Music release
2011: A Space Odyssey
2011: A Space Odyssey is the debut album of the Cambodian psychedelic rock band The Cambodian Space Project, issued by Metal Postcard Records in 2011.[1]
About the release
The album holds nine songs and runs 30 minutes.[2] Its liner notes call it a homage to Cambodian musicians of the golden era, 1960 to 1975, and name the singers Ros Sereysothea, Sin Sisamouth and Pan Ron.[1] Most of its songs are covers of 1960s standards.[3] Eight of the nine songs are new versions of Khmer songs that had been largely forgotten.[4] Metal Postcard's notes describe the band's sound as a blend of space rock, surf, reggae, dub, Khmer surin and psychedelia.[2]
The band also wrote a couple of songs of its own for the record, among them "Mean Visa Kmean Bai," whose title means "Have Visa, No Have Rice."[5][3]
A worldwide Metal Postcard Records edition is dated 2016.[6]
Musicians
The Cambodian Space Project was formed by the singer Kak Channthy and the Australian musician Julien Poulson.[3] Channthy, whose stage names include Srey Thy, was singing in a karaoke bar in Phnom Penh when Poulson first heard her in 2009.[4][5] The band that made the album brought together Australian, French and Cambodian musicians.[5] The band drew on Cambodian popular music of the 1960s and early 1970s, a period known as the country's golden age.[7][1] This was its first album of five; the fifth, Spaced Out in Wonderland, came out on the Four Four label.[1][8][9]
Reception
Lisa Hresko reviewed the album on September 16, 2011, and called it a pop party of reworked classic Cambodian pop.[5] She named the cover of Ros Sereysothea's "Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy" ("I'm Sixteen"), with its guitar and harmonica solo, as one of the standout tracks.[5] Her review also argued that politics are deeply embedded in the album, because Cambodian popular music cannot be separated from the genocide of 1975 to 1979.[5] Sereysothea, Pan Ron and Sin Sisamouth, whose songs the album covers, were among the many artists who met brutal ends under the Khmer Rouge.[5]
Track list
The songs include "I'm Sixteen," "Dancing a Go Go," "Love God" and "Have Visa, No Have Rice," known in Khmer as "Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy," "Rom Chong Vat A Go Go," "Kolos Srey Chaom" and "Mean Visa Kmean Bai."[5][2]
Access
References 9
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 John Clewley, Songlines, 2011: A Space Odyssey (review, November/December 2011 issue)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Metal Postcard Records, The Cambodian Space Project: 2011: A Space Odyssey
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Quietus, Out of the Darkness: The Cambodian Space Project
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cambodian Space Project, Adieu Channthy
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Cambodian Space Project, Flashback! Digging up CSP's first year in photos and reviews
- ↑ Shazam, 2011 a Space Odyssey
- ↑ BBC News, Kak Channthy: The Cambodian Space Project and a rock revival (March 21, 2018)
- ↑ Cambodian Space Project, Biography (undated)
- ↑ Four Four, Spaced-Out In Wonderland (undated)
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