Dengue Fever — Sleepwalking Through The Mekong

Los Angeles-based, Cambodian-inspired band Dengue Fever pulled a cultural first four years ago and became the first foreign band to perform in Cambodia in the country's native tongue, Khymer. The group's performance at the Bon Om Thook water festival and visit to Phnom Penh were captured on film.

The related soundtrack is dominated by Dengue Fever material. There are several songs from 2005's Escape From Dragon House, most notably the touching "Hummingbird" and a number of instrumental tracks used as musical support for the band's almost Beatle-esque adventures in and around the capital city. This includes some harrowing trips on motor scooters and a visit to a variety/vaudeville-like show on Cambodia's state television.

A few classic '60s surf-tinged psychedelic pop songs by Cambodian singers Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea — whose music was the original inspiration for Dengue Fever's formation — are also included. The soundtrack is accompanied by the documentary on DVD, and it stands alone as a great Cambodian music sampler — especially in exposing the unique merging of traditional Khymer music with Western pop music to the rest of the world. Much traditional Khymer music was lost during the vicious Pol Pot regime in the '70s.

Dengue Fever are invited throughout the film to play with several Cambodian music masters, including string player Kong Nai. Their sweet collaboration "Master Kong Nai" beautifully highlights this portion of the documentary. Other standouts include the eerily peaceful title track and a live version of "Ethanopium" performed at a tiny Phnom Penh club called Snowy's. It's a catchy jazz-inspired instrumental track driven by a swirling battle between Ethan Holtzman's Farfisa organ and David Ralicke's saxophone.

The soundtrack is a great example of the cultural crossroads between classic Cambodian rock and the American homage/reinterpretation of that almost lost sound.

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