YĪN YĪN - The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers (2019)

Middle Eastern rock and traditional music fused with Western indie music is a new niche represented by a couple of quality bands including YIN YIN and Khruangbin. This album is a must-own, rivaling the best of Khruangbin.

BANDCAMP / INTERNET ARCHIVE / YOUTUBE 

JULY RANKINGS:

1. Negativland - True/False (2019)

2. Juergan Reiter - Dead on Arrival (2009)

3. Geoff Scott - Asheron's Call 2 Legions Promo CD (2005)

4. YĪN YĪN - The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers (2019)

5. Neko Case - The Worse Things Get... (2013)

6. Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence (2019)

7. Zola Jesus - Arkhon (2022)

8. Roxanne Oliva - Accordion Crumbs (2012)

9. Risa Takeda - Pandora (2018)

10. Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses (2018)

11. Heather Ferrier - From the Ashes (2022)

12. Rizomagic - Voltaje Raizal (2021)

13. Flightless Birds Take Wing - Take Flight EP (2022)

14. Himiko Kucuchi - Flying Beagle (1987)

15. Advanced Corpse Materials - Travels (2022)

Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses (2018)

Not exactly obscure but still outside of mainstream music sufficiently to qualify for inclusion in this blog. Emma Ruth Rundle's take on folk music incorporates wall-of-distortion guitar sounds and her unique delivery and voice to create a wholly unique sound. Joshe24's review summarizes Emma Ruth Rundle's style perfectly:

"Rundle stands alone at the intersection of about 30 different musical genres. Sometimes she sounds like dream pop, other times she’s metal, or alternative rock, or post-rock. She often gets called folk, which I kind of get, but it just makes me think that it’s futile to try to describe her in simple genre buzzwords. It’s music that resists easy labels because nobody else has ever made it before. There are a lot of reference points and influences, clearly, but I consider her a true original with no real comparisons. She sounds like everything else and nothing else at the same time." (source)

This album straddles the line between hopelessness and optimism, leaving it up to the listener to decide how to interpret the lyrics on the album. Each song builds into the other both lyrically and musically, creating a cohesive album that seems like it's over all-too-quickly despite it's 42 minute runtime. We could demand an extra 20 minutes, but any further additions would likely only water down this masterpiece.

Bandcamp ($7.99) / Archive.org / YouTube.com