Sultry. Beachy. Exotic. These words are what come to mind when describing Dengue Fever. The globe-trotting, Cambodia-enthusiasts are back with the release of their fourth album, "Cannibal Courtship."
With its roots firmly dug into a long-lost era, Dengue Fever is more a romantic bundle of myths and memories than fact. While visiting Cambodia, Ethan Holtzman was inspired by local music and wanted to bring its flavor back to the United States. Along with his brother Zac, he searched for a vocalist who could sing in Khmer and discovered Cambodian-born karaoke singer Chhom Nimol in Long Beach.
With Chhom singing, Zac on backup vocals and guitar, Ethan playing the Farfisa organ, the band coalesced in 2001 as a fusion of Cambodian pop and psychedelic rock.
Staying true to its roots, the band's music was sung exclusively in Khmer until the release of its third album and frequently included covers of popular '60s Cambodian pop songs. Dengue Fever has successfully tapped into both American and Cambodian fanbases, with Cambodian fans in particular enjoying the nod to the Beatles-inspired pop music of their youth.
Though the band's music has always seemed at home drifting between American indie music and old-school Cambodian jams, Dengue Fever finally seems to have mastered the art of their musical blending on "Cannibal Courtship," more than ever before. From opposite sides of the planet, Dengue Fever draws scales, lyrics and layerings that have no real right to be together and makes them into a mix all its own.
"Cannibal Courtship" has more lyrics in English than do any of the previous albums, which should make the album more accessible for some fans. Still, the lyrics are the least important part of Dengue Fever's musical equation. Far more important, for example, is the play between Grateful Dead-esque riffs and Khmer on "Durian Dowry" or the pairing of flamenco in "2012 (Bury our Heads)" with deadpan, hypnotic (English) lyrics and a killer sax solo.
The English lyrics may make the music more accessible, but if anything, they seem to have an intentional dissonance with much of the music they are worked into. Singing, "I want to be flirting with girls and catching diseases" on "Only a Friend" makes the cultural gap almost awkwardly obvious; overall, the album's lyrics tend to make the music simultaneously poppy and cynical.
"Cannibal Courtship" also shows the further development of Dengue Fever's musicianship, especially on darker tracks such as "Sister in the Radio" and the instrumental "Kiss of the Bufo Alvarius." Even the album's last track, "Durian Dowry," possesses a combination of unexpected textures unknown to Dengue Fever's previous albums.
On "Sister in the Radio," Chhom's remarkable range adds a soulfulness that would make translating the lyrics completely superfluous. Over bluesy guitar, her voice soars and weaves with a gorgeous musical complexity. Similarly, on "Kiss of the Bufo Alvarius," dreamy surf-rock meets jazz and bongos for a swaying, drifting rhythm that feels more vintage film noir than indie.
It is this retro musical darkness that is arguably the most strangely wonderful part of the album. Dengue Fever so confidently and whole heartedly embraces a genre entirely outside of the contemporary scene that its music unquestionably stands up on its own as the last remnants of an elaborately harmonized '60s pipe-dream.
"Cannibal Courtship" is still indie music but not in a way that any other band has successfully pulled off. Dengue Fever finally seems to have settled into a niche all of its own with "Cannibal Courtship," and it will be interesting to see what it does with its musical hybrid in the future. More now than ever, Dengue Fever has proven that the whole really is more than the sum of its parts.
