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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Radio Phnom Penh
• Label: Sublime Frequencies
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2005-11-01

I’m assuming that Sublime Frequencies is a mostly unknown treasure, so a bit of an introduction is in order. This tiny San Francisco label specializes in preserving rare and wild World music, especially Asian and Indian pop and folk. These two collections are a great introduction to a whole universe of music you need to hear. If you like J-Pop or Bollywood film soundtrack tunes, check these out.
Radio Phnom Pehn is a collection of, yes, radio broadcasts from Cambodia’s capital city in the 10690’s and early 1970’s. With war next door and Nixon coming, and with the horrors of Pol Pot a few years off, this joyous, rocking Big Beat music filled the airwaves, absorbing Euro-pop and American soul into a stew that would please even today’s hip-hop mix masters. What surprises is the degree of confidence and savvy in the music; this is not pop music that is a lame imitation of Western music. This is not music heard wrong, like much of French pop. What surprises with repeated listening is that Cambodian pop music is a fully formed genre that barely anyone has heard, but need to know.

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