Review: Various Artists – The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Cambodia

Various Artists

The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Cambodia

World Music Network

Street: 05.27.14

Various Artists = Cambodian Space Project + Dengue Fever

I have never been disappointed with the artifacts dug up through the Rough Guide releases. They are well put-together and explore a wide world of diversity in music. The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Cambodia is two discs of beautifully illustrated, Western-influenced psychedelic rock n’ roll that survived that brutal regime of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge (1975–1979).

Disc 1 includes brilliant numbers like the funk rock n’ roll “Jam 10 Kai Theit,” the organ-heavy “Penh Jet Thar Bong Mouy (A Go Go)” and Dengue Fever’s “Tiger Phone Card.” The second disc includes a cover of “The House of the Rising Sun” performed by Cambodian Space Project. 

This is a collection that has a rich history of a nation that has undergone so much—be sure to find this a home in your collection. –Nick Kuzmack