Music release

Sleepwalking Through the Mekong (album)

Sleepwalking Through the Mekong is the 2009 soundtrack to the documentary about Dengue Fever's first tour of Cambodia.[1][2]

About the release

M80 Records released the soundtrack on April 14, 2009, alongside John Pirozzi's documentary Sleepwalking Through the Mekong.[1][2] It came out as a DVD and CD set and as a digital download.[3][2] A 2012 review in Verge Magazine gives the label as Real World Records.[4]

The 17 tracks mix Dengue Fever recordings with collaborations, live material, a dialogue excerpt and classic songs by Cambodian musicians.[1][2] The band plays with the master musicians Tep Mary and Kong Nai, and the disc also carries recordings by Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Meas Samoun and Khee Sokley.[1][2] AllMusic heard the collection as partly an overview of the band's career and partly a record of the sounds and styles that shaped it.[1] It includes two short instrumentals, among them "March of the Balloon Animals," a couple of live tracks and reworkings of earlier songs, such as a "Sleepwalking Version" of "Seeing Hands."[1][2]

"Tip My Canoe" was first recorded by Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea, and "Hold My Hips" by Ros Serey Sothea. "Ethanopium" was written by the Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke.[5] The music joins Cambodian pop, the Khmer rock that had itself drawn on American rock and surf music, with heavy psychedelic and garage sounds.[4] The album is dedicated to the singers and musicians who died under the Pol Pot regime.[5]

Recording

Songs for the film were recorded at Babel Studio in Phnom Penh and Shoebox Studio in Los Angeles.[1][5] Samath Cheng and Sarin Chuon assisted with recording and mixing in Cambodia.[5] Senon Williams handled art direction and graphic design.[5]

Musicians

  • Chhom Nimol, vocals
  • Zac Holtzman, guitar and vocals
  • Ethan Holtzman, keyboards
  • Senon Williams, bass
  • David Ralicke, saxophone and flute
  • Paul Dreux Smith, drums[5][1]

The film

The documentary follows the band's first trip to perform in Cambodia in 2005, a homecoming for Nimol, who was born there.[2][4] It came four years after the Holtzman brothers met Nimol in 2001.[3] Pirozzi, an American director and cinematographer, went with the band, and a small Cambodian crew filmed the trip over ten days.[3] The band performs with Cambodian musicians who have worked to preserve the Khmer sound, and the film ends with a concert in a Phnom Penh slum.[3]

Vinyl edition

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2022, Minky Records issued the soundtrack as a two-LP set on transparent yellow and blue vinyl, catalog number MKY3306.[5][2] It was the soundtrack's first and only vinyl release, limited to 1,000 copies, and it does not include the DVD.[2]

Track list

  1. "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong," Dengue Fever (3:38)
  2. "Dondung Goan Gay," Meas Samoun (3:26)
  3. "March of the Balloon Animals," Dengue Fever (2:15)
  4. "Tip My Canoe," Dengue Fever (4:42)
  5. "Master Tep Mary," Tep Mary and Dengue Fever (2:00)
  6. "Hummingbird," Dengue Fever (5:07)
  7. "New Years Eve," Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea (3:23)
  8. "Ethanopium (Live at Snowy's)," Dengue Fever (6:50)
  9. "Psychologically Healing," dialogue excerpt (0:21)
  10. "The Orphan," Khee Sokley (0:49)
  11. "Master Kong Nai," Kong Nai and Dengue Fever (4:02)
  12. "Hold My Hips," Dengue Fever (4:30)
  13. "Seeing Hands (Sleepwalking Version)," Dengue Fever (3:39)
  14. "Mou Pei Na," Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea (1:54)
  15. "Today I Learnt To Drink," Ros Serey Sothea (2:13)
  16. "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula," Dengue Fever (6:42)
  17. "Phnom Chisor Serenade," Dengue Fever (0:38)[2][1]

Access

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Dengue Fever Music, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong (November 17, 2022)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Dengue Fever on Bandcamp, Sleepwalking Through The Mekong (OST)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Time, A Dose of the Delta Blues (July 27, 2009)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Verge Magazine, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong: Dengue Fever (February 23, 2012)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Discogs, Dengue Fever: Sleepwalking Through The Mekong
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:34.