Tengger Cavalry
Nature Ganganbaigal: To Where Tengger Leads Me
(self-released)

New age Mongolian folk star Nature Ganganbaigal’s To Where Tengger Leads Me might be the most refreshing recording you hear all year. Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism mix here to start us off with a kinetic flight on “The Expedition” with its various layered percussion, single melody line and horsehead fiddle. It’s a blow-your-hair-back, bracing ride of an opening. “Legend On Horseback” features plucked Asian instruments in a slightly slower modality, a lush, mainly instrumental song that actually swings when that fiddle comes in again, with the lower drums and slightly scary, throaty vocal sounds. Low plodding and atmospheric, “The Ritual” sounds like a Hollywood movie soundtrack cut; storm-clouds-on-the-horizon strings come and go in this varied and provocative piece that ends with lush, high strings. This is one of the best here I think. “Symphony of Steel, Pt. 1” breathes in heavy, with ominous string and wood clanking and an electronic, soft beat. Again Ganganbaigal lets the build come over strings and key strikes; you really are in the hands of a true composer here when big kettle drums take over halfway with solid chanting. “Hymn of the Earth” features fingers flying across tight fretboards then opens up into a main, infectious melody line that plays all over itself with the backing percussion keeping up a kinetic patting. The slow acoustic string mix of “Homeland Song” ends, featuring the gentle warble of a vocal from Nandin.