*****

Bunta Mueangmai is a strange one. Her first album wisely skirted around the limits of her abilities and compensated for them with good songwriting and well-produced videos; as half of Galamae she has followed it with one which hopelessly exposes her, is unoriginal and is amateurishly produced.

Galamae is made up of Bunta and Am Nantiya. Am is thoroughly forgettable, but does a competent enough job on the plaeng sections. Bunta has a more interesting voice, but does more of the lam work, for which she is completely ill-suited. She must be the most decorous mor lam around, her long vowels and careful enunciation sounding more like an English lady offering the vicar more tea than a spirited woman unlucky in love (; compare Honey's version: ).

This is not helped by the choice of material: the album is largely a collection of covers of Honey Sri Isan's songs. Inviting comparisons with Honey is at least brave, but the bravery is misplaced. In addition to the vocal deficiencies, the songs have been subjected to some rather barbaric rearrangement which has removed all their grace and subtlety. Honey's versions now being available again, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to listen to hear them in the hands of two chits of girls. The few new tracks on the album lack even the interest of comparison.

The most surprising fault, if not the most important, is the poor quality of the videos. Out go the excellent costumes, choreography and setting of Jam Wai Na; in come the two girls on the back of a truck and cutaways to a shot of a loudspeaker during the instrumental sections.

Obviously this is a pretty poor album. The most worrying thing about it is that, unlike Bunta's solo effort, this is number one of a projected series. It would be a great pity if this is the road Bunta, Am and Sure go down.

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