Now here's a fascinating album from only God knows where. Or maybe a few hipsters know. Maybe you know. I don't know. It's supposed to be from Thailand; that's all I know. It's from Mississippi Records, catalog number MR009, and it's very good.
Track 2 (there are no song titles, or anything) sounds thoroughly modern and pretty much western. Punk rock, even. Like it was actually recorded a few weeks ago by Gang Gang Dance. Or by Sonic Youth, ca 1981. Several furious patterns are banged out in alternating tempos on something that sounds like a xylophone: variously pitched cylinders made from wood or bone or both are struck with mallets (or something), while another musician goes all berserk on a smallish drum kit comprised of only toms and kick. I think, maybe.
Side B keeps this theme going with a maddening hip-hop rhythm. This is accompanied by what sound like very old, beat-to-shit, rusty-edged cymbals (I know the sound well from my days in
Genie Boom), a flute, an accordion, several random shakers, and general background cacophony—chants and hollers, throaty gargles and howls. Try as I might to envision a group of Thailanders doing a fon phu-thai or something, all I keep seeing are a bunch of Williamsburg cuties in little, ruffly dresses and mustachioed dudes in tight t-shirts. Gah.
The closing track is a thrilling racket of psychedelic strings and fiery percussion flying in all directions with, at times, a Yardbirds-like garage rock feel, as though the train kept a rolling right into Bangkok. It all breaks down suddenly into a primitive blues beat: One-two, one-two, one-two, and it's gone.
The folks at
Forced Exposure don't offer much information on this weird album, but do reveal that it's "actually a copy of the legendary Siamese Temple Ball CD" released in 2000.
The legendary Siamese Temple Ball CD?
A search on
that album first led me deeper into the Forced Exposure archives and to a rather cryptic explanation:
In the tradition of Sun City Girls, Ya Ho Wha 13, The Spacious Mind, Taj Mahal Travellers, Mu, Word Of Life, Group 1850, and Ghost, Siamese Temple Ball give maximum pleasure for thirsty brains. Deceptively simple beat-band instrumentation riffs into mantra to assure relaxation complete. A mysterious find from distant lands now out in the world, date and musicians unknown.
What language is that? Huh? Further exploration led me to
Aquarius Records where I read the following:
We recently received an LP simply called "Thai Record." Hmmm, very mysterious we thought, so we threw it on, and were instantly smitten. At the same time, it sounded sort of familiar... But how could that be, what were the odds that some random Thai recording would just so happen to be one we had heard or already owned? It finally clicked: This was no mysterious "Thai Record," this was an old AQ favorite, renamed and pressed on vinyl.
They're obviously talking about the same LP I'm talking about here, this mysterious "Thai Record." They go on to say:
So while we assume that this record was recorded by a group of precocious, dilettante, ethnomusicologist hipsters, we like to suspend our disbelief and imagine this to be a genuine Folkways-style field recording, as the recording certainly has a genuine field recording presence—a single stereo microphone in a good location. The music itself is a catchy and mesmerizing steady pulse of various and sundry percussion instruments (metal, wood, skin), hollers, yelps, and rococo melodic lines spun out by tinny electric guitars, xylophones, flutes and Khan (mouth organ). And yes, it's quite good.
Agreed. You should buy it. It's only $11.
