Drawing From the Music of '60s Cambodia

By ASPLIN Steve


REVIEW * * * * Dengue Fever, Venus on Earth -------------------- REVIEW * * Bedouin Jerry Can Band, Coffee Time -------------------- The recent Womad festival in New Plymouth had the band Dengue Fever performing their brand of psychedelic pop rock. Last year they released their third album through Peter Gabriel's label, Real World Records.

Like previous albums, Venus on Earth features Cambodian vocalist Chhom Nimol singing in her native tongue, Khymer. The difference is that on this album there are also several songs performed in English or a mix of the two languages.

A six-member group founded by American brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman in 2001, Dengue Fever draw inspiration from a '60s sound pioneered by Cambodian artists Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea. Their first two albums mostly comprised cover versions of these artists' songs.

This album's addition of songs in English makes it more accessible to those who do not speak Khymer. These tracks nicely segment the recording without compromising the band's sound.

With instrumental flavours that include the distinctive Farfisa organ and music that uses Asian scales in the accompaniment, Venus on Earth gives an aural snapshot of another place.

In terms of authenticity, it is difficult to assess its relevance to what really occurred in the Cambodian music scene in the '60s, but the songwriting traverses the language barrier.

The awareness that many listeners will not understand the lyrics seems to have given the band extra incentive to make their parts more interesting. Venus on Earth is refreshingly different, with the focus planted firmly on the music and the shared vision of the members of Dengue Fever. Musicians are sometimes nomadic by nature but the Bedouin Jerry Can Band truly espouses the lifestyle. From the Egyptian Sinai desert, the band are made up of travelling poets, storytellers, coffee grinders and musicians.

This group caused a minor controversy and attracted criticism in their first performances, as they used left- over munitions casings and petrol cans from previous military conflicts as instruments. Using these objects as percussive instruments was perceived to be insulting to many in their native musical community, who view music as sacred and saw these additions as corrosive to the Bedouin cultural heritage.

These criticisms were not shared by audiences, however, and the group's popularity has increased exponentially in the Bedouin community. According to the band, this is largely due to the increase in MP3 players imported into the region via the Suez Canal.

The opening track of this disc is painful to listen to. Luckily, the rest of the songs don't follow in quite the same discordant fashion. They are, however, quite repetitive, and there is little variation in the rhythms or instrumentation.

The jangle of the Simsimiyya, like a lute, or five-string ukelele, is incessant throughout all the songs, and although there is some respite with group chanting on some tracks, it is a little difficult to actively listen to Coffee Time.

The highlight on the album is the song Mallate, which is performed a cappella style, just with vocals and clapping. The tracks that follow it are also similar in their performance, and this works better than the early songs. This album would be much more pleasant if the last five tracks were put first and five of the songs in the middle were cut from the disc.