Going down a YouTube rabbit hole usually ends with the faithful explorer (read: me) realizing it's 3 a.m. and she's now seen every Tom Hiddleston video on the internet. (Shut it.) For Josh Marcy, it ended with a trip to Thailand to record one of the most eccentric psychedelic records of the year.
Back in 2013, Marcy—an LA music producer—stumbled upon a post on the blog Dangerous Minds heralding "Mindblowing Psychedelia From Thailand." There, he saw his first video from a small group of villagers informally known as Khun Narin Electric Phin Band. Intrigued, he followed them down the rabbit hole until he came across the YouTube page for a phin player in a band called Beer. (A phin is a type of lute, which made the fact Beer played one through an effects pedal to create psychedelic music even more fascinating.) Finally, after playing an amazing clip that features a rousing cover of "Zombie" by The Cranberries, knew he had to find them.
"The sound was even more percussive and aggressive than in the original one I'd seen on the blog, and unlike anything I'd heard before," Marcy says. "As one comment says, 'Who knew that the party of the year was a slow stroll down a northeastern Thai street to slo-flanged psych-outs and '90s political pop instrumentals with grandparents and children?' I couldn't agree more."
Marcy went to a friend at indie label Innovative Leisure who also was a fan of the Thai group's videos and asked if the label would be interested in an album. They were more than interested---they offered to fund his trip to Thailand, provided he could find the band. With some Facebook digging and a little help with translation by the folks at Marcy's neighborhood Thai restaurant, he found an American named Peter Doolan who not only lived in Bangkok but knew the band. About a month later he was on a plane.
Recording Khun Narin Electric Phin Band wasn't the typical recording session. The band, a revolving door of multi-generational players lead by Khun Narin (called "Rin"), plays ad hoc: It sets up outside somewhere, fires up a custom PA system, and jams. Marcy wanted to record the musicians in their usual setting, but when he arrived in September it was still monsoon season. There was a chance they wouldn't be able to go out at all. Luckily, the rain let up on the day he planned to record them, so everyone headed to a Buddhist temple near their very remote town.
"After that, they only required a couple last things to get going—a bottle of whiskey and some incense," Marcy says. "The whole recording setup fit in my backpack: a MacBook Pro with Logic, an Apogee Duet and a couple of mics. I just set up in front of their sound system and hit record."
Marcy thought he'd record just enough material for a 45—essentially two tracks. He wound up with an album's worth, and the self-titled record will be out August 26 on Innovative Leisure. Marcy also ended up with enough footage of the recording journey for a mini-documentary (premiering below)—which he naturally put on YouTube. Watch it before you set off on a rabbit-hole journey of your own.
