Category: Night & Day

THURSDAY 7 |Once upon a time, in a hermetic village not so far away, anyone who dared stand out faced the wrath of small-minded locals. When a strange-looking man appears one day, he prays to the gods to save him from their discrimination – and, in response, they transform him into a beautiful woman. The men of the village are immediately love struck, but suddenly a mysterious plague breaks out and claims them, one by one. Convinced the beautiful stranger is responsible, the surviving villagers put her to death – but the plague continues to spread, gathering its fatal pace… So begins Eclipse, a circus show by Battambang’s Phare Ponleu Selpak performing arts school. Expect a modern circus extravaganza with a Khmer twist: “This is one of our most theatrical,” says Zoe, one of the circus administrators. “It’s also very Khmer; you don’t see the influence of Western cultures like in other shows that we have.” Tickets ($4) available at tinitinoucircusfestival.org.

WHO: Phare Ponleu Selpak
WHAT: Eclipse circus show
WHERE: National Circus School of Phnom Penh, opposite National Assembly (near NagaWorld)
WHEN: 6pm May 7 & 8
WHY: “Circus art is about courage, solidarity and peace.” – Khoun Det, Phare Ponleu Selpak founder

 

SATURDAY 3 |Not the 1910 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett about a ‘disagreeable-looking’ 10-year-old girl born in India to self-obsessed parents, no, no. This ‘Secret Garden’ is the second venture by the geniuses who in February breathed life – for one night only – into Riverside’s famed ‘ghost hotel’. This time, the WILD team will spirit you a full 18km out of the dust bowl that is Phnom Penh and into a lush, oh-so-secret waterside setting that… we’re not at liberty to tell you about, rather obviously. What we can tell you is this: the party starts at 3pm on May 3 and is due to rage until noon the following day. For your delight and delectation, a host of DJs – including Supercosi (Japan) – will entertain your ears; French visual artist Antoine Merger will keep your eyes occupied, and body artist Paul Airbrushing (Malaysia) will make your bits glow in the dark. Which is nice. Don’t forget your bathers, toothbrush and cash, or you’ll have to surf the current back to the city. Tickets are $10.

WHO: DJs, visual artists and body artists
WHAT: The Secret Garden Party
WHERE: Transport departs Riverside Hotel, Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 3:30pm May 3 – noon May 4
WHY: Because you’re WILD

 

FRIDAY 2 |Omid 16B (real name: Omid Nourizadeh) is considered one of the pioneers of tech house, alongside Carl Craig, Vince Watson, Craig Richards, Mr C, Steve Bug and Francois K. “Some DJs and producers have their finger on the pulse. Omid 16B is the pulse. Music runs through his veins,” gushes DJ Mag of this Londoner of Persian extraction. Influences include Jimi Hendrix, The Cure, Depeche Mode, RIDE and The Mission. In 2002 he set up SexOnWax Recordings and has since been signed by Ministry of Sound, among others. Says the man himself: “I love music: how it can make our emotions flow; how it can change the way we think; the way we love; the way we express ourselves.”

WHO: Omid 16B
WHAT: Monster remixing
WHERE: Pontoon, Street 172
WHEN: 11pm May 2
WHY: “Some DJs and producers have their finger on the pulse. Omid 16B is the pulse. Music runs through his veins” – DJ Mag

 

THURSDAY 1 & 3 |Once upon a time, or 2001 to be exact, the ever-affable Dutchman behind The Flicks Community Movie Houses in Phnom Penh wasn’t known as the godfather of couch surfing. Global media had yet to brand him ‘The world’s biggest freeloader’ (he still prefers ‘economic refugee’) and the concept of social networking hadn’t even been invented. Ramon Stoppelenburg, then a journalism student in his mid-20s, wanted to travel the world. There was only one catch: his wallet was so empty it echoed. Enter the blossoming technology we now know as The Almighty Internet. Letmestayforaday.com was Ramon’s domain. His mission: to boldly go where no man (or woman) had gone before and traverse the globe for free, simply by hopping – based on invitations he received online – from sofa to sofa. By December 2001, the Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers in the UK had declared him Internet Personality of the Year. Two years and 10,000 new friends later, Ramon – who features in the documentary One Couch At A Time – had become the poster boy for what academics and lefties now loftily refer to as the ‘sharing economy’.

WHO: Couch surfers and other open-minded hipster types
WHAT: One Couch At A Time screening
WHERE: Flicks1, Street 95; Flicks2, Street 136
WHEN: 2pm May 1 (Flicks1) and 2pm May 3 (Flicks1 & Flicks2)
WHY: The new ‘age of sharing’ examined

 

SATURDAY 26 |Once upon a time, or 2001 to be exact, the Dutchman behind The Flicks Community Movie Houses in Phnom Penh wasn’t known as the godfather of couch surfing. Global media had yet to brand him ‘The world’s biggest freeloader’ (he still prefers ‘economic refugee’) and the concept of social networking hadn’t even been invented. Ramon Stoppelenburg, then a journalism student in his mid-20s, wanted to travel the world. There was only one catch: his wallet was so empty it echoed. Enter the blossoming technology we now know as The Almighty Internet. Letmestayforaday.com was Ramon’s domain. His mission: to boldly go where no man (or woman) had gone before and traverse the globe for free, simply by hopping – based on invitations he received online – from sofa to sofa. By December 2001, the Guardian and Sunday Times newspapers in the UK had declared him Internet Personality of the Year. Two years and 10,000 new friends later, Ramon – who features in the documentary One Couch At A Time – had become the poster boy for what academics and lefties now loftily refer to as the ‘sharing economy’.

