• Give Me One Kiss

  Dara Chom Chan  

  1

• Don't Speak

  Pan Ron  

  2

• Jombang Jet

  Pan Ron  

  3

• Flowers in the Pond

  Ros Sereysothea  

  4

• Shave Your Beard

  Ros Sereysothea  

  5

• I Will Marry You

  Pan Ron  

  6

• I Want to Shout

  Ros Sereysothea  

  7

• Jasmine Girl*

  Sinn Sissamouth  

  8

• I Want to Be Your Lover

  Pan Ron  

  9

• Hope to Meet You*

  Unknown  

  10

• Sneaha

  Pan Ron  

  11

• I Will Starve Myself to Death

  Ros Sereysothea  

  12

• Unknown Title

  Pan Ron  

  13

• Cold Sky

  Ros Sereysothea  

  14

The band Dengue Fever have managed to build a career out of their obsession with Cambodian pop music of the 1960s and ’70s, and with this compilation, they’ve generously allowed fans to sample their treasure trove of rare recordings, rescued from battered cassettes brought back from visits to Southeast Asia. The music on Electric Cambodia: 14 Rare Gems from Cambodia’s Past more closely walks a middle ground between the distinct melodic and vocal style of traditional Cambodian music and the insistent rhythms and electric instrumentation of Western pop and rock; instead of suggesting Asian folk music with some American pop added to the mix, these tunes tend to offer a more equal fusion of the two styles, and the creative and cultural mashups result in some inspired combinations. Highlights include the bright, kinetic sound of Ros Sereysothea’s “I Want to Shout” (complete with a killer guitar solo), the assured R&B shuffle of “Shave Your Beard” from the same act, “Give Me One Kiss” by Dara Chom Chan, which recalls an Asian girl group backed by a ska band, and several cuts from Pan Ron, including the polished but driving garage rock of “Don’t Speak,” some heavily rhythmic psychedelia with “Jombang Jet,” an appropriately melodramatic cover of Sonny Bono’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” dubbed “Snaeha,” and an untitled number that features some deadly fuzztone riffs Link Wray would admire. Source: AllMusic