Bua-Hima – Chit-tak!

Small Room/Universal Music Thailand, UM054506
2002
A friend of mine from Thailand, who is part of the group nolens.volens sent me a huge care package of CD goodies in exchange for some mp3-age the other day. I’m slowly going through it all, seeing what I like.
Bua-Hima popped out because of their promising cover art (!) and bizarre title track. Of the groups I was sent, this seems to be the most schizophrenic. The opening tracks are an interesting blend of repetitive cello, twangy guitar, and Moog-like synths. A man speaks over the top of this while a quiet whooshing storm brews in the electronics behind him. Then some breakbeats, and it seems like it’s going to turn into a Buffalo Daughter-like prog jam. It splits up into the old “go through the radio dial” tactic, then settles on a vocal sample and loops it, before returning to the jam again.
Elsewhere, Bua-Hima nick ideas from Point-era Cornelius, has a child singing about birds and balls, gets all lounge-lizard on us, go minimalist and funk-housey, and dabble in bossa-house.
With the exception of a few typical gloppy ballads (track 3 and 4) this is an adventurous outing for what I’ve heard of Thai rock, though still pretty enthralled to its Japanese neighbors. It does seem however, that it put all of its best ideas into the first two tracks.
One website lists this album as a “concept album”–I would like somebody tell me what that is, as I’m sure missing it…