A Beginner's Guide to Sublime Frequencies Vol One & Two

Curated by Tim Smolens and Chris Bogen of experimental international outfit High Castle Teleorkestra, this rake through Sublime Frequencies’ esoteric back catalogue comes over like a cultural cabinet of curiosities full of the weird, wonderful and deliciously wayward. Largely excavated from the occluded peripheries of fourth worlds where traditional tropes melded with Western popular music during the 1960s and 70s, these bizarre hybrids brim with an audaciously raw sense of invention sadly lacking in too many of today's overly-glossy ‘world music’ productions. Samsimar's hypnotic Casio-conspiring huff-and-puff shuffler, ‘Indang Pariaman’, is a charmingly lopsided lullaby for the perennially perplexed, while the theatrical ritualism of Sein Sah Thin's ‘Really Strange and Weird Things’ totally lives up to its billing. From the hazy, almost-Caretaker-esque patina enveloping the fiddle-powered ‘Yeh Hua Dam (aka Look At The Owl)’ by Cambodian kantrum star Darkie, to the frog-throated shamanistic drones of contemporary cult concerns Senyawa, there's a palpable sense of (mis)adventure running through these edifying alternatives to the usual global music scavenger hunts. Despite the omission of catalogue classics such as Marios Group's devastatingly beautiful ‘Borungku Si Derita’ and the myth-muddling Broken Hearted Dragonflies album, this nourishing pick’n’mix anthology opens a useful store door on Sublime Frequencies’ vitally eclectic bounty