Of all the Sublime Frequencies releases, "Radio Myanmar (Burma)" is one of the most inherently political and topical that I?ve heard. The importance of such documents is immeasurable because they not only force the listener to question their own knowledge of other cultures, but also to question the motivations behind their previously private and isolated aesthetic judgments.

The disc starts with a swift kick to the head in the "Tatmadaw Army Song;" a stomping folk march with all the requisite cymbal crashes and manly choruses that immediately emphasize the political nature of the recording. Even something as seemingly innocuous or grotesque as Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" becomes obtusely politicized, once translated into Burmese and most assuredly censored and edited by the state. Regardless of the distance "Radio Myanmar (Burma)" affects in order to appear objective, the sheer absurdity of tracks like these are too much to ignore. These surreal juxtapositions point out that
for all of its attempts to remain isolated and removed from American influence, Myanmar is just as susceptible to the machinations of a globalized entertainment economy as any other country. Moments like these, and the more overtly loaded tracks (e.g. "Human Rights", "National Objectives",? etc.) are where "Radio Myanmar (Burma)" makes this clearest. "Human Rights" also is of particular note since it spends a good deal of airtime devoted to countering the disinformation of the US led Human Rights Commission with its own brand of disinformation. It's not every day that one gets to hear the phrase "US controlled puppet government" stated so matter-of-factly on national radio, but does ?Radio Myanmar (Burma)? have anything else to give its Western listeners?

In this propagandistic saturation, the snippets of traditional Burmese folk and classical music are overshadowed and quickly loose their intrinsic power, while the innumerable commercials for skin ointments and jewelers maintain a nightmarishly overwhelming and plastic feel. Tracks like "Pop Music (Playboy Thein Than)", which makes interesting use of sampling traditional Burmese instruments and recontextualing them within the a new idiom, or "How Many Cheeks Have you Kissed? (Mawr)", which sounds like Yoko Ono doing her best Wesley Willis impersonation, would normally be the stand-out pieces on the album. Yet, even these more anomalous gems fall victim to the political arguments, unable to exist in a culturally neutral space.

To call this a field recording seems an injustice.? It taps in to the collective unconscious of an entire nation. The fact that 60 minutes of channel surfing could raise so many questions and demand so much attention is reason enough to check out this disc. However, by the end, it still remains unclear as to whether or not this disc or any of the other "Radio..." releases are to serve as a direct comment on the various countries they choose to showcase, or if they are to function as objective observations.? Then again, perhaps it is not intended to serve either purpose, regardless of how implicit they may appear. Regardless of the intent behind releasing such a culturally volatile document, "Radio Myanmar (Burma)" serves as a double-sided Rorschach Test, providing intimate insight for both its subject and its audience. 7/10 -- Tonio Hubilla (25 June, 2008)