5/07/2011
Excerpt from the Bangkok Post
Two bands playing music inspired by Cambodia’s “golden era” of rock ‘n’ roll and pop music during the 1960s through to the mid-’70s, LA-based Dengue Fever and Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Space Project (CSP), recently released new albums.
Dengue Fever’s Cannibal Courtship (Concord Music) is the band’s fifth studio album and the first since the hugely successful Venus on Earth in 2008. Dengue Fever, led by the Holtzman brothers and fronted by Khmer singer Chhom Nimol, started by playing covers of songs by late stars like Sin Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea and Pan Ron but over the past 10 years have slowly developed their own unique sound that takes Cambodian pop and blends its with edgy rock riffs, snatches of Ethiopian jazz and the sound of the Farafisa organ.
The band is very popular now on both the indie rock and World Music festival circuits, and the new album – on a new label and with a bigger budget – is likely to make them even more popular.
Cannibal Courtship is a mix of English- and Khmer-language songs, all of which were written by the band. The first thing I noticed about the album was the “wall of sound” the band has created. You can hear this on the title track, a surf guitar rocker about the travails of repressed love. The rock element is further explored on Family Business, Only A Friend and the hard driving final track, Durian Dowry.
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