24/04/2026
Tomorrow marks 12 years since Astronomy Class released Mekong Delta Sunrise, a record like no other, drawing on the golden age of Khmer pop from the 1950s to the mid-‘70s, when Phnom Penh was known as ‘The Pearl of Asia’. and sourced the era’s intoxicating blend of soul, jazz, psychedelic and traditional Cambodian sounds from cassettes and vinyl, reshaping them with a classic boom-bap aesthetic. At the heart of it all was the extraordinary Srey Channthy (The Cambodian Space Project), a spiritual successor to the legends of Cambodia’s golden age, who we tragically lost in 2018 😢 . “Woman Wants to Drink” has since become an anthem in Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of TikToks, scores of covers, remixes and karaoke versions. A tune written and recorded in downtown Glebe, beloved all the way to Phnom Penh.
Happy Friday! (Mekong Delta Sunrise, 2014) 📸