Throat singing

So you're singing in Inuktitut, thank you, and English and I think French.

And you're also doing throat singing.

So I actually really want to talk to you about that.

I was listening to the record in the car on the way here.

And it added like such a beautiful, percussive, rhythmic influence.

And so then the throat singing is maybe even running on a loop.

I'm not sure how some of that worked.

And then you're, no, no, you're just going.

main hobby a little while ago, building lavish mega yachts and then selling them around the world like some sort of seaborne pharaoh.

But did you know the man has another, cheaper hobby? Mongolian throat singing.

This is true, and it's a story first spotted by GamesRadar, who caught wind of it from the Indie Game Joe YouTube channel.

Joe was interviewing Counter-Strike creator Min Lee, and Lee was regaling with stories about what it was like to work in the same office as Gabe.

He spoke about his habit of bringing his hobbies to work, including the throat singing thing, quote, So he started to do this Mongolian throat singing stuff, and he was doing it throughout the office.

You would hear him try to sing with his throat as he's walking down the halls, and I remember a lot of people in the office, they were kind of annoyed with this because it's kind of loud, right? End quote.

And just so we're clear, here's an example of what Mongolian throat singing actually sounds like.

Can you imagine being on a Zoom call and having people on the other end being like, uh, can you mute yourself, please? Your boss is throat singing again and it's making my dog bark.

This is the winner, folks.

Gabe Newell apparently tormented employees with his throat singing for five months.

What are we doing? Min Lee, who is the creator of the original Counter-Strike, was talking to the YouTube channel Indie Game Joe.

And he was complaining, which is my favorite thing, of all the gaming CEOs, this is the worst thing, apparently, that Gabe Newell's ever done.

He's got these other weird perverts, shitheads, psychopaths, and then you got Gabe Newell doing Mongolian throat singing.

We got

breast milk guy over here.

Gabe Newell.

Bernie, of course, goes on to make an insulting comparison between Jewish musical worship and Christian musical worship, and nigun is far from the only form of vocables that was belittled by Christians.

For example, there is an Inuit tradition of throat singing that uses rhythmic breathing.

Here's Tagak, an Inuk performer who does solo throat singing.

Thank you.

Tagok's performance is not technically traditional, in that throat singing is usually done between two people, usually two women.

It's used kind of like a game.

Each person tries to match the other person's rhythm until one person goes silent or starts laughing.

But when Christian missionaries encountered the Inuit, they shamed tribal members for the past time, claiming it was satanic.