By Xenia Shin
praCh Ly
Dalama: The Lost Chapter
[2003]
I was incredulous when my sister taped up an Elijah Wood photo on the fridge, complete in hobbit gear. "What the hell?" I asked. And somewhat disturbed is how I'd describe it when the advice columnist I work for received a letter from a woman asking for help because she kept fantasizing about Frodo when she had sex with her husband. Still, these were only vague murmurs and hints about the Lord of the Rings trilogy that had somehow successfully made it through my impermeable pop culture membrane.
At the last hour, when Return of the King came to the Cinerama Dome, I gave in and decided to reread the whole thing and watch all three films. When I excitedly e-mailed my friend about finding hobbit porn on the web (it's so wrong, so wrong), she was like, "Dude, you're in so deep." But this is the kind of person I am, fated to a permanent two year time delay with the world.
So this is the excuse I'm going to give for having missed Prach Ly's first cd, Dalama: The End'n is Just the Beginnin'. The story, in short, is this: Prach recorded The End'n in English and Khmer in his garage in Long Beach in 1999. While it didn't generate much interest from record companies, a deejay took his cd to Phnom Peh, where it took the kids by storm, and hundreds of bootleg copies began circulating. Reaping the artistic success of unintentional piracy, Prach has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, CNN, Asiaweek, Frontline/World and proclaimed as the"pioneer of Khmer Rap" and "the first Cambodian rap star" by Newsweek. The album's lyrics told the history of the Khmer Rouge revolution where an estimated 1.7 million people were killed. Ironically, these natives were being taught, or exposed to something "that wasn't talked about" by a 22 year-old halfway across the world. The album's message is relevant to the audience stateside as well. As Prach states, "there are connections to be made among us all."
The connections begin with the U.S. bombing of Cambodia (triple that of Japan in WWII), which left a political vacuum for the Khmer Rouge to take power. Its genocidal rule is the reason for the immigration of thousands of Cambodians like Prach, who now lives in Long Beach, which has the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Phnom Penh. Another connection is the recent INS targeting of Cambodian, Irish, Haitian, Mexican and Polish "gang youth" for exportation to their native country--even if they don't speak the language. And just shopping at the mall might connect you: the U.S. imports over a billion dollars worth of Cambodian sweatshop produced clothing annually.
There's no denying the anger in his lyrics and delivery, and the urgency of Prach's desire to tell the untold stories of bloodshed, escape, and life in the U.S. Prach's second installment, The Lost Chapter, is by all accounts an even stronger piece of work, whose d.i.y. [do it yourself] quality (it was recorded in a garage studio) better serves the rawness of lyrics in songs like like "Power, Territory, and Rice," and "s.i.c."
Consider the poetry of "Art of Fact:" beyond the killing field/ a quarter of a century after the genocide/ after 2 million people murdered/ the other 5 million survive/ the fabric of the culture/ beauty drips the texture... what they experience/ was evil at its darkest form/ their mind, body and heart/ shattered and torn/ the trauma of the war/ affect the refugee and foreigner.
Despite the hard hitting lyrics and unwavering "awful truth" perspective on life and history, the album is extremely listenable and avoids sounding bleak, in part due to the infusion of pin peat (traditional Cambodian court music played by Ho C. Chan) on most of the tracks. Just the fact that he can get his story down with so much honesty and urgency is enough to give a positive vibe to the whole project. Give this disc the listen it deserves.
Prach Ly's albums can be purchased at:
http://mujestic.com/p_r_a_c_h