Dengue Fever: Serious Stuff or Brief Blip

Is this the future of American music?


Dengue Fever, a indie rock band from California. They have taken fusion music to new levels. After a trip to Cambodia, where they were haunted by the native folk music, brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman set about looking for someone to sing in Khmer. Chhom Nimol fronts the six-piece band.

Though they are based in the U.S., all the bands lyrics are sung in Khmer. Dengue Fever has gained a bit of a following, playing at last ear’s SXSW music festival. The band’s songs have also been chosen for several soundtracks, including Matt Dillon’s film, City of Ghosts.

Is D.F. an anomaly? One might think that the band is the result of a few hipsters who are trying to do something that they deem cool because it flirting with just being plain bizarre.

Perhaps that is the case. But the (mild) success of Dengue Fever might point to something a little more substantial. Some American pop is already being infused with international sounds. Latin and African rhythms are everywhere. How much of a stretch is actually singing in another language, even one as obscure as Khmer (about 20 million people speak it, worldwide)? With the internet, and the slow but sure death of the music industry as we know it, who’s to say that globalized bands like Dengue Fever are not at the cutting edge of a trend?