Going Underground

For too many of us there’s a kind of inevitability about Saturday nights in Phnom Penh. Tanked up on Street 51, come the wee small hours someone calls ‘Pontoon!’ or ‘Heart!’ or ‘Nova!’ Off you toddle for a bit of drunken grinding before lurching out an hour later. Then you grab some dim sum and get mugged for the pitiful few dollars left in your wallet.

With a fairly restricted choice on the club circuit it’s easy fall into that kind of trap. But there’s change in the air. An altogether better class of DJ is emerging and soon enough, they hope, Phnom Penh will rival anywhere else in the world for its electronic beats.

So says DJ Sequence, who along with other pseudonymmed collaborators (plus The Advisor’s Best DJ of 2013, Simon C Vent, pictured) has set up an online space for Cambodia’s classier DJs and producers to publicise their offerings. On December 20 the Phnom Penh Underground dons physical form, with a launch at Meta House.

Having gone live just weeks ago, the Phnom Penh Underground website is already garnering 5,000 hits a month, proving there are indeed a lot of people out there who are more into the quality of the vibe than the quantity of the beer. The Facebook page just earned its 1,000th like, too.

“The site is something of a public service,” says Sequence, whose other aim is – well-intentioned cliché warning – to “bring people together with the universal language of music”. Harking back wistfully to the glory days of the early ’90s, Sequence remembers how acid house and rave united clubbers from all social strata. The longer-term aim is to recreate that here in the Charming City.

The price of mainstream events (plus drinks) may be one reason for the exclusion, something the electro scene seeks to counter. “Too often,” says Sequence, “the only Khmer people you see at some of these venues are behind the bar and that ought to change.”

Be that as it may, Phnom Penh’s lack of heavy-handed regulation means the dance music explosion of the Madchester years could well ignite here too. “It’s so simple to get a club night together at short notice,” explains Sequence. “A crowd of 250 is big for this town; you can book venues quickly and simply. We once set up a boat party in 24 hours. You couldn’t do that anywhere else.”

Merely ‘the Reggae Bar’ no longer, the Dusk ‘Til Dawn rooftop is taking off as one of the city’s hottest spots with stupendous views making up for the vertiginous setting. The Mecca of Phnom Penh house, techno and dance remains Meta House, of course: joining DJ Sequence at the decks at Saturday’s launch will be danbeck (from Kimchi Collective) and Tonle Dub & Mercy (Tech-Penh).

Phnom Penh Underground continues to grow its base of collaborators, and future ideas include a talent contest and a big night for New Year’s Eve. “I’m sure there’s some kid in Tonle Bassac somewhere listening to dubstep in their bedroom,” DJ Sequence concludes, “and we’d like to connect that kid with something bigger.”

WHO: Clubbers, ravers, technoheads and partaay people
WHAT: Phnom Penh Underground launch party
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 10pm December 20
WHY: Make some shapes to an eclectic range of the phattest beats in Phnom Penh (bottle of mineral water obligatory)