UFO bonus beats!

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Sun Ra - Mike Huckaby Bonus Beats!
Mike Huckaby - Sun Ra Reel To Reel Session - Live at Amoeba Records, LA - July 13, 2017
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Sun Ra - "The Lady With The Golden Stockings" (Mike Huckaby edit)

A  quick post: A few days ago I shared a couple 12"s of Sun Ra edits by Mike Huckaby. If you were feeling those all, here are a couple bonuses to keep that vibe going. I love this stuff. 

The excellent UK label Strut Records has been releasing Sun Ra compilations and albums over the last ten years or so, sometimes partnered with Art Yard (who, along with the Kindred Spirits label, issued those Huckaby edit 12s back in 2011). I seems like they had been planning at some point to promote one of those compilations by reviving this idea and releasing some more "Mike Huckaby reel-to-reel edits." As far as I know, the only other track that ever made it's way into the world for us all to hear was this edit of The Lady With The Golden Stockings that the label posted to Soundcloud back in 2014. (The page includes a quote in the write up credited to Marshall Allen, but it seems like it's clearly from Mike Huckaby talking about his love for creating these versions of Sun Ra's classics.) With Huckaby's passing during the pandemic, I doubt that more of these will surface anytime soon... but I sure hope that I'm wrong and if anyone knows of more floating around out there, please point me in the right direction!

I also ran into an hour long recording of Huckaby spinning Sun Ra records (and his own reworks) back in 2017. The DJ set was taped at Amoeba Records in LA and his friend who arranged the gig posted this to share as a tribute after Huckaby's death in 2020. It's a great mix, drawing out the funkier elements of Sun Ra's music and making me appreciate the grooves and even breakbeats buried there more than ever. 

Neither is available losslessly that I've seen, so no FLAC files this time around. I was able to pull MP3 versions that you can download or stream below (or listen through the Soundcloud links above). In the live set, Huckaby's levels are all over the place- there's a point just after the 12 minute mark where he cranks the levels and the volume must jump about 20 decibels, so try not to blow out your ears. I was tempted to go in and do some edits to balance out those levels, match the channels a little, etc. but wound up deciding against it. Maybe I should have fixed that dramatic jump, but the more I played it the more I enjoyed feeling like I was catching the kind of DJ set in the back of a record shop that I couldn't get enough of when I was younger -crappy gear, messed up sound, skipping records and all. It's easy for me to imaging some kid having his musical horizons expanded and tastes challenged while nodding along and watch Huckaby play these tracks the way I would have done a decade or two earlier. And now that I sound like a pathetic, nostalgic old man... I hope you enjoy. 


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Space is the place to hear bonus beats HERE (stream or download).

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