Quite sometime ago, Peter of the Thai music blog, Monrakplengthai (มนต์รักเพลงไทย) contacted me to let me know of his existence, and I duly added the link under my Thailand blogroll and started following it. I just never got around to actually writing about it. Until now. Thai 101 also recently featured Monrakplengthai.It's a great blog. Peter's digitized cassettes of mainly older music, like Suraphol Sombatcharoen (whose music is featured in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Monrak Transistor) and violinist Eua Sunthonsanan's Suntharaporn big band, which has influenced the soundtracks of Wisit Sasanatieng's period films Tears of the Black Tiger and The Unseeable.
There's newer stuff too, like songs-for-life icons Carabao.
The most recent post is a tape featuring the dulcet tones of 4DK Todd's favorite character actor, Sangtong Seesai, who was a seriously good singer.
My favorite so far is the soundtrack to Monrak Lukthung (มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง) the 1970 smash-hit musical romance starring Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat, which played in cinemas for six months. The music (songs by Phaibun Butkhan and others) is the reason why it was -- and is -- so popular.
Not entirely lovelorn ballads and superb crooning, there's also serious rocking, like Buppah Saichon's "Rup To Thom Pai" ("รูปหล่อถมไป"). Filmsick Twittered me the link to the song in the movie on YouTube and I've embedded it below. The condition of this historic, classic film is horrifically heartbreaking, but at least the songs survived.
Thanks for the links, Wise Kwai! That Buppah Saichon song is awesome!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it is devastating to watch the condition of that film and realize that most of Thailand's cinematic heritage has deteriorated to that state, if it has even survived at all.