with J Dilla.

It’s fitting that a few tracks on the EP contain dialogue lifted from an interview with the late, great Sun Ra, as one can draw several parallels between Ras G’s own cosmic philosophy and out-there musical stylings to that of the legendary avant-garde Jazz pioneer.


Anyone enjoying recent posts on Cupp Cave and DJ Yo-Yo Dieting should most definitely investigate this one further.

Play 'Discipline 09-2 (GB Remix)' by Ras G