This music is wild and energetic fun, though it's also a document of a short-lived era in Cambodian history that came to an end with the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, whose efforts to rid the nation of modern Western influences led to the death of nearly all the artists represented on this disc. If there's a tragedy lurking behind this music, at least Electric Cambodia allows a wider audience to hear this remarkable music, and you don't have to be a collector of cross-cultural oddities to enjoy it.