Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock And Roll

Dust to Digital put together this comprehensive compilation in collaboration with John Pirozzi to accompany his 2014 documentary “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”.

The twenty tracks document the vibrancy of the scene before the Khmer Rouge came to power and murdered thousands of people who they considered corrupted by foreign and especially western influence. Already from the first few songs on this record it’s clear just how much Cambodia’s jazz, pop, and rock’n’roll musicians had infused Western music with Khmer tradition — and many of them in fact did not survive the genocideal Khmer Rouge. Popular singer songwriter Sinn Sisamouth is one of those, and many of his smooth, jazzy compositions are included on here, from the mellow jazz of “Under The Sound of Rain” to the sentimental ballad “Thevary My Love” with fellow pop star Ros Serey Sothea, whose “Old Pot Still Cooks Good Rice” is a psychedelic rock banger (Sothea also died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge). The variety on here shows just how fertile the music scene must have been: Baksey Cham Krong’s “B.C.K” is a Morricone-esque instrumental, while Yol Aularang, Drakkar, and Pen Ran are all fuzz guitars and psychedelic organs.