Dark Shades of Blue finds Rudd at his most assertive, heavy and psychedelic. Dusky and cool, the disc’s guitar-driven jams expand on a sound only hinted at on previous releases, as distortion often supplants the pretty jangly guitars heard on earlier work, like 2007’s White Moth. While Rudd’s signature didgeridoo remains, along with the myriad of instruments and voices featured on other records, the results are less “world music” than they are the makings of a truly global record.