Cambodian Psyche

both Myanmar volumes (Princess Nicotine and Guitars From The Golden Triangle)

the Iraq one (Choubi Choubi)

the new "ethnic Northern Cambodia" release, name escapes me

Some of my faves:

JANG HYUN & THE MEN - Woman of the Evening Sun
KIM JUNG MI - Now
SAND PEBBLES
SAN UL LIM - San Ul Lim 1, San Ul Lim 2, San Ul Lim 3

A few others I like too, but I can't remember the names and can't read Hangul. :(

Yo, there's a documentary about this stuff called Don't Think I've Forgotten and it's magnificent. I just saw it and now I am on a Cambodian rock & roll kick!

http://www.dtifcambodia.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipq4FefX5Ps

Yeah I wanna see it... unfortunately not playing in Cambodia anytime soon!!!

This era of music is still pretty popular but there's no one really carrying the flag inside the country (just a couple Western-based acts... Dengue Fever & the rip-off Cambodian Space Project). Popular music is not doing very well, with the labels recording and promoting those who will pay them the biggest bucks, for the most part.

Best stuff I've heard recently is by Arn Chorn Pond, who runs an NGO devoted to traditional music education. Dude's not exactly a rising star tho: I'm still the only scrobbler on Last.FM.

Here's one of his tracks featuring Kong Nay, a chapei player called the "Ray Charles of Cambodia", that transforms into a Khmer Surin dance track half way through (will be a familiar sound to those who've heard Isaan music, as that's the home of Thailand's Khmer minority). Only on Spotify, sorry: https://open.spotify.com/track/5qsoyK6eT47U2F4ISn5PkC

Apologies, this is actually a Khmer style from Cambodia, not Isaan... it's the only example I know of vocal harmonizing in modern Cambodian music, so I rashly pegged it as Surin when in fact this act is using harmonies as a novelty.

Can you recommend any definitive compilations? The DTIF soundtrack sourced a bunch of shit from OG vinyl and is supposed to sound way better than a lot of existing material; I hear the Cambodian Rocks comp is p great too.

Cambodia Rock Spectacular: Groove Club 2

On the Rolling Outernational 2015 thread the movie doc was discussed as well as the accompanying gigs held in some places with:

Baksey Cham Krong
Considered to be the first Cambodian guitar band, Baksey Cham Krong formed in 1960 and began rocking their local high school in Phnom Penh with songs influenced by the Ventures and Cliff Richards and the Shadows. Soon they perfected a clean guitar sound and soon guitar bands began to pop up all over the capital city.

Three original members including singer Mol Kamach, lead guitarist Mol Kagnol and rhythm guitarist Samley Hong will be performing.

The Drakkar
In the late 60s, long hair and bell-bottoms became all the rage in Phnom Penh. The Drakkar band brought there own mix of current western influences too and created hard rock, Cambodian style. The Rolling Stones, Santana and Deep Purple were huge influences as the Drakkar helped take Cambodian rock and roll in yet a new direction.

Three original members including singer Tana, lead guitarist Touch Chhattaha and drummer Ouk Sam Art will be performing.

The songs of Sinn Sisamouth. Cambodian pop’s most revered singer who tragically disappeared during the Khmer Rouge era will be sung by his grandson, Sinn Sethakol.

The songs of Ros Serey Sothea. Dubbed the golden voice of the capital by the King himself, Ros Serey Sothea’s voice was an instrument like no other. As Cambodia’s most beloved female singer she was unable to hide her identitiy and also perished during the Khmer Rouge. Chhom Nimol, the great singer from the band Dengue Fever will be singing a collection of Ros Serey Sothea’s songs

The definitive introduction? My podcast episode on the subject of course! But yeah Cambodia Rocks was the first and I guess definitive... there's a new Rough Guide out there that I'd give a spin, too. Now I just hear it through my wife's YT playlists... the "Big Three" are Sinn Sisamouth, Pann Ron, and Ros Sereysothea. The latter is easily my favourite, and the middle definitely the most dissimilar to Western vocal taste... her rawness suits the style, though. Sisamouth is considered by far the most important of the three here, as his crooning style now dominates the airwaves. He's the wellspring.

Contrary to assertions in a lot of the lit out there, Khmer is a tonal language. It was just never standardized, in contrast to its linguistic sibling Vietnamese, which developed a tiered tonal system under a millennium of Chinese rule. Many of the written vowels are only differentiated by tone. Appreciation of vocal qualities is thus largely about methods of negotiating the tone... cool concept in theory, but it makes the crooning style too esoteric for non-speakers... same problem for all East Asian slow pop. Maybe some of those Cantonese superstars emote as well as Sinatra or Ella, but damned if I know, it's simply outside my ability to appreciate.

this is one of my favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjiTyzje0KA

Noice.

classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYBEaoTFZM8

That documentary is streaming on Hulu!!!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/863520

That's a really really good documentary. When I lived in Cambodia several years ago, hardly anyone I knew there listened to old psych. That's probably partly due to nearly all of the records having been destroyed by the KR. Lots of what we hear in that documentary was salvaged from collectors who left the country before the communist reign of terror. We're lucky that some of the music survived, but I wonder how much might be lost forever. Anyway, it's good stuff, and I prefer it to most of the current sound of Khmer pop / rock.

Cambodian Space Project sounding great right now at Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington DC. The show is being streamed live on FB & video archived on K Ctr site. The band is doing another free gig Friday night st the Cutting Room in NY

most recent Dengue Fever album (The Deepest Lake) is, IMO, their best record by a country mile and well worth yr time

Interesting, as a friend was just telling me he has gotten less interested in Dengue and attributed to a membership change in the group. I will give it a listen though

x-post to myself--
Cambodian Space Project did a nice Khmer version of "Rollin on the River"

Oh no. Singer Kak Channthy dead in a car accident

https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/newsworthy/singer-kak-channthy-cambodian-space-project-fatal-road-accident-t18960.html

38 years old, aka Srey Thy. She was a charismatic and skilled vocalist

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kak-channthy-cambodian-space-project-frontwoman-killed-crash-38-updated