The sticker on my cd box advertises Dengue Fever as "The world's premier Cambodian psychedelic rock band". An assertion of dubious worth, given that the originators of that sound were executed by Pol Pot during the Khmer Rouge period and almost all evidence of its existence wiped out during the late 70's. This particular band's roots don't go that far back of course. Their beginning can be traced to organist Ethan Holtzman's backpacking holiday in that country in the late 90's, which saw him acquainted with both the infectious dengue fever and the (also infectious but much less malign) sounds of 60's-70's Cambodian psychedelic bands. These played a hybrid of exotica, lounge, surf and garage rock. Only a handful of records were saved from the vengeful Pol Pot regime, but they sparked the Holtzman brothers imagination to the point of inspiring them to form their own Cambodian psychedelic band. Miraculously, they stumbled into Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian-born singer of exquisite looks and even better voice, and Dengue Fever were born. This third release sees the band mixing their faithful 60's Cambodian psych sound with alternative rock and introducing English lyrics for some songs. Yes, chunky guitars, swirling farfisas and late-night sax are still present, but the whole thing is less retro and informed by an indie pop sensibility. Yes, Nimol's high-range vocals remain dominant but she sounds less exotic in English and even shares lead vocals with guitarist Zach Holtzman for "Sober Driver" and the collection's semi-hit "Tiger Phone Card", a song dealing with a long distance love affair. Opener "Seeing Hands" is a more typical DF song, with psyhedelic guitars and exotic vocals sung exclusively in Khmer, while "Clipped Wings" is slow and sensual and "Woman in the Shoes" a bilingual ballad combining 60's sounds with Belle & Sebastian-like indie pop. "Monsoon of Perfume" is a melodramatic ballad which could have escaped from a corny 60's movie or a night club where American GI's get drunk between bombing Vietnamese villages. "Integratron"'s funky exotica seems to have been inspired by Ethiopian jazzist Mulatu Astatke and features yet another excellent vocal by Nimol. "Oceans of Venus" is a surf instrumental ("Twilight zone" with ripping sax), "Laugh Track" soul and "Tooth an Nail" a corny bi-lingual ballad. "Mr. Orange" comes closer to my favourite kind of music, Nuggets-style garage rock with lots of farfisa organ. My version of the album closes with a kick-ass live freakout rendition of their "One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula". ''Ocean Of Venus" found Dengue Fever renewing their sound and attempting to broaden their audience and achieve mainstream success. I sincerely hope they do, because they're better and more original than most of the bands dominating the charts.
**** for Seeing Hands, Tiger Phone Card, Intergratron, Mr. Orange, One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula
*** for Clipped Wings, Woman In the Shoes, Sober Driver, Monsoon Of Perfume, Oceans Of Venus
** for Laugh Track, Tooth And Nail
