Mute Speaker’s Cambodia Beats Project
Enough gear. Let’s get some music to hear. From the UK to Cambodia, Rob O’Hara is making beautifully-crafted music we never want to miss. So a new record is absolutely time for attention – and time to bring in our friend and regular columnist Matt Earp, aka Kid Kameleon, to give a listen.
I’ve written about Rob O’Hara before for CDM, about this time last year – he’s mega-talented and makes excellent, no-frills hip-hop head-nodders under the name Mute Speaker. All his tunes just kick and punch and spin in all the right ways. You can grab most of his catalog on his bandcamp and he’s Brighton based. Or at least is for one more week – that’s when he picks up and moves to Cambodia! Seems like he was so smitten with his time there a couple months ago that he’s pulling up his roots and flying across the globe – but not before putting out a full-length charity album of his signature hip-hop sound made entirely from samples recorded while there. It contains some of my favorite Mute Speaker productions yet and all the proceeds go directly to Landmine Disability Support. Because Rob’s just that kind of awesome guy.
From an email exchange I had with Rob:
I’m actually leaving the country in 1 weeks time … I went on a trip around South East Asia last few months & have decided to consolidate as much as I can into a couple of bags and head back there for a year, gonna be based in Cambodia. I can afford to focus on making a lot of music & not worry about having to work out there, which would be impossible back here … which ties into my next release that I’m just finishing up now – I’m doing a fund-raising album of beats all made from Cambodian music, new, old, traditional or otherwise. It’s out now & all proceeds going to an organization helping victims of landmines in the country. I met a very inspirational man in Siem Reap that taught me more about Cambodia’s troubled history, and helped me make the necessary contacts in order to set up this little fund raising project.
The organization is called LMD Support, they’re based here: lmdsupport.org.uk and Rob goes on to tell us more about the organization.
Landmine Disability Support (LMDS) works to support disabled people. The organization’s mission is to help disabled people integrate into the mainstream of society in a way which is appropriate and sustainable. In less industrialized countries, with a recent history of conflict, the proportion of disabled people significantly exceeds that of more industrialized countries, where the norm is in the region of 10%. In Cambodia 90% of the disabled people live in the countryside; 90% of these are numbered among the poorest of the poor. LMDS, which takes a holistic view of disability, works with these rural disabled people. The goal is to support them to become economically viable, help them develop their abilities as far as possible and encourage them to become aware of their entitlements.
Not only a stellar cause, truly stellar beats as well. What’s not to like.
Worth mentioning also that this isn’t the first Cambodian beats project that’s caught my attention. David Gunn of The Incidental did a really great album as Krom Monster several years ago with Cambodian musicians that’s also worth checking out. Learn more about it here.
Chapei from David Gunn on Vimeo.