Dengue Fever – Cannibal Courtship

(Fantasy, 2011)

Dengue Fever mixes elements of Cambodian pop and psychedelic rock with a hint of jazz on Cannibal Courtship to create a wonderfully upbeat and trippy surf rock atmosphere.

The album starts off sounding like 60’s pop with nothing too out of the ordinary, an organ being a nice touch. However, by the second track, Cement Slippers, it is obvious this band is a little different and out there to have fun, the opening line reads: My girlfriend likes everything at the beach except the water, the sand, and the sun. The organ being more pronounced, and it is this use of the Farfisa which gives this album a real edge.

Dengue Fever consists of five guys from Los Angeles founded by brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman who went on to recruit Cambodian karaoke songstress, Chhom Nimol, to share vocal duties with Zac. Many songs feature Khmer lyrics; some solely – Uku comes across as traditional Cambodian pop; and some with shared vocal duties – Only A Friend has Zac sing the chorus: I’m overseas flirting with girls and catching diseases / He makes her laugh and he keeps her from falling to pieces. I could hazard a guess, but it would be interesting to know her lines.

Cannibal Courtship is very striking with its array and fusion of culture and musical styles. Despite this mix the album seems very uniform with all tracks feeling like they belong, from the very popish tunes Family Business and Thank You Goodbye, to the traditional Uku and Kiss of the Bufo Alvarius, to 2012 (Bury Our Heads), my personal favourite song here which calmly deals with theories of the world’s end in 2012.