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With Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan, Vol. 2, (released today) collector/selectors Alan Bishop and Mark Gergis haven't just outdone Molam Vol. 1--a feat in itself. They have also made possibile the unprecedented breakthrough of a Southeast Asian pop style onto world stages. The molam artists on this album cut grooves so deep yet unfamiliar that they they could find the international touring success that African groups have had for decades.

Popular music from the far east has long been underrepresented in the CD bins labeled "World Music" and on stages that cater to it. World music fans often want something exotic, but not too exotic. Eastern pop has generally been either too familiar, but not in English (Indonesian metal, J-pop) or too "adventurous" (lo-fi Cambodian pop from the 60s, Chinese-opera-influenced ballads). Perhaps more than anything, world music fans respond to "global grooves"--something this new album's got in spades.

The music on Molam Vol. 2 is an electrified version of molam, the Lao-derived music popular in Thailand's Northeastern Isan region and (due to migration) Bangkok. The sound is built upon two indigenous instruments, a mouth organ made of bamboo tubes with drilled finger holes (the khaen) and the Thai lute (phin). Khaen players often use some fingers to play a single chord in a rhythmic drone while simultaneously articulating melody with other fingers. This single-chord vamp forms the root of electric molam's trance-making groove, in which bass, bells and drums hold down a mid-tempo rhythm while phin, electric guitar and organ intertwine their heterophonic melody lines on top. At the center of everything is the vocalist ("molam" literally means "master singer"), who does a kind of talk-singing, sometimes singing a single verbal phrase two or three times in a row. The song titles suggest that the lyrics of these country songs are utterly unpretentious, focusing on love, good food, moving to the big city, and paying tribute to fans.

Molam vocalists sing with the authority of their own experience, pushing their bands forward and holding them back--exhibiting the same combination of urgency and laid-backness that characterize the deepest funk, dub and afro-groove. Indeed, much of the music on Molam was recorded in the 1970s, at roughly the same time those crucial grooves were emerging in the Americas and Africa.

However, these songs are a revelation because they sound so different from those styles of more direct African derivation. When male singer Thonmark Leacha declaims in the album opener "Beua Ai Laeo Bo" ("Are You Tired of Me Already?"), he does so with phrasing and vigor that make him a kindred spirit of Nigeria's Fela Kuti, but there is little else that overtly connects the bells, phin, khaen and swirling organ to the western hemisphere. Technologies and recordings of western pop certainly reached Isan at this time, but in the case of molam, Thais used them to create a modern sound thoroughly their own. Even when female vocalist Chawiwan Damnoen's guitarist steals a riff from the Rolling Stones in "Lam Plern Chawiwan," the juxtaposition between it and the rest of the music only serves to make the song more otherworldly.

As underground musicians and unorthodox travelers in search of raw and obscure sounds, Gergis and Bishop have a healthy mistrust of academics and, presumably, capitalized "World Music." If "academic rigor" or large-scale financial success were their goals, the Sublime Frequencies series wouldn't be the treasure it is. However, there is evidence that an increasingly large audience shares their tastes, indicating that a sound like molam could really break out. A crossover seems to be emerging between world music and indie/underground fans who share a love for the sounds of the pre-digital era and the unpredictable ways popular music has manifested outside the west. Extra Golden, Konono No. 1, Dengue Fever, Nomo, Antibalas, Dub is a Weapon and Seun Kuti have tapped this audience and I'm certain that molam groups could do the same.

Gergis and Bishop are uncertain of the fate of old-school molam in the glossy digital era, but a recent Sublime Frequencies video documentary shows that there are musicians in Isan still cranking it out. I hope they (or someone else) will decide to work with these musicians on a new record produced in the seventies style--then tour to support it. Bassist Jah Wobble produced a molam release in 2000, but watered the sound down into a kind of Thai dub fusion. Sublime Frequencies could be counted on to adhere to the sound on the present compilation.

It may be odd to spend part of a record review arguing for another record, but it's a simple matter of wanting more for both artists and listeners. The touring opportunity would be good for Thai musicians and more of this incredible music would be good for the rest of us. There's something about this molam that will have appeal well beyond the growing ranks of Southeast Asian music collectors. The world is ready for live Thai grooves.