2011: A Space Odyssey

The Cambodian Space Project is neither entirely Cambodian (its members also hail from Australia and France) nor is its sound particularly spacy (on the contrary, it's a sort of charmingly trashy retro-rock that borders at times on straight-up garage punk). But the group's sound is dominated, very much for the better, by the vocals of Srey Thy, and since her melodies are frequently embellished in a melismatic Southeast Asian fashion and her lyrics are all sung in Cambodian, this debut album ends up sounding like a sonic explosion of cultures and time periods. Thy's voice is a revelation: simultaneously childlike and powerful, it sounds like that of a beautiful bird with tattoos and a Mohawk. The band itself is doing some interesting things, but isn't doing them very consistently: "Snaeha Doc Toek Kmom" is pleasantly ragged, and Thy's vocals are brilliant, and the shared solo between a clarinet and a fuzzbox guitar is great. And "Chom 10 Kae Theav" is plenty of sharp, punky fun. But the 1960s surf-blues of "Rom Chong Vat a Go Go" just feels recycled, and the trou ou solo on "Kolos Srey Chaom" is way too short, pointing up what may be the fundamental problem with this band's sound: it layers Western elements on top of Eastern ones, but never quite integrates them. Putting Thy's marvelous voice up front was the right move. Creating a more seamless blend of sounds behind her might take them to the next level. In the meantime, there's plenty of weird, surrealist fun to be had on their debut album.