Channeling Ghost World

There was such a cool, unattainable quality to the characters in the film adaptation of Ghost World. I certainly didn't want to be Enid. Her creepy fascination with Seymour, her complete lack of ambition-but I wanted to inhabit her thrifted wardrobe (particularly her perfect thick-rimmed glasses) and look through her record collection.

She had the most indie music collection ever. When I think of the indie kids today trying to fight over which bands they discovered first, abandoning favorites once they attain any sort of following...all the posing, the hipster mentality with its American Apparel giant sunglasses. Enid was the type of indie kid I would have wanted to be in high school. Listening to obscure vinyl from our grandparents' generation.

The soundtrack is one of my favorites ever created for a film. It's eclectic, with old scratchy blues gems (Skip James "Devil Got My Woman" is my definition of blues) and 60s Bollywood. The cd had me at Jaan Pehechaan Ho, Mohammed Rafi's so-mod-60s-spy-movie-it-hurts track from Gumnaam. The Lionel Belasco and Vince Giordano tracks also charmed me completely. But, it was always Jaan Pehechaan Ho that captivated me. Though Enid was fictional, I wanted to be somebody cool enough to find foreign gems. But there's always been something about world music that has intimidated me.

In this culture, I know how to look for new music that I like. I know my way around a record store and can reasonably locate what I'm looking for. But drop me into a world music section and I chicken out. I don't take the same risks, since I don't have a lot of money to spend on such things. It wouldn't be so hard if I had one starting place-a band or a friend who knows the music and can lead me along the primrose path.

Ethnomusicology has given me a few tracks to love, though it remains to be seen whether I will fall for entire catalogs of artists or just one catchy song. Angelique Kidjo is one that has been promising. The first track that hooked me was Tumba off of her Black Ivory Soul album. None of the live ones I found live up to the sheer excitement of the actual track. Her collaboration with Joss Stone on Gimme Shelter also made me sit up and take notice. I've had a crush on Joss' voice ever since I got a free download of a live version of Tell Me Bout It.

There's been other, isolated tracks. Anoushka Shankar's Red Sun is just so wonderfully virtuosic and hip. I love the whole feel of it.

The long winded point I will eventually make is that I have recently found two albums of foreign music that I love dearly. The first was something John picked up. One of his co-workers had suggested Dengue Fever to him. Not the actual disease, the band that mixes Cambodian pop with psychedelic rock. John stumbled across an album (Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia) by them at the record store. The vinyl is cream colored, which I love endlessly. I am a sucker for colored vinyl.

Once we brought it home, we realized it was a compilation album of Cambodian pop music from the 60s and 70s, not original material from the band. Does it matter? No. This album kicks ass. There is not a single song on the album I don't completely adore. The great thing is the tracks were rescued from cassette. They aren't easy to find on youtube or online (unless you get the compilation). The only video I can post to approximate the awesomeness is this one.

Pan Ron, featured heavily on Electric Cambodia.

The second album to rock my world? I'll have to post about it later. I have to get ready for a performance and if I begin to wax poetic about it, I will be late. I will say that it's another compilation of 60s music, but this time from Thailand.

The point? I finally, at 23, feel like Enid. A little bit. I won't be dying my hair green at any point, but at least I can begin to approach a more eclectic music collection.