FRIDAY 14 | Red Hot Chili Peppers. Bruce Springsteen. The Beatles. U2. Get your rocks off tonight with Sonic Detergent, freshly laundering rock hits past and present.
WHO: Sonic Detergent
WHAT: Rock covers
WHEN: 9:30pm March 14
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHY: Better the devils you know
THURSDAY 13 |British composer Brian Eno’s choice of the word ‘ambient’ to describe his music, from the Latin ambire (‘to surround’), was a deliberate one: his were soundscapes that could alter your state of mind; put you into a ‘higher state’ – the sort of existential altitude usually associated with psychedelics. Inspired by John Cage, who occasionally composed by throwing the I Ching, Eno had made possible Clockwork Orange; Pink Floyd; The Orb and Aphex Twin; down-tempo chill-out designed to ease a tripped-out mind. Emerging custodians of that sound here include DJ Nicomatic, James Speck (on the splendidly named Korg Kaosillator) and Tim King (guitar), who collectively – under the moniker Electronic Universe – are perhaps Phnom Penh’s first and only live ambient fusion outfit. Gigs can involve everything from Tibetan bowls to a singing saw. Says King: “When we’re doing this, I feel like Nico is the mothership and we’re just little spaceships flying around him, interacting.”
WHO: DJ Nicomatic, James Speck (Korg Kaosillator) and Tim King (guitar)
WHAT: Live ambient fusion
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9:30pm March 13
WHY: “Ambient music is intended to induce calm and a space to think” – Brian Eno
FRIDAY 14 – 15 |The Cambodian Space Project started in late 2009 as little more than a musical one-night stand. The band’s founding duo, Tasmanian guitar man Julien Poulson and Cambodian singer Kak Chanthy, agreed to an experimental set at Meta House simply out of shared curiosity. Those humble beginnings reverberate in the juxtaposition of the band’s equally sublime name. That perennially cash-strapped Cambodia would build a zillion-dollar space programme seems about as likely as a Phnom Penh band that plays Cambodian wedding hits reaching international acclaim. But stranger things have happened.
WHO: Cambodian Space Project
WHAT: Tripped-out ’60s psychedelia
WHERE: Equinox, #3a St. 278 (March 14) & Knai Bang Chatt, Kep (March 15)
WHEN: 9pm March 14 & 15
WHY: See ‘WHAT’
THURSDAY 13 | Eight French students; six months; three developing countries: the Submarine Brass Band takes an unusual approach to promoting international solidarity, an approach rooted not in peace talks, but in tubas and trumpets and other brassy stuff. Well worth keeping on your radar.
WHO: Submarine Brass Band
WHAT: Promoting solidarity through tubas and trumpets
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm March 13
WHY: It’s impossible to watch someone playing a tuba without smiling
THURSDAY 13 – 17 | Revive the glamour of bygone days with Renaissance woman Amanda Bloom’s latest collection of vintage garments from around the globe. Her new History Of Things To Come sale includes lace-up burlesque bikinis from 1950s France; mod blouses and shifts from the 1960s; Woodstock-era patchwork skirts and hand-embroidered Mu Mus. Rummage through everything from ‘80s jumpsuits to Seersucker housecoats via Studio 54 disco dresses and rejuvenate your look with a touch of yesteryear.
WHO: Stylistas with a penchant for time travel
WHAT: Vintage clothing sale
WHERE: #21 Street 306 (next to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf)
WHEN: 8am – 8pm March 13 – 17
WHY: Time-tested glamour from bygone days
SUNDAY 9 | Born in Ipoh, Bang Hean regularly appears in solo recitals, chamber concerts and concerto performances in his native Malaysia. Tonight, this consummate chamber musician will perform piano recitals by Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt, with a little Franz Schubert thrown in for good measure.
WHO: Bang Hean
WHAT: Piano recital
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8pm March 9
WHY: God bless Cockney rhyming slang
SATURDAY 8 | Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Could it even be the UFOs those pesky alien hunters keep banging on about?! Nope, way more fun than that: it’s Ultimate Frisbee, now in its sixth year at Northbridge School. And if chasing discs of plastic isn’t your thing, perhaps the free-flow beer will give you pause for thought (call 077 539210 for details).
WHO: Flying disc hunters
WHAT: Ultimate Frisbee championship
WHERE: Northbridge International School, Street 2004
WHEN: March 8 & 9
WHY: Real UFOs are rather harder to catch
SATURDAY 8 | Photographer Mona Simon and writer/gender expert Cova Alvarez rethink what has made us as we are and why in The Skin Code Project, a new exhibition which questions what we consider ‘normal’. The project creates a sonority place in which female protagonists can tell their own stories out loud, for the first time in many cases. “Our personal pathways are engraved in our skins: colours, marks, wrinkles or cracks that break through without us being able to avoid it, while scars establish basic coordinates and we use ink to draw ourselves or choose other ways to embody our destinies,” say the pair. “Our skin contains the glances of the others, glances that can sculpt us in a way that can become a corset. In this sense, and as women, we were interested in identifying if there is something related to our female designation and the experiences we have lived through our women’s skins that can mark certain patterns, possibilities, restrictions or expectations about our personal pathways and in our encounters with ourselves and others. John Berger said that a conversation could be a sort of sculpture. There are words that can destroy us and there are others that can lighten our heart. Sometimes they are the same words and it depends on the skin we choose to inhabit, and on that other skin we can save from the flames. Through meetings and conversations with 20 women from Cambodia and other countries, to revisit their individual itineraries and land in the vision of themselves in this present moment, their portraits emerge.”
WHO: Mona Simon and Cova Alvarez
WHAT: The Skin Code Project exhibition
WHERE: Tepui @ Chinese House, Sisowath Quay & Street 84
WHEN: March 8
WHY: An artistic homage to the fairer sex on International Women’s Day
SATURDAY 8 | Experience the best of the world’s underground hip hop scenes tonight with a sonic smorgasbord featuring DJs Bree (UK), Polaak (Hungary) and MC Kaztet D (France).
WHO: DJs Bree, Polaak and MC Kaztet D
WHAT: International hip hop night
WHERE: Slur, Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm March 8
WHY: Save a small fortune on air fares
FRIDAY 7 | DJs Tim Coates and Mikus go deck-to-deck tonight in a new monthly residency at Riverhouse, featuring nu-disco, deep house and G-house. “DJing with four hands is much more dynamic than using just two,” sayeth the duo. That’s that settled, then.
WHO: Tim Coates & Mikus
WHAT: Nu-disco, deep house and G house
WHERE: Riverhouse Lounge, Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 10pm March 7
WHY: Gangster rap meets a four-four beat
