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Chinggis Khan statue in Mongolia - photo by  François Philipp    ... The fusion of music and culture is often taken for granted.  It is not often a clearly defined presence, until a sound comes along that speaks to the tribal soul. Throat-singing originated among the indigenous Turko-Mongol tribes in the mountains of southern Siberia and western Mongolia.  It uses harmonically rich vocal timbres to communicate with both the natural and supernatural worlds. As you might guessed, because of these ethnic and ritual associations, the Soviet Union did as many others have throughout history in a vain attempt to destroy culture. They forbade the style of singing. Loss of influence throughout the region of Mongolia opened the door for a resurgence of many cultural practices. It never really stopped anyway.  Handing down stories through song, and often dance, is likely one of the oldest of facets of human culture and cannot be stopped. Incorporating Throat-singing with theme

Releasing their 4 th album in just as many years this past April, New York-based band The Bunny The Bear latest “Stories” came across my desk for review.  Introduced to me as an electronic music band with promise, I agreed to have a listen and write a few thoughts.  It has been a really long time since I sat down and intentionally listened to an entire album, and there are numerous reason for that; primarily that most “band music” has become hopelessly watered down with each trying to sound just like the other, and their tracks end up sounding just like the one before that and the one before that, and like everyone else’s.  The whole everyone has to sound like Dave Matthews thing awhile back is what really drove me over the edge, I think.  I still cringe anytime I hear one of those wannabe voices. This release is nothing like that, but that initial introduction is a bit confining for this particular ensemble.  These guys have a unique sound that I cannot quite seem to compare