#205 VA - Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music Vol. 1

I recently found, again indirectly via Dusted, a series called Sublime Frequencies that has a whole ton of music from all over the world, seemingly from a variety of eras. This album is from that series, and features Cambodian music that is largely from the 60's and 70's, but with some songs that pretty clearly seem to feature 80's-sounding synthesizers. Details on this album are delightfully difficult to come by - one theory is that the "unknown artist" tracks that make up the majority of the album are from the 60's and 70's, and that the eight named tracks are more recent. Regardless - impressions follow!

Once again, there is a garagey sound at the core here, with shuffling rhythms, guitars and horns in balances that I associate with Tropicalia. But this is different, far more otherworldly. It is a mysterious, intriguing album, with some serious musicianship on display. I am strangely fascinated by this. From the lack of information, to the subtle shifts in style, to the blending of the familiar and the foreign - I fear that I have stumbled upon some music nerd facet of my personality that I'm not wholly comfortable with, because I am into this stuff like Finn's into adventure.

I'm not even sure how to describe the actual music. Some of it sounds like 60's garage rock, again, with the lo-fi aesthetic and crunch guitars, but with some incredibly inventive twists here and there. The main downside is the nasal, twangy female vocals that come and go, which I associate with middle eastern music and older Asian music, and which I generally can't stand. But when you get past that, there's a lot to like, from the buzzy groove of track 15 ("Unknown") to the Tarantino-ready, strangely familiar, groove of track 6 ("Unknown (Intrumental)"). It sounds almost like a dub version of I Walk the Line. And then there's small details, like the maddeningly appealing distortion that wobbles out the bass groove at the end of Track 16 (again, marked simply Unknown).

I'd previously found my forays into far-flung cultures' music largely fruitless. I can deal with foreign-language music (there's not a lick of English on this disc), but I do like something I can hook into. This, seemingly based in emerging American rock and roll, provides a nice balance: mixing the rock crunch I love with a whole 'nother worldview. The role of horrifying oppression that underlies this music is more than I can get into here, but as music, it is another facet of the hidden creative explosion going on during this era that I'm slowly peeling back the veil on.

Despite some brilliant moments, I didn't find this to be nearly as enjoyable as #204, perhaps because of the vocals, and perhaps because its just not as even across the board. But its still good enough for the October special 4/5