February 09, 2004
Dengue Fever | Dengue Fever |Mimicry | Cambodia
buy it
Technically this is an American band, but how am I not going to review my favorite album of 2003? If you're checking out a site like this one, there's a decent chance you already have this CD. If you don't, you should--it's magic. A tight band fronted by a sublime vocalist, Dengue Fever has created a beautifully produced debut album of 60's/70's era Cambodian pop.
Most of the tunes on Dengue Fever are covers of Cambodian classics, which is a logical yet gutsy move. For most of us this is a collection of great new songs (with one or two that will be familiar to the owners of collections like Cambodian Rocks or the City of Ghosts soundtrack). For listeners of Cambodian descent, it's another story--these are very familiar tunes and if the Khmer message boards are any indication, there are a lot purists out there who don't mince words about "them Cambodian girls in Cali who trys to sing"! Nonetheless, as documented in Giant Robot a while back, Dengue Fever won over their first Cambodian audience in L.A. And to these pink ears of mine, Chhom Nimol is a singer with a powerfully emotive voice and a lot of technical tricks up her sleeve.
Take for example her vocal on "22 Nights," the most haunting I've heard in a long while. The song begins with a rare acoustic moment for the band--a sexy, dubby flute over simple minor-key guitar. Chhom tenderly sings the first verse, then the whole band kicks in and hits a major chord that is paradoxically sadder than the minor verse and she belts out a chorus dripping with pathos. As the fingernails go up your spine, Dengue Fever goes Jefferson Airplane on your ass and takes the song to new psychedelic highs.
Like the Afro-influenced New York bands Antibalas, Dub is a Weapon and Daktaris, Dengue Fever play music, not "world music." They've fallen for a style of another time and place and they're playing it on its terms, as the pop that it is. Though they add a cool Virgin Suicides-like coda here or an Ethiopiques reference there, the band relies on the inherent strength of the Cambodian songs they're covering. Unlike other reviewers, I don't hear a lot of "kitsch" going on here. In fact, this album isn't as weird as it might have been--I would have liked to hear the classic Cambodian vocal production style (which sounds like a Radio Shack dictation mic going through a Roland Space Echo) on at least one tune.
This is a great band doing justice to some great songs. I hear they are doing a lot of writing now. It will be interesting to see what their second album brings.