Howdy Folks. BTW I never say that phrase IRL. I just realised that. I am more likely to say 'hi'.
I digress.
Someone in the band has a real ping on for Kargyraa and Khoomei styles of singing and Mongolian Beats.
Who might that be you say?
Really?
So anyway, there I was, listening to Huun Huur
(pronunciation of these names is hard. I have been giggled at by several Mongolian speakers who think my attempts at climbing their words are cute)
As I was saying, there I was, listening to Huun Huur and wondering why it sounded so familiar.
As a horse culture, their beats are Horse rhythms. Trots. Canters. Whinnies.
That links up to Country and Western. Horse rhythms.
For example, here's a little Three Amigos.
And some kick ass Huun Huur.
Can you hear the horse rhythms?
Face it, what other blog you read is going to make these kinds of comparisons eh?
If you've been following the blogs from recent studios sessions you will notice we seem to have been in there quite a bit.
In post production now are two versions of The Flood and 2 versions of an instrumental newly named 'Everywhere feels like home' featuring Rosie on Acoustic Guitar, Geoff Gartner on Cello and in one version, yours truly here on Harp.
I think we have four very nice tracks in this lot, we're in final tweak mixing now and there you have it.
But while we're here....Theo had said to me a while back, 'hey lets do something really weird'.
I have just the ticket.
What I'm calling the 'Ecstatic Yeti' mix.
'Rosie will plotz' was the cry. 'You can't add mongolian thoat singing to this track' said another.
'Sounds interesting' said Rosie. And he meant interesting 'Good' as opposed to its other colloquial Australian usage of interesting such as 'oh little johnny, you've made me a present out of canned dog food. that's very...interesting'
Kudos to Rosie.
My favourite moment was when I was asked -'Where the heck did you find a Traditional Mongolian Singer in Sydney?'
Well it turns out that local Australian World Music group EQUUS features a traditional Tuvan style singer, Bukhu.
I googled, I called, I asked, I sent a copy of the song, Bukhu laughed at my Mongolian pronunciation (That's okay, I'm getting it now) and we're recording together mid week.
WOOT.

What on earth will all this sound like?
Have we completely lost our marbles?
Should I mention I'm also trying to add some Bhangra beats to this?
Hey we've already got Rock River in Berlin getting remixed :-)
Meanwhile, songs are pouring out of the woodwork and we're already scheduling the next two recordings including some classic Kansas City Style Blues, courtesy of Ron Teamer.
As the year winds down, we're winding up.