Format Details:
Release Date: 26 May 2017
Label: Tuk Tuk Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 020286221951
Genres: World Music Alternative
Release Date: 15 July 2022
Label: Tuk Tuk Records
Packaging Type: Gate Fold Vinyl
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 020286236474
Genres: World Music Alternative
Description
Dengue Fever's sophomore album Escape From Dragon House is set was originally released in 2005 and features some of their best know material. Reissued in a deluxe format in May 2017 with four additional bonus tracks added to the original release, this album has never been released outside of the United States & Canada. Bonus tracks include remix from Grammy nominated American progressive and electro house DJ and music producer Morgan page. .
For their sophomore album, Dengue Fever switch away from their nearly all-covers repertoire to try something a little more bold -- writing originals while still developing their rock-music-into-Cambodian-pop-and-back-again approach. It's actually a good move in order to escape from lingering questions of "just" being a museum piece of a group. Happily the six-piece step up, introducing an interesting curveball as well with a newly professed interest in the upbeat, horn-driven Ethiopian pop/funk/rock of the '60s and '70s collected in the Ethiopiques series. Though one could cynically wonder if the band is going to end up incorporating a new retro scene per album, Dengue Fever clearly are out to entertain by whatever means, and by putting a slew of things together, create something new and unexpected. Chhon Nimol's singing is again top-notch, even slipping in a bit of hip-hop flow on "Sui Bong," while her greater fluency in English also creates more of a truly unique sound for the band. The Holtzman brothers again provide the musical core, with Ethan's work on organ providing the kind of smoky funk appropriate to the proceedings. Zac's guitar adds good crunch, but it's the strength of the overall arrangements that truly matters the most, as songs slip from bass/drum breakdowns to horn-driven explosions of joy. Standout moments include the nervous, almost early Cure-style introduction to "Tap Water," the beautiful ballad "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong," and the acid-trip drama of "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula," which deserves to be a neo-psychedelic classic. The one cover this time around, "Tip My Canoe," is of legendary Cambodian singer Ros Serey Sothea, with Zac duetting with Nimol, a feat they repeat in English, Nimol taking the lead, on the passionate "Made of Steam." It would be striking to see what Dengue Fever could do with engaging fusions of the current day -- there are pop, techno, and hip-hop numbers worldwide as joyfully inspired and specifically local as those older songs the group adores. No matter, though, so long as the band keeps creating such excellent work. (AMG 2005)
Description
DENGUE FEVER's debut album was all covers of the cute, romantic Cambodian pop of the 1960s - Having gotten that out of their systems, they've followed it with an album of original material that shatters the language barrier with mildly psychedelic, blissed out pop.
On "Tip My Canoe", Zac Holtzman takes a stab at singing in Khmer, laying those long, mellifluous syllables over a tweaky vamp, as Nimol uses her imposing pipes to trace accents so dynamic that they sound almost vocodered as she leaps around her impressive range. "Sni Bong" channels Dick Dale through its verses and explodes into crunchy garage rock choruses, with a– wait for it– Cambodian rap bridge. "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" pairs sun-baked spaghetti western guitars with Nimol's clipped, forceful singing, and acoustic ballad "Hummingbird" closes the album on a quiet note, with Nimol sliding between English and Khmer. If that fact that Dengue Fever's music has been used in films as diverse as Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers and the John Cusack vehicle Must Love Dogs isn't proof enough of its potent versatility, then the ease and unity with which the band conflates idioms should be.
Tracklisting
Tracklisting
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever
