Written by: Dave Cantrell

The lanterns of Cambodia swinging in the deep dark night of a Mississippi delta blues shack, the air thick with mystery and an alluring menace, the music moaning off the porch ancient and immediate. This is the province of Krom, the extraordinary, exotically unlikely band that pairs the leather-throated, knowing voice of Christopher Minko with the classically-trained Khmer songbird duo of the Chamroeun sisters. The result is a gritty, mesmerizing trance of a sound that suggests Tom Waits lost in the sultry alleys of Phnom Penh wondering how to get the sound of these angels off his conscience. Spanning decades, crossing oceans, this is “Mama Blue” and she ain’t nothin’ less than a marvel, and it’s available from Metal Postcard here.