Various Artists

This gem is only one of six new releases from the increasingly wonderful Seattle-based label run by Sun City Girls bassist Alan Bishop. And like the rest of the catalogue, this collection is short on staid ethno-musicological musings and long on wonder. Molam (meaning "master singer"), a rural music featuring mouth organs, lutes, bowed fiddles and hand percussion, made its way from the countryside of northern Thailand down into Bangkok during the mid-20^th century via migrant labor. The recordings featured here come from the '70s, when Molam was in transition. Electric guitars, kit drums and cheap organs were added to the traditional instruments; the result was some of the most infectious, rhythmic jungle roogaloo ever heard from these parts. Singers such as Noppadol Duangporn and Chaba Petchaboon weave incantations and insinuations over mid-tempo head-nodders that are at once otherworldly and familiar. Anyone smart enough to pick up Sublime Frequencies' Cambodian Cassette Archives disc will wallow in these grooves.