{"id":3432,"date":"2011-08-18T22:10:41","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T05:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3432"},"modified":"2011-08-18T22:10:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T05:10:41","slug":"dengue-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/dengue-fever\/","title":{"rendered":"DENGUE FEVER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

DENGUE FEVER<\/h1>\n

Giving new life to a genre once thought lost to tragedy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When the brutal Khmer Rouge regime took control of Cambodia in 1975, it set about destroying all elements of Western culture. American-influenced music was banned, and singers like Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron and Ros Sereysothea were put to death along with more than a million of their countrymen. Cambodia\u2019s distinctive brand of garage-style rock practically vanished. \u201cSo much of that music is lost forever,\u201d says Dengue Fever bass player Senon Gaius Williams. \u201cBut their musical legacy lives on to inspire new generations of listeners.\u201d Williams and his bandmates in Dengue Fever have spent the last decade trying their best to make certain that legacy\u00a0remains alive and well.<\/p>\n

Central to Dengue Fever\u2019s take on\u00a0so-called \u201cKhmer rock\u201d is captivating Cambodian songstress Chhom Nimol, who performed regularly before the king and queen of her native country before moving\u00a0to the States in hopes of supporting her\u00a0family through music. Williams, guitarist and vocalist Zac Holtzman, his keyboardist\u00a0brother Ethan Holtzman, drummer Paul Smith and horn player David Ralicke discovered her singing in nightclubs in Long Beach, Calif.\u2014home of the world\u2019s second biggest Cambodian community outside of capital city Phnom Penh. In\u00a02006, the group traveled to Cambodia and became the first to perform Khmer rock there since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.<\/p>\n

Vocal trio the Living Sisters backs Nimol\u2019s voice harmonically on Cannibal Courtship<\/em>, and the self-produced disc further expands Dengue Fever\u2019s steamy sax- and farfisa-driven sound with\u00a0horns and keyboards. The album takes its title from its roiling opening track. \u201cIt\u2019s about the idea of the female praying mantis turning around and eating the head of her lover after sex,\u201d notes Williams. \u201cBut it\u2019s also the idea of two cultures feeding off each other and creating something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the closing cut \u201cDurian Dowry\u201d best sums up Dengue Fever. \u201cThe durian is a fruit that\u2019s considered precious in Cambodia,\u201d says Williams. \u201cThe conga drum in it is straight out of Haitian voodoo ritual\u2014good voodoo, not bad voodoo! So we have this cool Cambodian singer, a bluesy rock riff and a Haitian rhythm supporting it\u2014and it\u2019s wonderful how well\u00a0it all mixes together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jim Bessman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENGUE FEVER Giving new life to a genre once thought lost to tragedy When the brutal Khmer Rouge regime took control of Cambodia in 1975, it set about destroying all elements of Western culture. American-influenced music was banned, and singers like Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron and Ros Sereysothea were put to death along with more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2403,1807,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions\/3435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}