Sleepwalking Through the Mekong

AMG Review of Sleepwalking Through the Mekong

Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

Dengue Fever's increasingly notable role as a flashpoint band for myriad styles -- starting with but less and less limited to re-creating 1960s Cambodian fuzz-pop smashes -- gets a logical summary with Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, part career overview and part documentary of the sounds and styles which originally prompted the L.A.-based group into existence. The collection itself pairs up with an enjoyable documentary featuring the group's first tour of Cambodia itself, homeland of its powerful lead singer Chhom Nimol, but on its own the soundtrack makes for a good introduction for both neophytes to the group and its larger context. Only a few songs are full-on rarities for any dedicated Dengue Fever fan to start with -- two brief instrumentals, including the wonderfully titled "March of the Balloon Animals," plus a couple of live tracks and reworkings of earlier songs, including "Seeing Hands," its rhythmic keyboard vamp and guitar twang and buried vocals resulting in a compelling version as much Spacemen 3 as Sinn Sisamouth. The latter features on the disc along with other classic performers such as Ros Serey Sothea, whose "Today I Learnt to Drink" nearly steals the whole disc.