Sleepwalking Through the Mekong by Dengue Fever @ ARTISTdirect.com

Sleepwalking Through The Mekong chronicles the journey taken by Los Angeles based Khmer rock band Dengue Fever to lead singer Chhom Nimol’s native Cambodia during the 2005 Water Festival. The band's performances there marked the first time a Western band had performed classic 1960s and '70s Cambodian rock 'n' roll in the country where it was created and nearly erased from existence by the brutal Pol Pot regime.

More than a rockumentary, the film serves up a portrait of modern Cambodia as the band tours through Phnom Penh and beyond, crossing a great cultural chasm with the same spirit of Cambodia's original rock pioneers. The film has screened at a diverse number of festivals and museums including The Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, The Hawaiian International Film Festival, Roskilde Festival, The Istanbul Museum of Fine Art and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

DVD bonus material includes a biography of the band Dengue Fever, live performance segments, comments from director John Pirozzi, segments on the Cambodian Water Festival, the traditional Cambodian Coconut Dance and Cambodia’s Master Musicians.

The accompanying CD soundtrack includes classic tracks from Cambodian artists Ros Serey Sothea, Sinn Sisamouth and Meas Samoun, as well as original material created by Cambodian master musicians Tep Mary and Kong Nai with Dengue Fever, and previously unreleased Dengue Fever instrumental tracks "March of The Balloon Animals" and "Phnom Chisor Serenade".

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All Music Guide Review

Dengue Fever's increasingly notable role as a flashpoint band for myriad styles -- starting with but less and less limited to re-creating 1960s Cambodian fuzz-pop smashes -- gets a logical summary with Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, part career overview and part documentary of the sounds and styles which originally prompted the L.A.-based group into existence. The collection itself pairs up with an enjoyable documentary featuring the group's first tour of Cambodia itself, homeland of its powerful lead singer Chhom Nimol, but on its own the soundtrack makes for a good introduction for both neophytes to the group and its larger context. Only a few songs are full-on rarities for any dedicated Dengue Fever fan to start with -- two brief instrumentals, including the wonderfully titled "March of the Balloon Animals," plus a couple of live tracks and reworkings of earlier songs, including "Seeing Hands," its rhythmic keyboard vamp and guitar twang and buried vocals resulting in a compelling version as much Spacemen 3 as Sinn Sisamouth. The latter features on the disc along with other classic performers such as Ros Serey Sothea, whose "Today I Learnt to Drink" nearly steals the whole disc. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Dengue Fever

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