Cambodian Rocks

Cambodian Rocks
Compilation album
Released	1996
Genre	Psychedelic rock, garage rock, Psychedelic pop, romvong
Length	69:34
Language	Khmer
Label	Parallel World
Compiler	Paul Wheeler

Cambodian Rocks is a compilation of 22 uncredited, untitled Cambodian psychedelic and garage rock songs from the late 1960s and early 1970s, just before the Khmer Rouge. Several of the artists are believed to have been killed during the Cambodian Genocide, and little information about them or their creative output has survived. The album has been lauded for its music as well as its historical and cultural significance, and inspired a 2015 documentary film about Cambodian music, Don't Think I've Forgotten. It was released in 1996 on the Parallel World label.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Historical context

In the years before the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Cambodia had a flourishing music scene. Particularly in Phnom Penh, artists were combining traditional and native styles with those from the West.^[1]

The Khmer Rouge regime, led by Pol Pot, wanted to return the nation of Cambodia to an idyllic notion of the past by implementing a radical form of agrarian socialism while simultaneously shunning outside aid and influence.^[6] In order to build and protect their utopian goals, the regime perceived enmity in anyone tied to the previous Cambodian governments, ethnic and religious minorities, intellectuals, and members of certain professions.^[7] Artists posed a threat due to their own influence on culture, incompatibility with an agrarian lifestyle, or exhibiting foreign influence. Between 1975 and 1979 about 2 millions people (25% of the country's population) were killed during the ensuing Cambodian Genocide.^[7] Several of the artists on Cambodian Rocks are thought to have been among those killed, and information about them destroyed along with much of their creative output.

Production

	Yol Aularong - "Yuvajon Kouge Jet" Sample of Yol Aularong's "Yuvajon Kouge Jet" (track 13)
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While a tourist in Cambodia in 1994, American Paul Wheeler became interested in music he had been hearing around Siem Reap. He purchased "about six tapes" of music from a market vendor and assembled a mixtape of his favorite tracks.^[8][9] His friend at the Parallel World label in New York City, upon hearing the mixtape, agreed to release 1,000 copies on vinyl. When they sold out, the label issued the much more widely known CD version, containing 22 songs instead of the original 13.^[2][4][8]

Several reviewers have likened the album to a bootleg.^[1][3][4] Neither Wheeler nor Parallel World provided any information about the artists or names of the tracks.^[2] When re-issued in 2003, reviewer Mack Hagood criticized Parallel World for reifying its bootleg status by retaining the anonymous tracklist. Information had become more widely available through the Internet and, once identified and credited, work could be done to search for surviving artists or their families who would likely benefit greatly from royalties.^[10]

The cover art since the first release has been a charcoal rubbing taken from Angkor Wat.^[10]

Musical style

Singer Pan Ron c. 1968

The recordings reflect the influence of Western music, especially that of the United States through its heavy involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s.^[4] Yol Aularong's "Yuvajon Kouge Jet", for example, has been noted as sounding like a "fuzzed-out, reverb-soaked"^[4] "go-go organ and fuzz-guitar"^[8] cover of Them's "Gloria".^[1] Other tracks have been likened to Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Santana, and The Animals.^[4][8] The result is a fusion rather than a copy, blending elements of Western garage and psychedelic rock with instrumental innovations, Khmer vocal techniques, and the popular romvong "circle dance music" trend.^[1][11][12] Several reviews describe the uncanny quality of the songs using words like "mystery" and "familiarity", to help account for the album's wide appeal at a time when such compilations were less common.^[1][4][5]

Several of the artists on Cambodian Rocks, like Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron, and Ros Sereysothea, had been quite successful before the Khmer Rouge, while others achieved fame posthumously.^[2][4][11]

Reception and legacy

The album has received praise for its musical content as well as historical and cultural significance. Rolling Stone called it "a marvel of cultural appropriation"^[12] and said it exhibits "all manner of virtuosity".^[13] Far East Audio ascribed it the label "instant classic",^[10] while Allmusic said the album is "an incredible historical document of late-'60s to early-'70s Cambodian rock".^[1] Nick Hanover called it an "unpredictably playful" mix with "each track...a continuous surprise, a fusion of elements that should be contradictory but somehow strike a balance of West and East -- organ hooks swerving between fierce guitar riffs that antagonize vocals that frequently sound closer to ghostly siren wails than traditional pop melodies."^[11] The New York Times said the album and the circumstances of its release "established a lasting aura of mystery around the music."^[5]

Cambodian Rocks was the first release of its kind, followed by a number of similar compilations like Cambodian Cassette Archives and other unrelated titles by the same or similar names, inspired by the original or exploiting its weak standing with regard to intellectual property.^{[3][5][9][10]} It also gave rise, in part, to a broader trend of Western interest in obscure psychedelic and progressive rock from the rest of the world.^[5]

The California band Dengue Fever, known for its Khmer rock performances, has recorded a number of covers of tracks from Cambodian Rocks.^[2][5][14] The album inspired founding member Ethan Holtzman to travel to Cambodia, forming the band upon his return to California.^[4] The band's singer is Cambodian emigrant Chhom Nimol, who lived in a refugee camp in Thailand during the Khmer Rouge.^[15]

Filmmaker John Pirozzi received a copy of the album while in Cambodia filming City of Ghosts and began researching the stories of the artists. Eventually, he tracked down material to create the 2015 documentary, Don't Think I've Forgotten, about pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian music.^[5][16][17]

Track listing

Singer/songwriter Sinn Sisamouth

Cambodian Rocks includes 22 songs. Although the album provides no track information, fans and researchers have identified the artists and song names. The table below includes both the original romanized Khmer titles and English translations.^[2][10]

See also

• Dance in Cambodia
• Music of Cambodia
• Traditional Cambodian musical instruments

References

External links

• Cambodian Rocks at Discogs
• Cambodian Rocks at MusicBrainz