Last year, World Beat went to the annual Boon Phra Wet Festival in Roi Et City in Isan. The three-day event celebrated one of the monthly merit-making ceremonies -- heet sip song -- with parades, huge dance performances (10,101 dancers on the streets), Buddhist sermons and nightly molam stages for both popular and traditional artists and ensembles.
On the third day of Boon Phra Wet, in the afternoon, I was astonished to see more than 20 mobile sound systems travelling to the centre of Roi Et to converge and parade their music.
Each one featured a stack of speakers, a generator, basic snare drum and cymbal, temple bells, electric bass and guitar (for local village teams, the phin is used instead of a guitar but for a big event, electric guitars are used for a bigger sound). Out front were a group of klong yao (long drum) drummers and their dancing supporters.
The sound was so massive, you could feel it thrumming up and down your spine; comparable only to experiencing Jamaican style sound systems while I was living in Ladbroke Grove in London during the Notting Hill Carnival. I think Spinal Tap created the volume controls.
These mobile sound systems are called rod hai when they are on the back of a pick-up truck and the smaller carts are sometimes just called klong yao (a drum tradition that is found across Thailand); local village versions are a key part of ordinations, weddings and social events. Some Isan villagers call these music carts, bak ti len in Isan Lao.
In 2014, one such group, Khun Narin, was filmed in Phetchabun province and this led to musician and producer Josh Marcy recording the band.
This led to the release of Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band's eponymously named album, followed by Electric Phin II in 2016. The band which has a rolling multi-generational membership, still performs at local shows and social events. You can see the band's music cart on the album cover photo.
Finally, the band has released its first studio album, Khun Narin Electric Phin Band III, which was recorded at Diamond West Studio in Pasadena, California.
Khun Narin are not a full klong yao band when they tour; they have taken up the phin and temple bells (small cymbals that keep time) and use that as the basis of their sound.
They still perform the same repertoire as molam bands. And distinctively decked out in their motorcycle taxi vests, the band is lively and gets people rocking.
Westerners like to call this music psychedelic rock and their record company refers to the band as a "psychedelic ensemble", but Khun Narin doesn't know anything about psychedelia in Western rock music as several hilarious press conferences have shown.
The new album has a terrific sound quality to it and a lineup that covers some standard molam and Phu Tai tunes.
The new album kicks off with a slow burner, Poet Wong Pt.1, featuring a slow phin groove that has a surf guitar feel to it. This track segues into a key tune, Sut Sanaen, which is a joyous song that always gets villagers to gently sway and dance and is one of my favourites on the album.
Track 3 is a homage to Isan rocket festival days (homemade, done to call for rain) on Bang Fai Saen. There are other standouts on the album, including Phuthai JP (from the Phu Thai ethnic group) and one of the most popular molam subgenres, lam sing, a track driven by fast action phin.
Only Ai Num Chum Chon has a really distorted phin sound that is closer to psych guitar songs than the rest of the tracks. On most tracks, the phin sounds closer to surf guitar and Peruvian chicha than it does psychedelia.
The album ends with a tribute to Carlos Santana, a cover of his classic Latin rock track Black Magic Women.
It's my least favourite track as every Thai rock, luk thung and molam band features Carlos Santana riffs in their songs. And while the song is well done, it's been done too often and risks becoming a musical cliché.
The band recorded the album during a US tour in 2024 and they were well received. They should be applauded for getting on the road to play to different audiences in the US. Usually a luk thung or molam singer or band will go and only perform for the Thai diaspora in North America and Europe.
This is the band's best album so far -- available online at sites like Bandcamp.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
