aaamusic | On 05, Sep 2011

As someone whose general philosophy on music is the ‘the weirder the better’ when I was introduced to a band called The Cambodian Space Project with an album entitled The Moon’s Apsara Rides The Cosmic Golden Swan-Goose I needed to find out more.

There is definitely a heart of strange lyrics and psychedelic sensibilities running through the record. In recent years there has been a spate of compilation albums on the topic of various countries funk/psychedelic music from the 60’s and 70’s including Cambodian. So, this album fits right in this area.

Taking influence from this era of psychedelic rock music it is a curious mix of retro music with contemporary production. What makes the album so enjoyable is just how tight the musicianship is between the band and when making an album that takes so much from funk and psychedelia it can often end up sounding contrived but at no point does this album do that and you get a real sense that it has been made by people you actually the music they make and want to have fun with it.

When listening to the album in one sitting the bizarre lyrics and the singer’s voice can be a bit grating and even with the modern production techniques it would be beneficial to the sound if the production wasn’t so rooted in the modern as it often doesn’t work with music. But all these can be forgiven as the music is so infectious happy.

Author: Barry Gray