AJINAI at Small World Music Centre, Thursday, April 2. Rating: NNN
One of the many reasons Toronto is a great place to live is that there are eclectic, fascinating concerts happening in hidden pockets all over the city. Any night of the week. Any genre you like, including one as specific as “Mongolian folk rock from Beijing,” which is how Ajinai describe themselves.
Promo photos show the band in traditional garb, but at the Small World Music Centre, a smallish concert hall inside Artscape Youngplace, the four members wore jeans, sneakers, various styles of hats, and shirts with tattoos poking out from beneath. Amps and pedal boards enhanced the feeling that we were in store for something more contemporary than traditional.
But though Ajinai eased into the first of two sets with a number of danceable songs with driving drums, effects-driven guitar and funky bass that moved the audience from a seated to a standing position, the majority of the band’s Toronto debut was surprisingly heavy on ancient sounds.
Frontman Hugjiltu plays the muran khuur, also known as a horse-head fiddle, and when bowed slowly on the set’s many balladic songs, it was hauntingly mournful. Add in delay, 12-string-guitar atmospherics, Tsuur (a Mongolian flute played by both Hugjiltu and drummer Buren Bayar) and Hugjiltu’s eerie overtone-singing style and things got emotional and moody.
While the cinematic soundscapes were evocative, those expecting more of a dance party – or the intensity seen and heard in some of Ajinai’s YouTube clips (and those glorious traditional outfits!) – might’ve left slightly underwhelmed.
carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis
