Another beautiful blue
sky day in the Kingdom of Cambodia, and yet another public holiday
(Bon Om Touk – Water
Festival). As the tumbleweeds roll around the empty corridors
of Leng Pleng Towers,
here in the backstreets of Phnom Penh, it is left to me to bring you
a brief note about some of the musical happenings taking place over
the next few days. With the boat racing having
been cancelled
in the capital, the main Water Festival action will be taking place
in the provinces. My
Leng Pleng colleagues
Television Ted
and Timothy Man of
Keys
are probably somewhere on Otres Beach right now, chugging
back
fifty-cent beers. One
does wonder sometimes how anybody can get any work done at all in
this country, with four weeks of designated national holidays
sprinkled
generously throughout the year. Surely this is
a massive disincentive to any foreigner seeking gainful
employment
in Cambodia – as
well as the distracting abundance
of cheap untaxed alcohol and cigarettes?
BBTS, deep into some 'live mashing' - pic: BBTS Facebook
The party of the week
will be at Otres
Market this Saturday. The
off-the-beaten-track Sihanoukville venue will
be hosting a number of live
bands for their season opening event. Melbourne-based
trio Bareback Titty Squad
(BBTS)
will headline, while support will be provided by Woody
Dares,
Brooke Palmer
and many more. BBTS
have captured a large
online following via video performances
such as the
one below, where they perform a 'live mash-up' of 100 different
songs. Lively!
Tomorrow (Friday) will
see the release of a DVD on C-Lounge records called 'Live in
Concert', produced by Ingolv
Haaland.
Check out the video below featuring a stunning performance by
Cambodian singer Ouch
Savy.
The concert was performed earlier this year in Norway by an
international host of musicians and the Kristiansand Symphony
Orchestra. Pretty special!
Whatever you're up to over the next few days... stay safe out there
and... see you around the traps!
Born in the U.S.A:
Jeffro Sills – pic: Steve Porte
Guitarist
Jeffro Sills will be
in fervent blues action
this weekend with a triology
of Phnom Penh gigs. Jeffro will be playing in partnership with the
esteemed percussionist Lewis Pragasam
at their weekly 'Pro Jam' set at The
Irish Place
tonight (Thursday). The set-up is bijou
and acoustic (guitar and cajon) and the atmosphere is loose
and convivial.
Pro Jamcould
be described as 'kind of like an open mic but not really' – I
guess that
means you
have to be pretty good to get up and jam with these guys. Jeffro
honed his impressive
blues,
country and soul guitar-playing skills in the nightclubs of Chicago.
Check
out Jeffro's full electric band set at Sharky
Bar on
Friday night with The
Chi Town Players and
an acoustic solo set at Two
Chefson
Saturday. Two
Chefs
is a new venue situated near
the Phnom Penh riverside on Street 266. A house duo plays most
nights, with a guest feature act appearing each Saturday.
The
'boutique' Phnom
Penh music scene is alive and kicking, with several cool events
popping up each week in smaller venues like The
Irish Place, Two
Chefs, and
now est. Bar
– where Ritchy &
Phil
will be playing 'acoustic
pop through the ages'
this Friday night. Both
multi-instrumentalists and
vocalists, Ritchy
Boisson and
Phil Javelle
have been key principals of
the Western music scene in Phnom Penh since 2009.
Over
the last few years, several medium-to-large scale
Western-audience-orientatedlive
music
venues have opened and closed in
the city. Sharky
Bar and
FCC – The Mansionare
two
of the longer-term survivors with
a weekly schedule of
shows and
the capacity to host a larger crowd. Dub
Addiction will
make a triumphant return to the Cambodian music scene this Saturday
at the FCC. Dub
Addiction have
created their own crazy fusion of Cambodian raggamuffin reggae and
their live shows are always
similarly
crazy and fun. Check out their fantastically-good
recorded albums via Bandcamp.Meanwhile
on
Saturday,
Mekong Messengers
will be making their comeback gig at Sharky
Bar.
Singer Kristen
Rasmussen took
a year off performing to
focus on her
beautiful bouncing baby boy. Fortunately for Cambodian audiences, she
will now
once
again be regaling us with one of the most powerful and beautiful
voices in the country, singing a repertoire of classic
American
country, soul, blues and rockabilly.
Former
Equinoxgeneral
manager
Anthony Mrucagz
posted
the above video this week – distilling four-and-a-half
years of great gigs into twenty minutes, featuring a soundtrack of
home-grown Cambodian music. The
fact that the Street 278 building which housed the legendary Phnom
Penh venue is still lying empty, abused and unused, seven months
after Equinox was
forced to close, makes
the loss of Equinox
sting
a little keener.
