COOPER CRAIN’S side-alley Moog buccaneers Bitchin Bajas are taking their their latest album, a re-exploration of the works of Sun Ra purely for synth and keyboard, out on the road in the new year.
That album, Switched On Ra, their seventeenth, sees them apply the concepts of one avant-garde legend to that of another: Cooper and fellow travellers Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye take the works of the space-travelling genius and apply to it the aesthetics of Wendy Carlos, as employed on 1968 electronica groundbreaker, Switched On Bach: whatever piece they chose, it had to be transposed purely for keyboard and synth only. And they ended up using nineteen keyboards on their journey into sound and the cosmos.
And now, having limbered up with a few Chicago shows, they’re on the blocks with some dates in the new year, over two legs: first out they’re supporting Ryley Walker at a handful of shows around the Midwest, before taking the full Switched On Ra experience into Europe a little later. Those dates are as follows:
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022, 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis;
Thursday, March 3rd, The Racoon Motel, Davenport, IA;
Friday, March 4th, The Cactus Club, Milwaukee;
Saturday, March 5th, Empty Bottle, Chicago, and
Sunday, March 6th, The Loving Touch, Ferndale, MI.
Then a few weeks later, our side of the Atlantic:
Saturday, April 9th, BRDCST Festival, Brussels;
Sunday, April 10th, Rewire Festival, Den Haag, Netherlands, and
Monday, April 11th, Cafe Oto, Dalston, London.
Bitchin Bajas‘ Switched On Ra is available now digitally and on cassette; you can order yours direct from Drag City here, or if you’re this side of the pond, the always reliable Rough Trade, here; or hell, stream it here.
