Molam continues to evolve with time. Musicians, especially from Isan, are experimenting with new musical combinations, creating new hybrids and sounds.
I was reminded of this during a show on the Molam Stage at Jim Thompson Farm by the band E-San Fusion on Dec 9, who played a tight set to a small but enthusiastic audience. The band is the first in a series of four Saturday night concerts during the annual farm tour that focuses on new musical trends.
As some readers know, I am holding an exhibition on molam -- "Lam Loke: The World Of Molam" -- at the farm. The final part of the exhibition shows some of the new wave of hybrid bands, what the curator of the Jim Thompson Molam Bus (now at Wonderfruit Festival), and molam researcher Arthit Mulsarn calls "post molam" music.
The recent trend to blend molam with outside musical influences can be traced to the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band who incorporated dub and rock in their foot-stomping version of molam. The band created a following after touring Europe and releasing a well-received debut album 21st Century Lam in 2014 (followed up by Planet Lam in 2016 and Araya Lam just last month).
Other bands that have followed Paradise Bangkok's lead include Rasmee Isan Soul (mixing Khmer style jariang and lam with soul, rock and jazz), Asia 7 (an electronica band signed to Grammy), Lamai Hansa (reggae plus lam) and the Dutch-Thai molam-electronica duo Apichat Pakwan.
I could hear snatches of Paradise Bangkok's distinctive rhythms in E-San Fusion's performance. The band, which leader Ajarn Chaet (Wichet Suddai) says was formed during the start of lockdowns back in 2020, has four musicians (Chaet on guitar/phin, Boy on drums, Nui on bass and Jo on keyboards). He says they are a "sort of" lam band, which originally played a 'post rock' style, which could be heard on the band's first single, Funk Der, released in 2020 on the Baichasong label (with singer E Sri). My favourite of their recorded songs so far is Hug Der (hug pronounced hak, the Lao word for love).
Since then, Chaet has moved to a more funk-based guitar and phin sound. He also sings, too, and has added a vocalist, Priow, who hails from Nong Khai. Two of the band members are from Isan and they all, apart from the singer, live and work in Bangkok, mainly as music teachers (Chaet is an excellent guitarist). He says that the late Pornsak Songsaeng and Chalermphol Malaikham (molam and kantrum) are his inspirations.
Rasmee Isan Soul.
The set the band performed was a lot of fun, getting everyone on their feet for some hybrid dancing. I particularly liked those songs that featured a more up-tempo sound, driven by Chaet's funk riffs and drummer Boy's hard-edged drumming.
"We have five or six original songs and we'll keep creating so that we can release an album soon," he says. In the meantime, the band can be seen at major festivals like Big Mountain and the E-san Music Festival and are also considering festival invitations to Japan.
Prior to E-San Fusion's gig, molam at the farm was played by a very tight band, Sun Der Band, led by the multi-instrumentalist Sun, who is a really great khaen player, and also pretty good on the woad (Isan panpipes) and bonglang (Isan wooden xylophone). This band plays typical lam plern and some contemporary Isan pop tunes, popping up with small acoustic performances as well as full-on lam dance tunes (a shout out for the phin player, too, who was really good). It was great to be able to see two quite different Isan bands at the same event that represent some of the exciting music found in the region.
On Dec 16, Rasmee Isan Soul and her full band took to the Molam Stage to perform a set of songs, mainly from her most recent album Thong-lor Cowboy, released in 2021. The album was produced by New Orleans keyboard player Sasha Masakowski and co-produced by Isan multi-instrumentalist Warong "Yodh" Boonaree, whose phin and khaen playing features throughout the album.
The band has changed since I last saw Rasmee perform. The six-member line-up includes Rasmee on vocals, Masakowski on keyboards, and Yodh Warong on khaen and guitar. There was a good crowd at the venue and Rasmee was in terrific form. She has a powerful, emotive voice that soared over the tight backing of the band. Masakowski's vocal backing and keyboards have added a new dimension to the band's signature lam with a jazz and rock mix -- a unique and quite distinctive sound in the "post molam" subgenre. Despite the discovery of a snake under the sound engineer's mixing desk, which was quickly captured and released in the nearby forest, it was a really fun gig and everyone had a good time.
Molam music is a traditional acoustic style honed over centuries -- and you can see this today in the music of masters like National Artists Chaweewan Damnoen and Por Chalad Noi with molam glawn (poetic lam) singing. At the same time, there are new musical trends, built on original lam traditions that are taking the music to new places. These are exciting times for molam music.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
