Download: Dublab: Fly Thai High
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From Brasil to Columbia to Ethiopia, VTech has brought you amazing music from around the world. For this particular series of mixtapes, we turn to Asia and our friends at Dublab. The “Field Reports” take you on a musical journey through Southeast Asia and Japan and reveal to you its hidden gems of sound.

First up: Thailand.

When you think Thailand, the first thing that comes to mind is rarely music. True, the King of Thailand is a big jazz fan, but other than that, nothing exceptional. I usually think street food. The spice, the flavors, the pungent nature of the fish sauce; this is Thailand. But with their most recent journey, Dublab shows a different side of Thailand, it’s deep and rich musical culture.

In Thailand, Dublab delves into the world of country music referred to as Luk Thung (children of the fields) and brings you back a thorough sampling of what the “Land of Smiles” has to offer. Filled with powerful rhythms, the music found here has the power to move you.

ฟังและสนุกกับ

(Listen and Enjoy)

Thailand is the “Land of Smiles.”  I’ve seen that tag-line for years, emblazoned on tourism posters adorning the walls of my favorite Thai cafes.  There is a temple shining under a setting sun, its towers radiate up to the blue sky.  In the foreground a woman is dressed in silk and gold.  Mirroring the temple spires, she has static hands, raised palm to palm heart-high.  Her lips are cherry red on a powdered face.  She is smiling.  She is welcoming.  I have stared into this face a thousand times, hypnotized by hunger, awaiting steaming plates of noodles topped with crushed peanuts, shredded carrots, fresh lime juice and eggs scrambled perfectly to catch hot pepper sauce in their crevices.  Was it the food that lured me to Thailand?  Yes, but there was a greater pull.

My maiden voyage to Thailand was fueled by numerous desires of cultural exploration but there was one shining light that tuned magnetization to high.  I first heard Thai luk thung and mor lam music just a few years ago on releases by the stellar record labels Subliminal Sounds, Sublime Frequencies and ZudRangMa.  I soaked it up and inquired deeper.  Luk thung (translation: “children of the fields”) is country music that is thick and high.  There’s a thump and sway reminiscent of Jamaican rock steady but with more bells and bamboo.  The voices warble and yodel in otherworldly vibrato above a beat that alternates in tempo, slowing like the end of a sweaty day then slamming back like a second wind.  These songs sing the same story as country music the world over: it’s all hardship and heartbreak.

Luk thung’s cousin is the music called mor lam whose roots floated from Laos into the northern Thai region of Isan.  The central instrument identified with mor lam is the khene, a mouth organ that looks like two long pan pipes glued together.  It has the entrancing power of a thousand hypnotists waving their wands directly into your mind.  Mor lam songs have the same basic themes as luk thung but once country bumpkins migrated to Bangkok with the aim of making baht (aka cash money) to support their families back on the farm they started twisting the musical form up a bit.  In the 60’s when rock & funk swept the globe they started adding farfisa organs and electric guitars to the mix and then when disco blew up in the 70’s they got their Thai groove on to a disco beat.  Mor lam is music of tuk-tuk drivers jamming their way through city traffic.

When I landed in Bangkok and hit the city center streets I had a musical mission on my mind and luckily, access to the best guide possible.  I was connected to Maft Sai courtesy of Now-Again Records’ captain Eothen “Egon” Alapatt and soon realized what a fortunate thing this was.  Maft runs ZudRangMa Records, the freshest Thai reissue label and the only one based in Bangkok.  His devotion to spreading true Thai music culture is a beautiful vision and vivid action.

Unfortunately, soon after my arrival I was nearly done in with a food poisoning, but was able to make my goal of vinyl treasure hunting a reality.  Maft and I spent time scouring secret spots that only a native would know.  With a portable turntable on hand he turned me onto some of the deepest gems of Thai luk thung, mor lam, funk, rock and disco.  These discs were inevitably covered with generations of dust but underneath it lay the sounds of beautiful people making beautiful music.  As I marveled at emerald mountains and the slow sway of elephants in rushing rivers I thought of the music in those Thai vinyl grooves and smiled a thousand times.

- frosty

Playlist:

1. Seree Srisurat – paying respect to mother

2. Kom Muang Nakorn – 18 year old ladies

3. Rom Sritammarat -  tomorrow we’ll meet at the crossroads

4. Ang Kanang – peasant lady

5. Daw Bandorn – the water buffalo leaves the farm

6. Onuma Singsiri – broken-hearted lady singer

7. Chaba Prai – do you have a boyfriend yet?

8. Daw Bandorn – i left my girlfriend to become a dj

9. Prun Promdan – snowy lady

10. Suang Santee – the powerful man

11. Onuma Singsiri – papaya salad merchant

12. Super Star – chili & salt

13. Supaluck Sirihong – i’m angry at you

14. Don Sornrabeab & Chuntana Kitiyapan – angry crocodile people

15. Super Star – i’m so tired

16. Surachai Sombatcharurn – before you loved me but now who do you love?

17. Ang Kanang – the village drum

18. Daw Bandorn – don’t be a flirt

19. Beauty Contest – windmill lover

20. Ray Rai Na Korat – show some thigh

21. Sayan Sanya – driving to find my lover

22. Wai Phot Petsuwan – rowing my boat to find a lover

23. Prun Promdan – In’s rocket

24. Metro Angel – Thai Classical