Simon Barker, Henry Kaiser, Bill Laswell & Rudresh Mahanthappa: Mudang Rock

Sometimes I think that guitarist Henry Kaiser and electric bassist Bill Laswell have performed or recorded with every musician in the world. Maybe it just seems that way. On Mudang Rock, inspired by “rhythms and Spirit of the Korean shamanic tradition,” the quartet of Simon Barker, Henry Kaiser, Bill Laswell & Rudresh Mahanthappa finds them teaming up with percussionist Barker and alto saxophonist Mahanthappa for a wild and woolly batch of improvisations. The pieces tend to be long, ranging from the seven hard-driving minutes of Logarhythm to Yongari vs. Bulgasari, clocking in at 19:18, making for a lengthy CD at over 74 minutes. Orange Kut plunges us right into their collective vision, with Laswell and Barker laying the groundwork for a typically passionate and keening alto solo by Mahanthappa. Kaiser soon joins the fray, bobbing and weaving through the rhythms with his wailing and piercing approach to the electric guitar. On Emphyrio Salpuri, Soo-Yeon Lyuh is heard on haegum, a traditional Korean stringed instrument with a sound like a sad violin with overtones of an Indian veena. She lends an exotic feel and a mournful tone to this relatively laid-back piece. The Story Changes brings the piano of Tania Chen and the cello of Danielle DeGruttola into the picture, contributing to a mysterious atmosphere of collective improvisation. Silappadikaram Pacifica features Barker’s African-influenced drumming dominating the proceedings while Mahanthappa and Kaiser conspire to weave swirling bursts of sound in response. (The Silappadikaram is a Tamil epic poem, composed between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.) Appropriately for a piece named after a couple of movie monsters, Kaiser’s effects-laden heavy guitar sound opens Yongari vs. Bulgasari. Mahanthappa’s solo follows with a series of increasingly harsh licks over a spare, dub-influenced accompaniment. That gets us to the half-way mark of this track. Kaiser and Mahanthappa trade the lead in the second half, sometimes with regular rhythms, sometimes with more spaced-out atmospherics. The whole effect is trippy indeed. More of Barker’s pounding drums are at the heart of The Final Ritual, with an especially active bass line by Laswell and more twisting and turning improvisations by Kaiser and Mahanthappa. Mudang Rock is an inspired exercise by a genre-busting unit, and it is definitely recommended.
Fractal Music 2018-001; Rudresh Mahanthappa (as) Henry Kaiser (g) Bill Laswell (b) Simon Barker(d) Soo-Yeon Lyuh (haegum on *) Tania Chen (p on #) Danielle DeGruttola (clo on #); prob. West Orange, NJ, July 2017; Orange Kut/ Logarhythm/ Emphyrio Salpuri*/ The Story Changes#/ Silappadikaram Pacifica/ Yongari vs. Bulgasari/ The Final Ritual; 74:26. www.henrykaiserguitar.com