Review: Dengue Fever – Girl from the North

Dengue Fever

Girl from the North

Tuk Tuk Records

Street: 12.03.13

Dengue Fever = Lady Murasaki + Garbage + Kill Bill

With ’60s Cambodian pop as their main influence, which itself was the product of the Western influence that made its way into Cambodia at the time, Dengue Fever are taking all that is old and making it new again. The tunes are Eastern-ized Western pop, re-Westernized for a new generation—got that?

Truly, what they’ve done is really lovely. The music is twinkly and light, and the vocals are enchantingly foreign (female vocalist Chom Nimol generally sings in her native Khmer). It has a quality about it that makes it feel like a magic spell is being cast.

I struggle to compare it to much else because I am limited in my experience with the specific genre of Cambodian pop music—though I’m more informed than ever before now that I’ve been introduced to this gem of a project! Might I suggest you too get yourself informed? Dengue Fever is just the place to start—dig in! –Ischa B.