WHO: Couch surfers and other open-minded hipster types
WHAT: One Couch At A Time screeningWHERE: Flicks2, Street 136
WHEN: 2pm April 26
WHY: The new ‘age of sharing’ examined

 

SATURDAY 26 |The loudest bands in the country go toe-to-toe tonight in a clash of the post-hardcore titans: Sliten6ix, Cambodia’s first and only deathcore group, take on the male- and-female-fronted screamo band No Forever. Ear defenders optional.

WHO: Sliten6ix and No Forever
WHAT: Deathcore and stuff
WHERE: Slur bar, St. 172
WHEN: 9pm April 26
WHY: Two of Cambodia’s loudest bands go toe-to-toe

 

SATURDAY 26 |Few would place Philips, the Dutch appliance maker, among the world’s greatest contributors to global hip-hop culture, but there it most certainly stands. In 1969, Philips released the ‘radio recorder’, a dull grey and matte black plastic audio box with an extendable chrome antennae for the radio and chunky mechanical buttons to record, play, stop, fast-forward and rewind. The boombox was born. “I remember getting my first ghetto blaster as a kid, and using the dual cassette decks to try to make my own mix tapes,” says the Bangkok-based rapper known as Hydro Phonics, a card-carrying medical marijuana-smoker from the US, in a soft southern drawl. The portable boombox moved the party from the living room to the street corner, where rappers and b-boys traded dance moves and beats. It provided the artillery for a generation of freestyle street battles. “Nothing can ever replace that box sitting in the middle of the party and everyone dancing.” These days, Hydro Phonics performs a two-man show under the rubric Ghetto Blasters with regional DJ powerhouse Tech 12. Originally from the UK, Tech 12 claims residencies at Bangkok’s Bed Supper Club and Q-Bar and has worked alongside The Black Eyed Peas, Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash and Cash Money.

WHO: Hydro Phonics & Tech 12
WHAT: Ghetto Blasters
WHEN: 11pm April 26
WHERE: Pontoon Club, St. 172
WHY: They’re ssssssmokin’

 

FRIDAY 25 |At the pinnacle of the late-1980s UK club scene, when people like Steve Strange ruled a Gomorrah of gender-bending pop excess, the truly rebellious were breaking into abandoned school buildings in Brixton, wiring the places with jerry-rigged sound systems and shaking the windows with music that didn’t suck. Paul Adair was a 20-something college radio DJ from small-town New Zealand. London was the fount of all music. Vinyl was the substrate. “The ’80s,” says Adair, who spins under the name Dr Wah Wah, “is completely underrated… it was a time when a lot of musical genres that dominate now came to the fore”. Untethered in the Big Smoke, Adair fell in behind the turntables at London squat parties. Twelve-inch wax became his currency. Adair recently started buying records again, hence Vinyl Mania: a party for Dr Wahwah and fellow wax lovers to spend the night together.

WHO: Dr Wahwah and DJ Nicomatic
WHAT: Vinyl Only Night
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 9pm April 25
WHY: Sounds from the European underground have never been so accessible

 

FRIDAY 25 |The Fumes, fronted for the last time by Karin Schelzig tonight, are perhaps one of Phnom Penh’s longest-serving expat rock bands. This raucous quintet comprising Schelzig (lead vocals, guitar), Gem Habito (lead guitar), Darren Jahn (bass), Jon Banules (keyboards), and Brian Webster (drums) has been together since early 2009. Between them, they cover everything from Nirvana, The Foo Fighters and Courtney Love to The Clash, Soft Cell and The Killers. Expect an up-tempo, energetic sound with plenty of heavy guitar. And don’t even think about not dancing.

WHO: The Fumes
WHAT: Rock covers
WHERE: Slur bar, Street 172
WHEN: 9pm April 25
WHY: Last chance to see

 

THURSDAY 24 |Formed in 1964 and regrouping exactly 20 years later, Jamaican ska band The Skatalites, of Guns Of Navarone fame – along with Studio One in-house bands the Soul Vendors, Sound Dimension, Soul Defenders and Brentford Road All Stars – laid the foundations for modern reggae. Mixing their danceable rhythms with popular jazz tonight are some of Phnom Penh’s most talented musicians, promising an evening of ‘infectious beats and tasty horn lines’.

WHO: Jahzad
WHAT: Jamaican ska meets jazz
WHERE: Cabaret, Street 154
WHEN: 7:30pm April 24
WHY: Infectious beats and tasty horn lines