Feb 21, 2018
Ski Saigon - Moon Enemy
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Ski Saigon - Moon Enemy
8/5/16.
The Rio Olympics open tonight, and France’s Beko Records have released a compilation to mark the event. Most of the 12 bands have released previous material via Beko. I would say this released tends to a more electronic/pop approach, but the pure pop that’s here is fantastic. Finnmark! (”Cycling”) is the highlight for me, but I’m also digging Ski Saigon and their Indochina themed “Mekong Olympics”. Photon, Djokovic, and Drug Train are other highlights.
There’s a lot here and all of it is Olympic themed.
7/16/16.
Ski Saigon’s upcoming album “Brings the Storm Cloud” has an amazing story. Apparently, this has a WWII back story. My only wish is that the vocals were a bit louder (they may be on the other songs).
Art Is Hard Records out of the UK. There are so many great sounds on this label - Gorgeous Bully, and Fear of Men are only two of the great releases.
I love the doodling guitar sound...it’s hard for me to pinpoint any comparable sound, but I’m sure many would say Beach House, or even Yo La Tengo with the vocals more up front.
Ski Saigon - Wintergarden / Sweet Dreams In The Botanics
this sounds like a place where I want to be
AIH46 | Ski Saigon - Brings the Storm Cloud EP
Running a record label and receiving demos is a bit like the halcyon days of dashing to the doormat every day wondering what would drop through the postbox. Most days it's just utter junk, stuff that’s barely even relevant (we’re looking at you the people who send in laughably bad hip hop) but every now and then an unexpected surprise drops through and makes the whole ritual worth it.
In the case of our latest signing Ski Saigon (the solo project of Rhys Griffiths), there were no bold proclamations of how they were going to make our label money or how they already had management and at least 3 blogs interested. There was just a link to the music and a small description. We hit play and started reading.
“Stationed across Indochina during the 1940s and 50s, French troops grew tired of the tropical climate and yearned for the alpine scenery and colder weather that many of them had left behind in Europe. Incredibly, in the Vietnamese city of Saigon L'institut indochinois pour les sports d'hiver was founded, and plans were drawn up to build and operate indoor ski slopes in Saigon and Phnom Penh for use by soldiers, expats and interested locals.
Building began in both cities, but was only completed in Phnom Penh due to the war in Vietnam with the insurgent Viet Minh. ‘Ski Saigon’ – as the private enterprise charged with operating the ski slopes was named – opened in Phnom Penh in 1949. The great Cambodian singers Ros Serey Sothea and Sinn Sisamouth performed at its inauguration. Yet problems arose almost immediately, and the project was abandoned within 4 months.
Following French evacuation from the city, the huge concrete building housed a variety of short-lived enterprises, including a renowned recording studio. Artists from as far away as Europe and America travelled to write and record in the Pearl of Asia during Cambodia’s Golden Age.”
And that was that. We were sold. After a few months of sitting on this EP we’re incredibly excited to be sharing it with you and releasing it as a book/CD. ‘Brings the Storm Cloud’ was recorded at Holy Mountain studios in London and is inspired by Khmer pop and the fictional historical events from which it takes its name.
In doing so Ski Saigon have perfectly captured the humidity and closeness of a jungle and channeled it into bedroom pop wooziness. Imagine Public Service Broadcasting and Bradford Cox popping a couple of Valium and jamming it out and you’d probably end up with something similar to this.
With the extensive backstory surrounding the EP we felt the only way to release it would be as a book. 32 pages long and limited to just 100 copies the book details in beautiful photos and words the complete history of Ski Saigon (the historic events not the band). It’s due for release August 26th and is available to pre-order over on our shop now.
Pre-order EP | Follow Ski Saigon on Facebook