Cambodian Grooves




















Recently, I checked out the latest full-length movie from Portland filmmaker James Westby entitled Rid of Me. While I had been trepidatious about wasting my time on seeing a movie with Storm Large (kitschy lounge singer from Portland) in it,  I have to say that it was well worth it for the music alone. I'm not going to go into a synopsis of the movie because there are other avenues like Metacritic or IMDB at your disposal if you so desire to go down that road. The reason I am posting today is to let you know about these two fantastic tracks by Ros Sereysothea that are featured at the end of the film.

For the esoteric music aficionados out there, you may recall these tracks being featured on the long out-of-print classic compilation Cambodian Rocks.  The first track entitled "Chnam Un Dop-Pram Muy", translated to "I'm 16" in English,  was a perfect song to show the transformation that the main character Maris was undergoing after dealing with an unexpected twist of fate in her life.  As soon as she steps into the record store, you can literally see her world getting brighter, especially since the object of her affection has invited her into his vinyl kingdom.  As the camera pans around the record store showcasing the vinyl on the shelves, the opening majestic guitar solo perfectly captures the excitement that she experiences, and the world of possibility that is presently at her fingertips.

During the closing scene, we see Maris dancing wildly to the happy song that the guy at the record store confessed was his favorite on the CD.  This little slice of happiness was appropriately called "Tngai Neas Kyom Yam Sra", translated to "Today, I Drink Wine" in English. If it wasn't for checking this movie out the other day, who knows how long I would have gone in my life without being exposed to these two infectious tracks. In both instances, the music is perfectly matched for the subject matter presented in the scene. I can't say enough about the exceptional work put in by this music supervisor.

I hope you guys dig these crazy Cambodian jams.

Ros Sereysothea- Chnam oun Dop-Pram Muy and Tngai Neas Kyom Yam Sra

Drop me a line in the comments to let me know what you think, or what types of music you are digging these days.

Comments

icastico said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
7:17 PM
Dolmance said…
I had a number of these same tracks, in varying quality, even through all were in 320, but I was able to get rid of them all and replace them with these -- this has a much better sound going for it. Thank you so much.
11:59 AM
Kevin said…
Hi Dolmance. I'm glad that you are digging these songs. It sounds like the ones I have posted are in much better quality than the ones you already had. Make sure you check out the Groove Club compilations that are out on Light in the Attic records. They feature songs from Ros Serysothea, Pan ron, Sinn Sisamouth and Choun Maial.

Best,

Kevin
8:27 AM
ONTOLOGY said…
there's an entire ros sereysothea compilation by murky recess that can be found here:

http://murkyrecess.blogspot.com/2011/03/ros-sereysothea-boiled-snail-girl.html
2:34 PM
NØ said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
6:25 PM
NØ said…
Kevin,

I've been so busy working on Musick around the World thing that I haven't had much of a chance to check out fellow bloggers, but I saw you posted this & wanted to direct anyone interested to my Cambodia post from August 11.

I posted up some great compilations (six huge volumes) of Ros, the golden voice of Cambodia & also a relatively in depth bio.

Just thought NØ Sez, cuz that's what I duz.
6:27 PM
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