Cambodian rock is the pop golden age that flowered in 1960s-70s Cambodia: fuzzed-out electric guitar and organ under sweet, soaring Khmer-language vocals laced with distinctive melodic ornaments. Built on Western rock and roll, surf, garage and psychedelia, it carried a glamour and emotional warmth all its own.

It blossomed in Phnom Penh under King Sihanouk, himself a keen patron of the arts, in the years after independence. Drawing on Western pop that arrived via radio and U.S. military broadcasts, singers led by Sinn Sisamouth built a vivid pop culture. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, music was banned and most of its leading stars perished by execution or starvation, wiping out the scene.

The great pleasure is the coexistence of Western psychedelic fuzz guitar and the nasal, ornamented contours of Khmer melody. The sweet call-and-response of male-female duets distills the genre's charm.

Sinn Sisamouth's 'Champa Battambang' is an accessible piece that captures the golden age's glamour.

Because so many stars were murdered and master tapes destroyed, much of the surviving music has been reconstructed from cassettes and records that had made their way overseas.