A Mongolian "throat-singing heavy rock band", Yat-kha, have released an album of cover versions featuring Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles", along with tunes by Joy Division, Bob Marley, Kraftwerk and Hank Williams.

A recent article in The Independent newspaper said:

Kuvezin's growling vocal harmonics emerge from his deepest regions, resonating around the changing shape of his mouth-cavity. In the case of Captain Beefheart's number, this is not too far removed from its original practitioner's approach, but these techniques sound quite startling when imposed on the likes of "Man Machine" and "When The Levee Breaks".

You can hear a couple of mp3s from the album on Yat-kha's website. The Beefheart tune is not available to download, sadly, but the version of Motorhead's "Orgasmatron" which is currently rumbling throughout my house and vibrating the foundations is very impressive.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 10:02 AM - post a comment