Although Hanggai is a genuine Beijing band, we hardly see them in town these days. Touring around Europe and showing the world rock music Mongolian khoomei style has kept them busy. But finally they’re back in Beijing with their fittingly-titled new album, Juan Zou De Ren (He Who Travels Far), which has already been feted by many international media outlets, including the Guardian.
If you don’t want to call your friend in Europe to find out what their new songs sound like, you’d better get ready for the album launch at Yugong Yishan this Wednesday, because the band will be back in Europe in two weeks.
While front man Ilchi has been busy responding to the curiosities of the Western world, he squeezed in some time to speak to the Beijinger about grasslands, the new album and playing heavy metal venues in Europe.

Chinese ethnic bands and musicians are making an ever bigger scene in Beijing and in the wider world. Some of them are not satisfied playing only the ethnic card. Jurat T.T. (from Xinjiang) is one such musician. He started to get more attention after opening at the Mamer & IZ’ album launch in July. Since then, his energetic, dark and psychedelic sessions have gained him quite the acclaim from Beijing’s indie crowd. How can that be enough? After years of endeavor, he will finally launch his first album – Sans Famille – this Saturday (Dec 17) at Temple bar. We spoke to the musical dreamer.

For years, banjo girl Abigail Washburn, singer/songwriter Kai Welch and Chinese singer/guzheng master Wu Fei thought about collaborating on something together. When Wu Fei was in the US, the three started combining American country tunes, traditional Chinese influences and their wild ideas. They called themselves Wu-Force, and presented their work in Beijing in the summer of last year. Washburn is currently on her "Silk Road" tour, but she'll be making a stop in Beijing this weekend, where we’ll get a chance to witness the newest creations from Wu-Force. We recently asked Wu Fei to give us a hint of what to expect.

Hugo Manuel may be the only songwriter to snag his stage name from a UK toy company that started up during the Victorian era. But what’s even stranger is why the budding British electro guru copied that goofy title. His drawing on such an obscure reference had nothing to do with know-it-all pretentiousness. In fact, aside from using the name as his own, Manuel has no intention of paying homage to Chad Valley at all.

In their early days as an experimental folk band, they produced some work that was just as creative as anything by the master, Xiao He – but they never got the same kind of recognition. When avant-garde became “been there, done that,” Low Wormwood’s sound evolved into something much less extreme. Nowadays, they’re known for their amiable, down-to-earth rapport with audiences.