Bands like 嗨的國樂團/和楽器バンド

[Wurstmann]

Does anyone know of bands making music like this or this? That is, mixing modern rock or metal with traditional instruments.

[Shelley]

I have to recommend unreservedly the Hu band

 

This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZUr0BEfE

and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc

 

I have fallen in love with this music and it had prompted me to see about adding a smattering of Mongolian to my language learning.

 

Enjoy

[Publius]

Well, traditional instruments have been part of Chinese rock & roll since the very beginning.

崔健《一无所有》（the first Chinese rock song, 笛子、唢呐） https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHwfCf2spTk

崔健《假行僧》（from the first Chinese rock album, 古筝） https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOpEnm7ur5g

 

 

[Lu]

Second Hand Rose 二手玫瑰 also uses traditional instruments (although I have to admit that I have not followed them beyond buying their CD in 2003. It's a good CD. But I have no idea what they are doing these days).

[Wurstmann]

4 hours ago, Lu said:

Second Hand Rose 二手玫瑰 also uses traditional instruments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSTProMxlnA ?

[mungouk]

Nice one @Shelley... +1 for The Hu Band!  

When I came across them last year they were called "The Hu" and had a whole album up on bandcamp (now gone) but I guess they had a letter from Roger Daltrey's lawyers... ahem.   That Wolf Totem tune is great and makes so much sense in the metal genre, given the lyrical style. 

 

Aside: I'm not keen on the videos, but then I hate music videos generally... listen to the music is my motto.  Plus the intro doesn't sound to me like a throat-singer... more like the VST plugin called Delay Lama which I've used myself on several occasions 

 

Aside #2: Maybe you've seen the amazing Eagle Huntress documentary... I so wish one of their tunes had ended it, rather than that sickly-pop-Euphoria from Sia that was totally out of place.  Otherwise it's a visually wonderful record of the dying art of hunting with Eagles in Mongolia, and how a young girl tried to join that male-dominated world.

 

To answer the question... I have a few of these that have been favourites over the years.

 

Definitely top has to be Oki Dub Ainu Band, who are more reggae/rock, but anyway indigenous Ainu musicians from Japan and I love them because they're just so different. Sakhalin Rock is the classic album and from that I would choose Konkon.  They have albums for sale on iTunes.  I haven't found any live versions I like as much as the album but here's one on youtube.

Dragging through my archives here I'm failing to find anything by Huskvarna from Sweden, but I had an album of theirs that mixed traditional Nyckelharpa and (or?) Hurdy-Gurdy with rock and drum & bass.  Presumably it didn't make it over from my previous laptop.

 

I'm at danger here of getting on my soapbox and digressing into the sunset, but if you want recommendations for Yiddish Reggae, Balkan drum'n'bass or Turkish-German hip-hop I'd be happy to spout forth...

 

 

 

[mungouk]

17 hours ago, Shelley said:

it had prompted me to see about adding a smattering of Mongolian to my language learning.

 

Brilliant!  Have you tried any throat-singing? 

 

I've been known to dabble in a punk way (usually after a pint or two!), but a friend of mine can get a proper overtone going. It's quite uncanny!

 

Another aside: one of the most spine-tingling gigs I ever saw was at a disused church at the Edinburgh Fringe... Huun Huur Tu with the Angelite singers from Bulgaria, best known for appearing on the Mystère des voix Bulgares records in the 80s. Mind-blowing. I guess Huun Huur Tu were one of the first Mongolian bands to break through internationally.

 

I've not found a recording that does it justice, but if you can imagine 5 men and 5 women belting this out a cappella in (suitably) a big empty church then you're getting warmer.

 

I just want to head to Mongolia now...!

 

 

 

 

[Shelley]

@mungouk Hehe heck no, no singing of any kind for me, I can't carry a tune in a bucket and my old lungs can't belt anything out .

 

I do find myself singing along which is what prompted me to want to know what the noises I was making meant. I didn't really know where to start, was sort of hoping there was Mongolian for beginners book. Is there a romanization system for Mongolian?

[mungouk]

It looks a bit messy... on you go  

 

http://www.cjvlang.com/Writing/writmongol/mongolalpha.html

 

There's even something on the .gov.uk website, so it must be official-ish: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/681920/ROMANIZATION_OF_MONGOLIAN.pdf

 

 

 

[Shelley]

Ok, thanks, I think .

 

It appears to rely on the Cyrillic alphabet for sounds and transcripts, which makes sense considering its close proximity to Russia.

Think I am going to give this a miss as I really do want concentrate on Chinese.

[mungouk]

So many languages, so little time... 

 

I would love to be able to sing at least one song in Mongolian though, as well as many more tongues.

 

[大块头]

The Shanghai Restoration Project has a couple good albums, although they would probably be categorized as electronic music.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spVNfyXyCuM