buy it
Maybe I'm just getting too much of a good thing in the past few years from Sublime Frequencies and similar labels, but the recent release Radio Thailand left me slightly underwhelmed. In it, Alan Bishop applies his now standard Radio series m.o. of editing and assembling music and other radio broadcasts collected over years of visits to Thailand. The styles represented include molam, luk thung, folk music and classic Thai pop, all of which have been covered better on other discs. (For example, see SF's own crucial releases Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan (CD) and Phi Ta Khon--Ghosts of Isan (DVD); Subliminal Sounds' Thai Beat A Go-Go Volumes 1, 2 and 3 cover Thai retro pop quite well.) To its credit, Radio Thailand includes other styles such as kantrum and contemporary Thai pop which aren't as readily availble to western listeners, though arguably, these styles aren't as entertaining. Also, at double disc length, Radio Thailand feels a little too long and, maybe fittingly, features a few too many Thai commercials.

All that said, there are some great segments on these discs sure to liven up any mix CD or mp3 playlist. Bishop really hits his psychedelic stride when he cuts and pastes at high and indiscriminate speeds--eg., a chipper variety show singalong meets 90's keyboard workstation molam rap becomes alien flute utterances turns into traditional Thai/big band hybrid on the track "Isan Immortal." When the music is hitting this fast and furious and the hairs in your ears are standing up to catch all the unfamiliar sounds, there's really nothing to complain about. This set may not be as good as Radio Phnom Pehn or as tripped out as Radio Pyongyang, but it's still more interesting than the average Pitchfork reviewer's top ten list hands down.