Dengue Fever: Cannibal Courtship - Movie Reviews, Music Reviews ...
Dengue Fever
Cannibal Courtship
Rating: 3.6/5.0
Label: Fantasy
Dengue Fever is changing. The Los Angeles-based group hasn't made any adjustments to its lineup or to the fundamental ingredients of its sound - still churning out playful traipses informed by bygone and international movements in surf, jazz and garage, still impressively fronted by famous-in-Cambodia singer Chhom Nimol - but the difference is undeniable. Where the focus of their 2003 self-titled debut and 2005's Escape from Dragon House was mostly on infusing new life into covers of classic 1960s and '70s Khmer surf-pop ballads from the likes of Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea and others, it's not so on this record. Ditching the covers and exclusively Khmer-language vocals of the first two albums and the almost sap-slow pace of third record Venus on Earth, Cannibal Courtship is a beast entirely of Dengue Fever's design. And better as an album for it.
The brand of spinning, spray-soaked Khmer rock the band pay tribute to, and into which they often introduce discordant Ethiopian jazz rhythms in the style of Mahmoud Ahmed or Mulatu Astatke and now healthy doses of indie rock, resulted from the permeation of Vietnam-era American R&B, rock and roll and surf culture into Cambodia before the rise of the Khmer Rouge. The group itself was first formed in 2001 through a similar blending of interests and backgrounds. As it's been told, the band sans singer, on the hunt for a vocalist to give life to their psychedelic, hypnotic combination of loose percussion, Farfisa organ, and slicing guitar riffs, met Nimol while she was working at a nightclub in Long Beach and convinced her to join the group. In 2005, following their acclaimed second album, Dengue Fever visited Nimol's home country on their first international tour, and in 2009 the film Sleepwalking through the Mekong, a document of their trip, was released.
While on their newest Nimol's vocals are reduced even more than on Venus, on which Nimol and guitarist Zac Holtzman shared singing duties for the first time, the reduced presence has led to increased attention and energy among the band backing her here. Holtzman wails on guitar, producing great riffs on "Uku" and "Only a Friend," bassist Senon Williams (formerly also a member of Radar Brothers) keeps each track rolling fuzzily with assistance from Paul Smith's lively drumming, and David Ralicke's brass, more pronounced than on any other record previously, burst and rip in Morphine and Afrobeat waves. Though the thread is lost a little by the record's midpoint, descending into less-inspired lounge and messier pop songs, the first half is rattling and heavy, and closer "Durian Dowry" seals the deal in a sparkler just sad and just funky enough to leave a lasting mark.
On Cannibal's first half, really good things abound - the soft Khmer vocals and woodwinds on "Only A Friend," a kind of sequel to Venus' "Tiger Phone Card," deliver a catchy, warbling story of long-distance love, and the bridge delivers venereal menace in English: "I'm overseas/ Flirting with girls/ And catchin' diseases." The extremely spiky "Family Business," a veiled send-up of the military-industrial complex ("Business is good/ She carves her heart/ On every missile that she kisses"), is playful and impassioned. On both as well as "Cement Slippers," the intercut male/female vocals work with splendid effect. The title track, the album's lackadaisical opener, crackles in handclaps, harmonies and crunching guitar. "Uku" is worth it simply for the heavy lick and groove that stomp in 45 seconds into it, blowing the lid off the song, not to mention the hovering vocal presence of Nimol, who reflects in Khmer about how "we used to run and play, hide and seek/ But now we are far apart" while Zac's brother Ethan Holtzman provides elegant phrasing on keys. After the slight wrong turn of Venus on Earth, it's relieving to see Dengue Fever on the right path again, pushing their sound as far as it can go, unafraid of whatever offspring the strange marriage of sounds a Cannibal Courtship might produce.
by Joe Clinkenbeard
Key Tracks: Uku, Only a Friend
Source: http://spectrumculture.com/2011/05/dengue-fever-cannibal-courtship.html
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