This Beijing-based six-piece create a fiery, unique sound using folk instruments like the morin khuur (horsehair fiddle) and tobshuur (two-stringed lute), fused with propulsive throat-singing and electric guitars. Hanggai’s leader, Ilchi, abandoned his punk band after hearing traditional overtone singing for the first time. He traveled to his father’s homeland of Inner Mongolia and learned the technique, rediscovering the music and repertoire of songs that had all but disappeared from Chinese culture.

Hanggai’s influences stretch from the traditional grassland folk of their homeland to the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Radiohead and even Neil Diamond. Sophisticated splashes ska, prog rock, bluegrass and punk provide effortless modulations from Western to Eastern musical scales, in most cases, within a single song, making Hanggai a Mongolian group from China who really belong to the whole wide world.

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