Sun Ra saturn re-issues

Josch753: Alton Abraham did not do all the reissues, just some of them and maybe most of them. I am not sure which. They kept the liner notes the same as the originals down to the letter, so it does not say on the jacket. He certainly had the access to the master tapes. Albums like "Strange Strings" were transfered from master discs, and you can hear surface noise on it. Maybe they were metal, maybe not. The early saturns were on tape for sure though, as you can hear the hiss. I am glad they left it.

I think that the saturns are a mixed bag, but personally I love them all. I have lived with them so long that even the 'flaws' have beauty. They are a rare and wonderful thing.

Josch753: you probably know this, but there is a CD release called "The Lost Albums (lost tapes?)" in this series. It has 2 of those stolen albums from the 70's. They are phenomenal and sound fantastic. One is called "Cymbals" and it is pure space blues with some rockin Ra organ. My favorite in that space blues genre: "Night of the purple moon".

thank you, interesting!

as for the CDs: I don´t have a CD player. I mean, I have one in my computer (with the RME Hammerfall A/D), but no real CDplayer in my audio system. I don´t buy CDs. they simply don´t do it for me. I love vinyl.
in general I don´t listen to CDs as well as CD-Rs or mp3s, I´m really an oldschool vinyl lover.

listening to Sun Ra albums that I don´t have would be too bad, because I would hate not having them on LP, hahaha. so I don´t listen to such at all.

my general taste and "knowledge" about music is enough for me sometimes, or most of the times, to judge upfront (and then buy on LP) if I like something or not, when I read about the musicians, the date of recording or the label. so I often (most of the times) order without having heard the recordings before. every now and then I don´t hit my own taste (f.e. I have bought the Descendants Of Mike & Phoebe on Strata east for much money but hated it because of the "opera"-style vocals:) but most of the time I´m ok. I have to admit I do use the internet for MP3 previews, just those 30 sec. samples that you can listen to legally.

hey, so you own a lot of Saturns? I have a question, because I´m at the moment not sure if I have a bootleg or not. maybe you can help me with identifying it.
can you send me an email? ttabigorATgmxDOTat is my adress. would be great to talk about a few Saturnian matters then!

Yes Josch753, I have many many original saturns from the earliest to the lastest. I also have a really complete discography and record of recording dates not pressed compiled from Ra's own people, and I have a few discographies that just cover the records.

In terms of the saturns, what you have to be careful about is mislabeling. It was common. The later ones with the plain white covers were especially vulnerable to this. The only way to know for sure is to listen and comapre with the record label, which might be incorrect. When it comes down to it is is knowledge of Ra's material.

If you can send me a file somehow of what you need identified I can try. If not, I know several people more knowledgeable than myself you can pass it on to.

The white cover LP's look like bootlegs, but are actually saturns. Check the label first.

on another forum there was the comment that maybe some so-called-"sellers" will start trying to sell them as original ones but so far I thought the difference is too big, alone from the cover print.

but such cockroaches already started crawling out of their holes...

there´s 2 guys on Gemm selling the reissues for f.e. 126$, 149$, 169$ (f.e. for the recent Fate In A...), 181$ (for the recent Interstellar Low Ways REISSUE!!!).
now - taking the price into consideration and that they don´t state "reissue" anywhere, but even write "El Saturn" or "Saturn" (instead of Saturn Research) and also "used", you could think it´s the original. "used Saturn 181$" do you think that´s the recent 12$ reissue?
in fact they play the game consciously to rip people off.
I asked per email and they all confirmed without shame it´s reissues.
and when you see what they chrage for original pressings you know they´re out of their mind and just wait for the next idiot to pass their way: 385$ for the Base version of Nothing Is..., 567$ for Nuits De La...1 and so on. total rip-off.

or on cdandlp.com, there´s a seller called Rockhouse who also tries to sell the reissues for: Lanquidity 99Euro, Other Planes... and all other recent reissues for 56Euro (not like the Gemm people but still, that´s quiet some money if you think in $).

I don´t know what´s up with these people, but it makes me really angry. in the end, we´re talking about music, art, and a minimum of ethic maybe in this "business" where we all love weird music, don´t we? ok, if the old Saturns are sold for much money then why not, but there´s a limit where it becomes obscene I think, not so speak of the reissue rip-offs.