Aug 18/08
Hyped Mongolian Beijing
And now for something you might have heard of…
Hanggai are all the buzz right now. Pitchfork gave them an 8.0 which will guarantee a storm of downloads by the indie masses over at emusic. The BBC gave them a glowing review. Hey, even I can’t wait to see them at 2Kolegas on August 22nd.
It seems like everyone finally stopped writing about “China’s upcoming classical music dominance” (I’ll rant about that later) and found a Chinese group to write about during the Olympics. Luckily, they’re really good.
Hanggai’s first release for the international market, Introducing Hanggai on World Music Network, is lovely. You can hear it everywhere else.. so today I’ll bring you a great track off a live recording made last year at the 2 Kolegas in Beijing. You can find the studio version of this track on their latest release.
The first time I heard this track, before (and even after) I realized that Hanggai had become so hyped, it took my breath away. Great stuff.
Tags: beijing, china, folk, mongolia
August 18th, 2008 at 5:19 am
For one, I think the hype is well deserved. Saw them last Friday at the Hourglass on Nanluoguxiang. Very intimate setting. Great for their music.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Nice.. I had to work until 1am last Friday or I would have been there too. I’ll try to make the show on the 22nd or 27th instead.
Plenty of good music on over the next 10 days in Beijing, it seems. Lonely China Day, Subs, Joyside, Carsick Cars, Hanggai, a couple South African groups… I’ll try to cram in as much as possible before I leave.
If you know of anything musically interesting going on in Beijing from anytime before Sept 1st let me know!
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Is it hype if it’s all well-deserved? (full disclosure: I’m the guy who wrote the Pitchfork review).
Good to hear this live track, Matt. I had wondered about the contrast between their show and their album. I’ve loved this Chinese music series, and I’m sure I’ll blindly downloading stuff from MicroMu in the future.