Monday, April 20, 2009

Suthep Chokhsakun (26 Tunes)



I picked this tape up somewhere in Bangkok, most likely at one of the numerous department stores for university students - those places being pretty good for bulk tape buying. There's some really catchy cool tunes on here, with a few of 'em swinging hard. The singing's nice, and the band's playing sounds on - check out what the rhythm guitar's up to, morphing from traditional guitar duties to gong approximations and such. Very cool. Like Thai shadow music (I'll post some of that later) I really dig the songs that sound like they're more based on traditional grooves, but it's all worth a listen imho. Enjoy!


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Update....

More info in comments...thanks Peter!

4 comments:

peter said...

wow! thanks for this..
i had never heard of this guy before (สุเทพ โชคสกุล, suthep chokhsakun) but a little research revealed that he was one of the earliest songwriters of thai pop music to feature lyrics about common people, in the style sometimes called either "pleng chiwit" or "pleng talat" (often considered the predecessor of both pleng luk thung & pleng puea chiwit).. he wrote songs for khamron sambunnanon and others! very cool to hear him singing his own songs here.. no idea who the lady with him might be, though. let me know if you'd like the tracklist; the songs are all about farming, eating chicken, and how awesome janitors are!

matt said...

hey peter! as always, thank you for the knowledge and perspective. there's so much great old thai music out there - not a huge secret really, or maybe it is. i have a few more interesting old thai things to post. hopefully some curious obscurites. what decade/s would you place this music? forties, fifties? the khamron sambunnanon tune is great btw!
cheers,
matt

peter said...

hmm it's hard to say, since suthep seems to have been active from the thirties into the late seventies!! just judging by the recording sound, esp. with the drums, i would think this might be from the late 60s? though it is really tough to say.. there also seems to be next to no info on any of these particular tunes online! found out he also wrote songs for big star wongchan phairot, though she's not singing here. very mysterious tape, can't wait to see what else you have! thanks again!

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