Music release
2011: A Space Odyssey
2011: A Space Odyssey is the first album by the Cambodian psychedelic rock band The Cambodian Space Project, released by Metal Postcard in 2011.[1][2]
About the release
The album holds nine songs and runs 30 minutes.[1][3] It was recorded in Cambodia as a tribute to the musicians of the country's musical golden age.[1] Most of the songs were first written by or for Ros Sereysothea, Sin Sisamouth and Pan Ron, and the band reworked them with a Western edge.[1] Eight of the nine songs are new versions of Khmer songs that had been largely forgotten.[4] The sound mixes psychedelic Khmer pop, rock and 1960s surf music with Cambodian vocals.[1]
The band also wrote a couple of songs of its own for the record, among them "Mean Visa Kmean Bai" ("Have Visa, No Have Rice").[5][6] On "Kolos Srey Chaom" ("Love Gold"), the singer sets the words of a Ros Sereysothea song over the tune of "I'm Your Venus" by the Dutch band Shocking Blue.[1]
Metal Postcard released the album on September 5, 2011.[3] It was issued in an eight-panel digipak, a folding card case.[1] A worldwide Metal Postcard Records edition is dated 2016.[7]
Musicians
The Cambodian Space Project was formed by the singer Kak Channthy and the Australian musician Julien Poulson.[2][6] Channthy, whose stage names include Srey Thy, was singing in a karaoke bar in Phnom Penh when Poulson first heard her in 2009.[4][5] The band that made the album brought together Australian, French and Cambodian musicians.[5] It took its inspiration from Cambodian singers of the 1960s and early 1970s, the years known as Cambodia's golden age.[2] The band went on to tour 24 countries and signed with the Australian independent label FOUR FOUR.[2] This was its first album, and further releases followed through 2017.[2]
Reception
Lisa Hresko reviewed the album on September 16, 2011, and called it a pop party of reworked classic Cambodian pop.[5] She named the cover of Ros Sereysothea's "Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy" ("I'm Sixteen"), with its guitar and harmonica solo, as one of the standout tracks.[5] Her review also argued that politics are deeply embedded in the album, because Cambodian popular music cannot be separated from the genocide of 1975 to 1979.[5] Sereysothea, Pan Ron and Sin Sisamouth, whose songs the album covers, were among the many artists who met brutal ends under the Khmer Rouge.[5]
Track list
The songs include "Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy (I'm Sixteen)," "Rom Chong Vat A Go Go (Dancing A Go Go)," "Kolos Srey Chaom" and "Mean Visa Kmean Bai (Have Visa, No Have Rice)."[5][1]
Access
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 World Music Central, Khmer Pop with The Cambodian Space Project (June 28, 2015)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Wikipedia, Kak Channthy
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Metal Postcard Records, The Cambodian Space Project: 2011: A Space Odyssey
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cambodian Space Project, Adieu Channthy
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Cambodian Space Project, Flashback! Digging up CSP's first year in photos and reviews
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Quietus, Out of the Darkness: The Cambodian Space Project
- ↑ Shazam, 2011 a Space Odyssey