With five full length releases, the Los Angeles sextet Dengue Fever easily blends rhythms of '60s Cambodian Pop – heavily influenced by American surf, rock and early psychedelic garage bands – with their own unique eclectic mix of American and International styles.
With their first release in close to 4 years, The Deepest Lake finds the band exploring new sonic soundscapes with foray's into funky Latin beats, Cambodian hip/hop, perfectly synched X (the band) like dual vocals, while still maintaining the bands signature sound that has thrilled audiences from Russia to SE Asia, from Mexico to Brazil and Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
Review
While Dengue Fever could almost have qualified as a novelty act when they
first started out (Los Angeles hipsters playing decades-old Cambodian pop tunes?
Talk about high concept!), they've matured into a richly satisfying band,
blending several different cultures and styles into an indie rock melting pot,
and 2015's The Deepest Lake, their sixth studio album, is another striking and
pleasurable example of East meeting West. Though the exotica accents and
semi-psychedelic drift of their earlier work are still clearly visible on The
Deepest Lake (most notably on the lovely “Golden Flute”), African percussive
accents and hip-hop elements play a larger role in this music, while “Rom Say
Sok” is steeped in American R&B, “Cardboard Castles” lays distorted
guitars and graceful guitars over quietly churning percussion, and “Still
Waters Run Deep” sounds like the main theme of a spy movie set in Phnom Penh
with its punchy horns and dramatic twists and turns. The members of Dengue Fever
wrote, produced, and recorded all ten tunes on The Deepest Lake, bringing a
witty and intelligent melodic sense to the songs and a clean, atmospheric tone
to the audio, and while the songs are primarily sung in a Cambodian dialect by
lead vocalist Chhom Nimol, the occasional bursts of English add considerably to
the multi-cultural flavor of the music, allowing both sides to play like
strangers in a strange land. And Dengue Fever simply play brilliantly as a band,
with Zac Holtzman's guitars and Ethan Holtzman's keyboards lending the songs
a broad spectrum of tonal colors and attitudes, David Ralicke's horns
commenting on the surroundings with wisdom and smarts, and bassist Senon
Williams and drummer Paul Dreux Smith nudging the music forward with just the
right touch. Dengue Fever have grown far beyond a mere world music pastiche; on
The Deepest Lake, they deliver music that's thoughtful, imaginative, and
sensuous in all the best ways, and this album is a joy for listeners with a
taste for sonic adventure. Mark Deming – Allmusic.com