Eight years ago, five Los Angeles musicians joined forces with a Cambodian karaoke star named Chhom Nimol. Their band, Dengue Fever, plays campy, lilting songs that are far lovelier — and a lot less forced — than you’d expect them to sound.
Actually, the fusion makes perfect sense: Dengue Fever was deeply influenced by Cambodian rockers like Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothear, who took their own cues from California surf music (and perished under the Khmer Rouge). Dengue Fever’s new documentary DVD, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, follows the band on its first tour of Cambodia and comes with a CD that sets the band’s best tracks alongside the Cambodian recordings that inspired them. The originals are as charming as Dengue Fever’s latter-day updates — they’re the perfect accompaniment for springtime cocktail parties.
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