Kirk Rundstrom - Blue China Catamount Records - CCR 007

By William Michael Smith

	Kirk Rundstrom and his virtuoso musical pranksters are back and country music is no safer now than it was when Rundstrom last played with his musical chemistry set and created an entire new atomically charged element, "Wicked Savior," his innovative and genre-busting previous independent release. With "Blue China," Rundstrom continues his mission to stretch the limits to which banjos and mandolins and acoustic guitars grounded in the bluegrass tradition can play. "Blue China" is another burst of brilliant innovation and creation that takes these simple instruments into the realm of jazz, punk rock, speed metal, Indian ragas, and to classical Middle Eastern and Far Eastern music. Rundstrom's composition and studio engineering skills continue to expand. The songs on "Blue China" are even more conceptually complex and intricate than those on "Wicked Savior." Rundstom's musical dictionary is the unabridged version and with his Einsteinian musical vocabulary he has created an album of songs that contains even more complex structural movements and color textures than "Wicked Savior." There is so much new and completely unique music on "Blue China" that, when combined with the music on "Wicked Savior," it is rapidly becoming quite apparent that Rundstrom and his friends Mike West, Myshkin, Colin Sean Mahoney, Brain Schey and Eric Mardis (Split Lip Rayfield) are creating a whole new as-yet-unnamed genre with the on-going round of musical experiments in their Lawrence, Kansas sound laboratory. This new music features chord progressions the likes of which have never been heard before within the context of popular music. These progressions are so quick, nimble and precise that they give the music a dense underlying punk percussiveness that is absolutely attention-gripping. One thing is for certain: the new genre is the anti-Muzak, the exact opposite of background music the listener takes in without any conscious thought process. With Rundstrom's compositions and his supersonic playing partners, the brain is engaged by every note and shift of nuance. This is not music for the close-minded, the musically restricted, or for genre purists. This is music for the curious and open-minded (i.e. it won't be getting much radio play). The record opens with Rundstrom on his acoustic guitar rocket, but from the first notes it is obvious that this is no Doc Watson record. The scale is too wide, the rhythms too off the beaten path. When Mardis falls into the mix with his jackhammer electric guitar playing in concert with Mahoney's drums and Schey on bass, the whole composition takes on a punk-rockers-with-jazz-training feel. There is an orchestral intensity to the rhythm section playing, while Rundstrom's acoustic guitar and his singing with Myshkin seem to be on a completely different plane. The effect is intense and trance-inducing. But this is just the warmup. 'John Farmer (I, II, III)' finds the ensemble moving effortlessly through a complex composition that takes them from mountain music to hot jazz sounds which gradually progress via interpolation into the boundaries of raga via Mike West's banjo. Although I spent considerable time in India and am quite familiar with Indian musical forms, I had never considered the banjo as an approximator of the sitar, but Mr. West takes us straight to India with his dexterous playing as Rundstrom lays in some incredible acoustic guitar support for West's stratospheric flights. This is one of the most interesting pieces of music I've heard in years. The title track could be considered a jazz composition for banjo and guitar were it not for Rundstrom's penchant for switching genres movement by movement. 'Blue China' has a lilting, otherworldly jazz feel until the band progresses into a crash-banging punk interlude. But just as easily, the band retraces it steps and simmers back into cool-jazz mode, with Myshkin adding some tantalizing and evocative scats in the background. 'Gentleman' is one of those bareback rocket rides of Rundstrom's in the same vein as 'Outlaw' on "Wicked Savior." This cut explodes like a 10-shot Roman candle. The Weather Channel should broadcast a tornado warning every time this cut comes around on the CD player. Myshkin, the New Orleans-based folk jazzer, wrote the lyrics and sings the lilting 'Cherry' in a cool blue voice reminiscent of 'Girl from Ipanema.' West turns his banjo into a first-rate jazz lead instrument here. 'Gold' might be described as in the Split Lip Rayfield vein. Rundstrom's SLR work has always been marked by dark, threatening lyrics that waffle along the psychopathic edge, and 'Gold' certainly qualifies in that respect. Take the bitterness pill Help you describe what I feel Raging inside of my brain I run in the night, screamin' with fright I can't be happy no more 'Catch Me, I'm In Hell' finds Rundstrom, the composer, grafting country banjo and acoustic guitar movements onto the steam engine of hard rock with amazing effect. This is another composition the likes of which most listeners have never experienced or even conceived. There is dark, mystic alchemy at work here with Mr. Mardis' electric guitar work, made even more dramatic and effective by a sophisticated segue into a distinctly separate banjo-led hot jazz movement, with Myshkin taking the lead vocal that is reminiscent of Sade or the Brazilian whisper of Flora Purim and is made all the more transfixing by a where-the-hell-did-that-come-from steel guitar solo that absolutely works and makes the listener's brain glow like a glob of Kryptonite. But Rundstom isn't through, as he again deftly segues into another mixed bag of jazz, rock and Mike West banjo insanity. There are echoes of Arthur ("I am the God of hellfire") Brown in Rundstrom's sinister vocal delivery on the final movement. This song is a mad symphony in and of itself. 'Stranger' is a beautiful country doo-wop tune with typical Rundstrom/SLR complicated-life lyrics. She's barely legal and I'm hardly free Who'd ever figure that she'd run with me Can you help me, stranger, can you help me friend There's no help comin', you'd better start runnin', you're in trouble again 'Salena' is another percussive speed-of-light atomic meltdown that challenges all the conventional rules. The split second timing and coordination among the players would be a thing of wonderment were it not for our knowledge that we are dealing with players who are first and foremost bluegrass virtuosos here. Rundstrom has reworked two tracks from his latest Split Lip Rayfield release, "Never Make It Home." 'Thief' is rendered here with a little less intensity and more darkness than the SLR version, while 'Record Shop' is given more crash and bang due to drums and electric bass. Kirk Rundstrom is establishing himself as one of the most original innovators and interpolators on the popular music scene today. The fact that he remains a cult-like figure completely undiscovered by the mass audience and ignored by commercial radio explains more about the rut that popular taste is in than anything about Mr. Rundstrom's extraordinary music. If we can rightly call popular music a true art form, Mr. Rundstrom is our misunderstood and wrongly ignored Van Gogh. And that kind of misunderstanding and ignorance should be a crime. * Kirk Rundstrom's amazing musical masterpieces aren't available at the Louvre or at the Museum of Fine Arts, but you can find them at www.catamountco.com , the far-sighted record company that brought us Gurf Morlix's "Toad of Titicaca." Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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