Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Minky Records
• ASIN: B002WSYLRQ
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,904 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Give Me One Kiss

2. Don't Speak

3. Jombang Jet

4. Flowers in the Pond

5. Shave Your Beard

6. I Will Marry You

7. I Want to Shout

8. Jasmine Girl

9. I Want to Be Your Lover

10. Hope to Meet You

11. Snaeha

12. I Will Starve Myself to Death

13. Cold Sky

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Note from Dengue Fever, February 7, 2010

By 

Ethan Holtzman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia (Audio CD)

We compiled this music from cassette tapes collected over the years. A couple of the songs do sound as if they were altered in a later decade, that was not by Dengue Fever. We were aware of this, and apologize if anyone felt mislead, but we weren't able to track down the original, but still felt the song was worthy of being on the compilation.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars unfortunate overdubs, February 7, 2010

By 

BAKSEY "BC" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia (Audio CD)

The story behind the status of the original recordings is still a big mystery that remains to be solved. It's a miracle that so much of the music survived considering so many of the singers and musicians did not. There is very little visual documentation out there, only a few films/videos/stills can be found. Someone, probably a Cambodian company post-Khmer Rouge, took original recordings and for whatever reasons added instrumentation. I have spoken to Cambodians who like the new versions but of course any music purist will be disappointed not to be able to hear the music in its original form. That said I am more than glad that so much of the music survived, even the songs with the occasional overdub, given how much of modern Cambodia was destroyed. Somewhere, someone has the original material that the overdubbed music was generated from. My guess is they were adding instrumentation and then selling the music, mostly to Cambodians who never forgot their music, way before Western ears stumbled across this stuff. Perhaps, due to unclear copyright laws, the people initally selling this music choose to remain hidden, as do the original tracks. Hopefully one day they will archive the music properly so everyone can enjoy the originals the way they were intended to be. Until that day we have to be happy with what we can get. There is a very good chance that a few tracks on Electric Cambodia have some overdubs but I am sure Dengue Fever felt that including them was far better then not, otherwise some of these gems might vanish like the people who originally created them.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, there are overdubs, but..., June 26, 2010

By 

Ron Hawkins - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia (Audio CD)

I live in Cambodia and have many cds of this kind of material. It is very hard to get it without overdubs. While annoying to my Western music purist ears, to hear this music you need to put up with the later tampering. I do look continually look for the unmodified sounds and have some. The overdubs are there to make the music danceable, Khmers love to dance and need to hear the strong beat that isn't present on the original recordings. They are not purists about it, and laugh when I tell them that I want it without the overdubs. In a Third World country, fan boy hand wringing is pretty laughable. It's their music not ours.

As to the music, it is a good compilation of great music that was almost lost to us. It was music made for dancing in nightclubs and so is groovy more than heavy.