Back to St Georges Brandon Hill for some throat-singing madness. We're a bit early so we stop off in my old University haunt the Boston Tea Party for a huge coffee so that I'm fully awake for the great Yat Kha. They still have the appalling paintings that no-one wants to buy and over-priced sandwiches.
Support is from Babar Luck , who is a sarf Laandan asian innit with a big beard, a big personality, lots of enthusiasm and absolutely no sense of harmony. This man is seriously the most tone deaf person I've had the displeasure of having to sit through. I'm sure a kinder person than me would say he makes up for it in charisma, but hearing someone sing the same note in a different key to the one he's playing, even when he does 'funny' covers of Bob Marley, U2 (One Love) and others really drove me nuts. Yes, his heart is in the right place but even here he is tragically inaccurate, comparing Mandela to Ghandi as non-violent protestors. Obviously his research into the ANC is somewhat lacking. His friends (big-up to Ed and the bristol Massive) have a good time, but we sit in stunned silence and breathe a big sigh of relief when he goes. That's worth a clap.
At last Albert Kuzhevin and his crazy band (yes the drummer IS called Rasputin) begin with a cover of Wild Mountain time, sung in a voice that threatens to vibrate the very building itself. The new album is all covers, where the same treatment is given to songs like Black Magic Woman and Exodus. This could get a bit boring, since it's only a gimmick really (hey let's give all these songs the Yat Kha treatment!) but there's enough old songs and variety in their styles to keep it interesting.
But it's more than interesting, there are moments of astounding beauty, the obligatory ooh-eh oowey-oowey-yah, ooh-eh oowey-oowey-yah singalong and Albert indulging his heavy metal background with white noise and furious guitar solos. The more traditional sounding songs are fantastic and the sound of the Igil makes me want to cry. But the rasta bassman makes me laugh...
Anyone who hasn't yet discovered the folk/rock/Tuvinian crossover of Yat Kha would do well to start learning, it's not just about the improbably deep voices and the crazy harmonic throat singing, the music is great and will definitely put a big smile on your face.