Anthony Mrucagz
will
shortly be leaving The Kingdom to
return to the U.S.A. Leng
Pleng wishes
him all the best, and props for his major contribution to the
Cambodian music scene.
Whatever
you're up to over the next few days... stay safe out there and... see
you around the traps!
A very busy time for
the Phnom Penh music scene this week, with far more fantastic events
than we can shake a stick at. Read about some of the highlights in
our weekly wrap below, and check out the Leng
Pleng Gig Guidefor
a comprehensive list of happenings.
Following all that
excitement in Kampot last week, it now falls to Phnom Penh to host
the latest arts festival to be based in Cambodia. While the Kampot
Writers and Readers Festival
staged its inaugural iteration in 2015, the International
Music Festival Phnom Penh has
now reached its twelfth year.
The classical music festival opens tonight (Thursday) at the
Intercontinental
Phnom Penh,
continues over the weekend with a series of concerts at Meta
House,
and closes with an unprecedented
symphony performance, back
at the Intercon
on Monday evening. The
orchestral finale will feature Cambodian pianist RongSereyvann and
the World-Ship
Youth-Orchestraof
Japan in co-operation with the Angkor
Youth Orchestra,
performing
Beethoven's 5th
Symphony and Mozart's Piano
Concerto No.17. The
organisers of the International Music Festivaltold
Leng Plengthat
Monday
will mark
the very first time a
Piano concerto has been fully
staged in Cambodia! For
ticket details and further information, visit the festival
website
and Facebookpage.
A
full festival-worthy list of top Cambodian singers will be lining
up at Koh PichTheatre
in Phnom Penh on Saturday night to pay tribute to Sinn Sisamouth, the
godfather
of 1960's
and 1970's Cambodian
rock'n'roll.
SinChanchhaya,
son
of Sisamouth, passed away in January this year – just
two months after the
Cambodian Ministry of Commerce officially recognised the Sinn
family's copyright
to 73 of Sinn Sisamouth's original songs (PhnomPenh Post, 21 January 2015).
Sin Chanchhaya
was a tireless campaigner for his
father's legacy and the legal rights of his family to ownership
of his
intellectual property. The
Sinn Sisamouth legacy lives on through grandson Sinn
Sethakol,
a
superb singer in
his own right, who
will be performing on Saturday alongside Cambodian luminaries such as
Laura Mam,
Meng Keo Pichenda,
Drakkar Band
and many, many more. The
event, entitled 'It's
Time To Give Back' has
been organised by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce as
a fund raiser for the families of Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, and
other charitable organisations involved in maintaining the legacy of
the Cambodian 'Golden Era' of rock'n'roll (KhmerTimes, 2 November 2015).
Tickets
for the event can be purchased at Smart Co. locations.
Returning Heroes
Scott, Greg and
RJ: I guess Phnom Penh is the place to be!
November
seems to be a good time to get back to Phnom Penh. Talented guitarist
Greg Marino has returned to the city this week and will be
hosting an open mic session tonight (Thursday) at Top Banana. RJ
Marshall has also
recently returned and has
resumed host duties at the
weekly Showbox open
mic night (Wednesdays).
Scott Bywater returned
from Europe last month (we knew he couldn't stay away from the Phnom
Penh music scene for too long!) and will be performing his latest
compositions at Alley Cat Cafe this
Friday. Welcome home guys!
Several
cutting-edge and experimental music acts will be performing live in
Phnom Penh this week. Krom Monster will reprise their 'uniquecollision of Khmer instruments and contemporary electronics'
at the Meta House this
Thursday. Check out their
tunes on Bandcamp.
Kampot-based DJ
Mute Speakerproduces
a fascinating fusion of
unmistakably Cambodian instrumentation and
groovy electronic beats –
check out the awesome tracks
available via the Mute Speaker Soundcloudpage.
He will
be visiting Phnom Penh this weekend to perform a DJ set at Cloud
on Friday night and at Eluvium Lounge on
Saturday night. Just when you
thought things could not get any more hip in Phnom Penh over
the next few days, we have
heard word that a
Franco-Italian-Cambodian live
music mash-up will taking place on Friday at the
Lop Loy gallery.
Headliner Gregaldur
describes his music as 'crazy fairytale lo-fi pop', while
Damani 'Danzo'
Kelly and
Morno will
provide appropriately cool musical
support.
