Back On the Planet

Ras G’s Back on the Planet is a fractured, heady brew of chaotic psychedelia that deliberately pushes the boundaries of sample-based music. Ras G’s beats don’t merely play with conventions of rhythm and melody; they often discard them entirely. Distorted blasts of noise like “Asteroid Storm” and “CosMc Lounge Kisses” bear more resemblance to the freaked-out late-period works of free-jazz luminaries like Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra than anything in the hip-hop realm. Indeed, cosmic forefathers like Coleman, Ra, Afrika Bambaataa, and Eddie Gale are near-constant reference points for Ras G, who appears on Back on the Planet’s cover in full space-pharaoh regalia, clutching an ankh and gazing to the stars in a loving (but unsubtle) tribute to Sun Ra. But where Ra’s flirtations with noise, chaos, and complex personal cosmologies took place in the context of a wider musical palette that embraced everything from swing and big band music to modal jazz and disco, Ras G’s musical provocations sometimes feel unmoored from references that might lend greater depth to their fascinating sonic textures.