December 01, 2005
Dengue Fever | Escape from Dragon House |BMG | USA
buy it
Listening to a recent NPR review of Dengue Fever's sophmore release, I got a bit of a reality check when Sarah Bardeen refered to the band's psychedelic Cambodian pop sounds as "a joyfully weird hybrid." After a decade of listening to old Asian pop, I found myself saying, "This is weird?" But that's the glory of Escape from Dragon House: it's got the pop hooks, classic production and stellar musicianship to make the "weird" charming for some, while still charming the weirdos who've worn the grooves off the first Cambodian Rocks release.
As on their eponymous debut, the centerpiece of Dengue Fever is Chhom Nimol's exquisite voice, which has all the melismatic soulfulness of the greatest R&B singers, but winds through intervals unfamiliar to most western ears. Almost as impressive as Nimol's sensitivity as a singer is the band’s songwriting. Many groups fortunate enough to be fronted by such a powerhouse might coast on simple, static grooves instead of facing the challenge of fusing their melodic sensibilies. But Dengue Fever meet the challenge head on, writing timeless material that rocks and mesmerizes. “Hummingbird,” the impossibly beautiful ballad that closes the album, has changes that surprise and a melody that tears your heart out.
Band leader/guitarist Zac Holtzman sings on a number of tracks, including some in Khmer. The album's one cover tune nicely illustrates his and Nimol’s respective strengths. On "Tip my Canoe" Holtzman puts his solid voice through the paces of a Cambodian yodel in the first verse, an impressive feat that reveals how much Khmer rock he's internalized. There isn’t much time to admire him, though, before Nimol comes in on the next verse and tears it up, popping high notes like an expert skeet shooter.
Drummer Paul Dreux Smith’s production is quite tasty—a little more trippy than on the first album and still warm and timeless like the songwriting. Dengue Fever have staked out a nice homestead in a time and place that don’t exist and never did. It’s a sweet place to visit.