A Ballet Through Mud＜Colored Vinyl＞

The premise of a Wu-Tang classical album seems like the setup for a skit on the first season of Chappelles Show, or a self-aware side joke in a deleted scene from How High. All jokes are aside, however, with A Ballet Through Mud, a completely instrumental and orchestral work composed entirely by Wu-Tang Clan producer the RZA, performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by Christopher Dragon. Made up of 11 pieces, A Ballet Through Mud was inspired by RZAs own life experiences and aims to reflect his journey from being brought up in the housing projects of Staten Island to his present state as a star of the entertainment industry. Much like Andre 3000s 2023 foray into new age healing music, New Blue Sun, theres little here to connect A Ballet Through Mud to previous associations with the RZA -- no rapping, no traditional rap beats (though there are moments of war-ready percussion), no samples, and nothing to suggest that this is anything besides completely earnest classical composition. That said, RZAs creative voice is still very much present. The title track holds the same eerie, streetwise character of some of the producers classic 36 Chambers beats, transposing his melodic tendencies from vintage samples to woodwinds and strings. "Moving Meditation" is similar, providing countless sampling possibilities for future rap instrumentals. "Freedom of Movement" is dynamic and dreamlike, with playful, stardusted violins and fluttering harp parts finding RZA in full-on Fantasia mode. Theres a bit of sub-bass boom on the cinematic epic "The Night Dances When You Least Expect It," a song that takes its time wandering in a Morricone-esque strut. Classical connoisseurs might not immediately take to RZAs orchestral vision, and die-hard hip-hop heads might not know what to do with it, either. Taken completely outside of some fairly glaring connotations, however, A Ballet Through Mud is an expressive and self-searching look within from an artist trying to both catalog his life and extend his musical mastery. Its commendable on those terms alone, and executed with enough care and precision to rise out of the overwhelming shadow cast by its creators legacy. ~ Fred Thomas