Music release
Electric Blue Boogaloo
Electric Blue Boogaloo is a 2015 album by The Cambodian Space Project, recorded in France with the Detroit producer Jim Diamond.[1][2]
About the release
The band counts Electric Blue Boogaloo as its fourth official release.[1][3] The sessions produced 13 songs.[1] Many are the band's own songs, some rework older material, and only a couple are Cambodian covers.[1] One cover is a new recording of the band's first single, "Kynom Mon Sot Jey Tay"; the other is a little-known song by Pan Ron.[1] The album also covers "Demon Lover" by the Dutch band Shocking Blue.[4] Its songs come from many countries: Mexico, Italy, Holland, Thailand, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Cambodia.[3]
The music draws on Mexican garage rock, French yé-yé pop, Shocking Blue, Serge Gainsbourg, the 13th Floor Elevators of Texas and Italian freakbeat of the 1960s.[5] Kak Channthy's Khmer vocals stand at the center, in a mix of Detroit, Phnom Penh and San Francisco sounds.[2] On two songs other band members take the lead and Channthy sings a secondary part; their sound recalls Texas bars of the mid-1960s.[2] "He's Not There" brings her back to lead vocals and recalls 1960s Phnom Penh.[2] "Il Sai Troppo Langa" is a country-and-western song, and "Demon Lover" is slower and more emotional.[2] Julien Poulson called it the band's "rawest, grittiest, twangiest, most reverby, fuzzed out work to date."[3]
Channthy named Electric Blue Boogaloo as her favorite of the band's albums and said its songs were very personal to her.[4]
Recording
The band met Jim Diamond, known as a producer for the White Stripes, in Detroit in 2013 and brought him in to produce the new album.[2][3] Diamond recorded it in Écotay-l'Olme, a village in the Loire department of France, and played bass guitar on the sessions.[1] David Eugene Webb, a drummer based in the United Kingdom, played drums, and a group of French musicians joined as guests.[1][6] The album blends Diamond's Detroit background with the band's travels through Mexico, Europe, the United States and Cambodia.[2]
In September 2014 the album was due out that October, and its song titles were still working titles.[2] In November 2014 Poulson said it would come out the following year.[3] The band held an Electric Blue Boogaloo show at Space Four Zero in Phnom Penh on September 19, 2014.[2] The release carries a 2015 copyright.[6] At the time of Channthy's interview with Cassie Ching, the album was available only on Bandcamp.[4]
Background
The Cambodian Space Project began in Phnom Penh as an idea to bridge Khmer and Western music and to create shows for both audiences.[5] By September 2014 the band had been confirmed to play the WOMAD and Glastonbury festivals in 2015.[2]
Track list
The Bandcamp edition includes "Saravan Rap," "Before The Fall," "Now I Understand Love," "He's Not There," "Get On This Plane," "Dirty Filthy Mud," "Rom Ding Dong," "Demon Lover," "Monster Fuzz" and "Broken Hearted Wo-Man."[6] "It's Not Easy Rock'n'Roll" also came from the sessions.[1]
Access
- The Cambodian Space Project on Bandcamp
- Cambodian Space Project: In Other Words, The Songs of Kak Channthy
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Cambodian Space Project, In Other Words: The Songs of Kak Channthy
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Advisor, Monkeys in space (September 18, 2014)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Grantourismo Travels, Cambodian Space Project: a Chat with Kak Channthy (November 8, 2014)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cambodian Space Project, Kak Channthy speaks with Cassie Ching on Love, Songs and Cows
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Neocha, The Cambodian Space Project
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Cambodian Space Project on Bandcamp, Electric Blue Boogaloo