Latest Review: Magic Lantern - High Beams

Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]

1st Khmer Rouge Leader Charged

A little world news and a remembrance of lives and music lost…

Today, Kang Kek Ieu, one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia during the late 1970’s, is the first of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders to be charged for crimes against humanity. Read whole story from BBC News, here…

Since becoming familiar with it, I have been quite taken by the music of the Cambodian artists from the late 60’s and early 70’s who performed songs in the style of the British and American garage/blues rock bands. Similar to the way soul and R&B from the U.S. heavily influenced the beginnings of reggae music in Jamaica, rock music of the 1960’s began to infiltrate Cambodia via radio that G.I’s listened to during the war, and in turn influenced Cambodian artists to create music in a similar fashion, though also mixing in some traditional instrumentation and a completely unique Cambodian vocal style. At times Cambodian artists would even cover U.S. or British songs from the era adding original lyrics and as always singing them in their native language.

A few of the artists I’ve been able to track down music for are, Ros Sereysothea, Sinn Sisamouth and Pan Ron, all of whom were innovative in this style and very popular in Cambodia at the time, though little known internationally. Needless to say there must have been dozens of other artists from the time whose music will be completely lost forever. The tragic end that most of these artists succumbed to at the hand of the Khmer Rouge leadership, and the resulting loss of their contribution to twentieth century music as most know it, adds a dark and mysterious element to these beautiful songs.

You may have seen the post here a couple weeks ago about the film “Sleepwalking Through the Mekong,” which follows the L.A. based band Dengue Fever as they perform in Cambodia. It is through Dengue Fever and this film that I began to seek out this “lost” Cambodian music, so to them I am grateful.

Enjoy Arom Pai Pat (mp3) by Ros Sereysothea
[audio:Arom_Pai_Pat.mp3]

Chan Penh Boromey (mp3) by Pan Ron
[audio:Chan_Penh_Boromey_PanRon.mp3]