Various Artists

Mention Cambodia andthe killing fields of the country’s Communist regime still come to mind. Butsince the toppling of the Khmer Rouge and, later, the restoration of aconstitutional monarchy, Cambodians have taken steps to reclaim their culturefrom the devastation wrought by Pol Pot, one of the 20th century’s mostsinister dictators.

Singer and writerChhom Nimol has played a role in Cambodia’s reawakening with herEast Asian-accented rock band, Dengue Fever. With Electric Cambodia, the band serves as curator rather thanperformer, unearthing and presenting 14 tracks recorded by Cambodian rock bandsduring the 1960s and early ’70s, before Pol Pot seized the country and sentnearly a quarter of its people, including many of the musicians heard on ElectricCambodia, to their death. Some of the bands represented on thiscollection echo such familiar and diverse influences as Santana and Sonny and Cher. But most of the music suggests psychedelic-tingedAmerican garage rock, overheard on tinny transistor radios, infused withbutterfly vocal melodies rooted in Indo-Chinese tradition.

Electric Cambodia represents a lost footnote in rock history, a fascinating adaptationof American music to a distinct local setting.