Check
out the latest music video release by Phnom Penh-based RFM
Nation. The
sunshine-soaked film was shot in the Boeng Kak Lakeside area of
the city.
Whatever
you're up to over the next few days... stay safe out there and... see
you around the traps!
The Kampot Writers
and Readers Festival 2015 kicks off today (Thursday). Not
just a literary festival, the KWRF features several
great live music events. Check out Television Ted's special preview
wrap and visit the KWRFwebsite for all the latest
information. Two of the highlights of the festival are scheduled to
take place this Friday. Master Kong Nay,
together with his son Kong
Boran and other contemporary
Cambodian guest artists,
will be performing a
selection of traditional Cambodian musical works. Later that evening,
a special one-off live concert performance will be given by
Australian Recording
Industry Association (ARIA)
Hall of Fame inductee Paul Kelly.
Tickets for this boutique show, at
KAMA in
Kampot, may now be harder to find than a Cambodian policeman after
5.30 in the evening but... it's worth a try. Tickets
in Kampot can be purchased from Ms. Soon at Ellie’s Cafe (during
the day)
or at
KAMA
(at
night-time)
-SMS
096 367 2224 .
The first annual KWRFis
inspired
by, and created in partnership with, theUbud Writers and Readers Festival
in Bali, Indonesia
(the 12th
annual UBUD festival took place last week). It
was at the UBUD festival thatKWRF
festival director Julien
Poulson,
of The Cambodian
Space Project and
Bokor Mountain
Magic Band fame,
met
and connected withauthor
Jonathan Campbell. Jonathan is a music writer, musician, promoter and
agent based
in Beijing in the years between 2000 and 2010. He
will be at KAMA in Kampot on Sunday, talking about his new book The
Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll.
Fans
of Cambodian Rock may find more than a few fascinating parallels
between the two histories. As Jonathan himself told Leng
Pleng
:
Jon Campbell - pic: Henry Campbell
“I
think that Cambodia and China's experience of rock and roll is
similar, and though I write a lot about how the stakes in China were
heavy (the choice to pursue rock music in the 80's
and 90's
was a choice to ostracise oneself), they weren't as heavy as what
happened in the 70's
in Cambodia. But I think what both situations show those of us in The
West is the thing that I discovered over the course of writing my
book: that rock and roll means something to people in a way that
we've forgotten about here. Rock and roll has become just something
you listen to, but it used to be a lot more than that in The
West. It used to be About Something -- saying something, being
something, choosing to be someone. We used to say that
rock and roll can change the world, and I've found that for a lot of
Chinese people, it did change the world. From what I gather, for many
Cambodians, too, rock and roll changed the world -- both before and
after the 70's.”
Alto Ace: Thomas Schelloeh, pic: Susi Brinkert
Find out more about
Jonathan Campbell via his website. For all those making the journey
to Kampot this weekend, have a great time and enjoy. Meanwhile, in
Phnom Penh, things are looking up for the expat music scene. Over the
next two weeks we will see the arrival of at least three brand-new
bands and the return of no less than four local favourite groups. The
action is centred around Sharky Bar
this weekend, where Sangvar
Daywill
welcome
new bassist Ned
Kelly into
the fold at
their comeback
gig on Friday. Saturday
will see the debut of new rock trio Road
to Mandalay.
Leng Pleng
has not yet heard the new-comers Mandalay,
but the Sharky Bar
press
release promises 'one
of the most promising new alternative rock bands in Cambodia in
years!'. Also
on Saturday, Joe
Wrigley & The Jumping Jacks
will return to the scene with a new line-up including ace
alto-saxophonist Thomas
Schelloeh.
The
rockabilly quartet will, along with Miss
Sarawan,
be celebrating the 15th
Anniversary of Shanghai
Bar.
The
Barangutans
are a trio of international
musicians based in Sihanoukville. They will be travelling to Phnom
Penh on
Friday for a gig at CabaretRestaurant.
A
little internet research has revealed an accomplished acoustic covers
band with a Latin music feel and strong lead vocals.
Cambodian
singing stars will be in attendance on Sunday at the Melodies
of Change event
to be held at the Cambodia-Korea
Co-operation Center (CKCC) at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Melodies of Change
comprises of songwriting and performance workshops and seminars, as
well as featuring live competition and live performance. The event
has a very progressive and positive mission – seeking to encourage
new original music in Cambodia. For
more information: tel.
077
996 440. As
Australian singer-songwriter
Paul Kelly
said, "From
little things, big things grow".
Whatever
you're up to over the next few days... stay safe out there and... see
you around the traps!
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