The Great Wall Failed…
…because Mongolian rockers are invading Beijing! Just kidding. Well, sort of.
Last night a few other teachers and I went to see Hanggai in concert. Hanggai is a Mongolian a traditional folk rock punk band. Yup. It’s group of five or six guys that play electric guitar, horse-head fiddle, bass, drums, banjo, and lute. And they are all from Inner-Mongolia and they are awesome.
I want to try to describe their music but it’s really hard. There is definitely some rock or punk rock in there. There is also an Old West folksy feel. You can hear a lot of Asian melody with intense Mongolian throat singing. But there is also a weird American Indian vibe to their songs. I’ve never heard anything like it before.
Wikipedia says:
The members of Hanggai Band come from extremely diverse backgrounds with singer Ilchi having once been the front man of punk band T9.
These eclectic experiences have come together to give Hanggai Band a particularly unique sound blending Mongolian folk music with more popular forms such as punk.
In an interview with Spinner, Ilchi stated that amongst the group’s many influences, Western artists such as, “Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Secret Machines, Electralane and Neil Diamond…” have played a large role in shaping the band’s music.
I’ve included a couple videos that I uploaded to Facebook so you can get a feel for how they sound. These were parts of their less rock-sounding songs.
