Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2

"The new album features such songs as the haunting `To Celebrate a Suicide,' which is rich with quick drum beats and fast-paced guitar strumming backed by Shuch's breathy vocals and lyrics ... new-age Beatles that everyone can listen to and enjoy." -- Lakeland Ledger

"These musicians create moody dance-rock while waving their fret boards and kicking their feet to a synchronized science." -- Reax Magazine

Somewhere between Interpol's Turn On the Bright Lights and Minus the Bear's Menos El Oso is where you'll find Mouse Fire's Wooden Teeth. This is a debut album from the band, but make no mistake, the members' musicianship is markedly mature. Wooden Teeth is a pièce de résistance boasting a caliber of artistry found few other places in independent music today.

The band has fused the best of its somber-chic forefathers (Modest Mouse, Cursive) with modern rock ideas, and the result is a striking soundscape ripe with danceable rhythms that will leave you in a delightful state of shock. Put your dancing shoes on, kids. You can't possibly stand still to music like this.

Album Description
This is volume two in the Sublime Frequencies series, Molam: Thai Country Grooves From Isan. Molam is a multi-faceted folk country music native to Laos and the collection of rural Northeastern Thai provinces called Isan. Molam is an umbrella term used for numerous lam styles. It literally translates to "expert singer" or "expert song." Featured here in volume 2 of this series are lam phun, lam thuy, lam plern, lam dern and lam sing styles of molam recordings from the 1970s and 1980s. All of these forms are built from a tradition that is centuries-old. A few examples of molam/luk thung (Thailand's national country music) hybrids are also featured here. In the late-1960s, at the onset of molam's modern genesis, electric guitars and organs were introduced alongside the extant folk sounds of the khaen (bamboo mouth-organ) and phin (Thai lute). Hybrid styles were formed with an electrified sound that jived with tradition while creating something entirely new. Much of the music relies on stock formulas, designed primarily to showcase the stylings of various singers from the region. But, as this brilliant collection demonstrates, the rules tend to bend a bit as more adventurous groups experiment with the genre and the production. Sound effects, flamboyant vamping, odd vocal styles or trick intros and finales based on popular rock themes show up now and then, among other playful and dynamic shifts, making for some exceptional listening. So join the folks at Sublime Frequencies in their perpetual and confounding love affair with Thai Isan Molam. Enjoy this rarely-heard music, culled from vintage cassette and vinyl recordings, rescued from the silent places in which they've rested for the past decades.