Disrectangular

Rick Risch

Disrectangular is an extremely likeable pastiche of Risch's quirky and hummable "adult" songs. There's swampy blues ("Sugarpot"), a haunting guitar and accordion waltz ("Louise Marie"), western-Minnesota bossa nova ("Impermanence"), a folk-rock anthem that melds into some sonic guitar madness ("Life Is Beautiful"), and a truly depraved and twisted country tune ("jonny Porno"). There's even a jangly pop/rock gem sung in a melange of Swahili, Korean, Russian, and German ("Despairanto"). The CD's eclecticism mirrors the sensibilities of a musician who finds no conflict in writing and recording a country tune in the same year that he studies Carnatic vocal percussion with a South Indian drum master (Shashi Kumar of the Karnataka College of Percussion).

Thematically, the songs deal with topics that resonate with adults of all ages - selling out; sexual attraction; the painful process of parenting; titillation and hypocrisy in society; accepting and celebrating life's lumps; finding purpose in the smallest acts. Like the song says, "Life is beautiful. It's just completely disrectangular at times".