Lately Dengue Fever is making some headlines in the pop scene. They appear on the regular list of stations favoring popular world music like BBC or NPR and now play the summer festivals in the US. Their greatest merit is that as a westerner with no south Asian ethnic roots, you are just blown away by the thrilling sound of lead vocalist Ch-hom Nimol. Ch-hom Nimol met Zac and Ethan Holtzman while performing at a club in the Cambodian neighborhood of Long Beach, California. They teamed up with other veterans from the music scene and play Cambodian classics since.

During the summer free open-air concerts take place at McCarren Park’s pool each Sunday, and on July 1 Dengue Fever from Los Angeles took the stage together with Man Man from Philadelphia and the rather mediocre Illinois from Pennsylvania. Dengue Fever’s sound is dominated by the Khmer vocalist Ch-hom Nimol and the Farfisa organ and brass (sax), played by respectively Ethan Holtzman and David Ralicke. The vocals by Ch-hom Nimol are phenomenal to listen to for those not familiar with Cambodian or Khmer classic rock’n'roll, although Cambodian reviews claim that her sister Ch-hom Chovin is a much better singer even, and both do not compare to Pichenda.

Most of Dengue Fever’s musicians have been around for some time. Bass player Senon Williams played in Cement, the band started by Chuck Mosley after he was fired from Faith No More and after his period at Bad Brains. David Ralicke plays tenor saxophone and flute, but has been playing brass for among others Beck and Brazzaville. Zac Holtzman played in Dieselhed, a band that had some popularity in the San Franscisco scene and released three records in the 80s. In short, Dengue Fever is a collection of semi professional musicians who never made it to definite success.

Although they have established a great originality with Dengue Fever, I am quite disappointed to see that most of the songs they released on the songs on their 2005 album Escape from Dragon House are covers of classic Cambodian pop songs. The sound is fantastic for those not familiar with Cambodian music, and the mix with surf and rock’n'roll influences from mainly Farfisa and tenor sax are daring to the western ear. But the originality of the individual musicians is limited, despite the original sound. The few original songs in their listing lack the classic sound of traditional Khmer music and sounds more like average popular music.