I've never listened to any "Traditional Mongolian" music before, so decided I'd better have a listen to a few of Altan Urag's tracks before I found myself in the same room as them. Not knowing what to expect, I was immediately caught off guard by a sound that was much more rock styled than I was expecting. It turns out their first album Foal's Been Born was the more traditional style folk music and the second Made in Altan Urag is, in their own words, folk rock.

Some of the music from the first reminds me of tracks off the KLF's Chill Out album, tracks I thought were influenced by native American music. It would appear my radar was well off. This bunch of music college friends hit the big time (well as big time as they've hit so far) when they did the music for the Oscar nominated film Mongol, a biography of Genghis Khan's rise to power. Their name means literally "the Khan's kin."

All I can say is this: don't piss 'em off.

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Traditional folk:

Folk rock off the 2nd: