Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever have been described as ‘Cambodia’s first Psychedelic Rock band’ but that doesn’t even scratch the surface!
The band hail from California via Pnomh Phenh and while the songs are in the classic West Coast psych and surfer world the vocals are all in Khmer – the native language of Cambodia. The end result is ………enthralling.

If the band weren’t good enough this would be a shambles and if they were playing it for laughs it wouyld be a five minute smile and nothing more but the band kick some fine jamming and the lead vocals by Chhom Nimol – a huge Cambodian star in her own right – takes the music to another level.
The band are clearly not in it for the giggle alone and they pay the right kind of homage to the Cambodian stars whose music they are basing them selves on.

In the end what you get is music that is based on music that the originals didn’t really understand – Cambodian surfers? – but that lack of clear understanding meant that the music had its own charm and vitality. When a bunch of Californian longhairs take it back and re-interpret it and add in western understanding of the music that is uniquely Cambodian the resultant form is completely wonderful.

The package is a DVD of the trip that the band took through Cambodia and includes some fine local musicians as well as the band but the real winner is the soundtrack that accompanies it – 17 tracks by Dengue Fever or by Cambodian pop maestros and every one is a gem. ‘New Years Eve’ featuring Sinn Sisamouth and some of the best acid-guitar you will ever hear is an absolute standout and ‘Tip My Canoe’ a pop joy. ‘One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula’ with its insistent bassline and fuzzed guitar has real menace but the vocal performance takes it to a new level.