Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band: Reviving Thai Molam for the World

So he found the musicians and put them back on stage.

By 2012, just spinning records wasn’t enough. Maft Sai wanted to hear Molam live again. So he traveled through Isaan, looking for the original musicians, the phin masters, the khaen players, the singers who hadn’t performed in decades.

Some hadn’t played in Bangkok since the 1970s. But he brought them back, and the first show drew over a thousand people. The energy was undeniable.

Out of that moment, the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band was born, elder Molam legends on traditional instruments alongside younger rhythm sections on bass and drums.

Their debut album, 21st Century Molam (2014), caught international attention. Gilles Peterson championed it, festivals booked them, and by 2015 they played Glastonbury. Their follow-up, Planet Lam (2016), pushed things further, Afrobeat grooves, dub echoes, psychedelic textures.

In 2017, they even played Boiler Room, streamed worldwide. Suddenly, Molam wasn’t just rural Thai folk, it was part of the global underground, played to crowds who’d never even seen a khaen before.

For me, it was wild to realise the band I’d casually used in a White Lotus video was at the heart of a cultural rebirth.

This wasn’t just a revival, it was Molam reinvented for the world stage.

→ The Live Debut Of THE PARADISE BANGKOK MOLAM INTERNATIONAL BAND

→ The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band - Boiler Room In Stereo