Category: Night & Day

SATURDAY 14 | In the shtetl (‘villages’ or ‘ghettoes’) of Eastern Europe, itinerant Jewish troubadours once roamed, expressing through klezmer music the full gamut of human emotions from joy to despair, from devotion to revolt, from meditation to drunkenness – all served up with a generous dose of Yiddish humour. Inspired by secular melodies, populasr dances, and the wordless melodies used by orthodox Jews for approaching God in ecstatic communion, klezmer’s evolution was spurred by contact with Slavic, Greek, Ottoman, gypsy and, later, jazz musicians. Using typical scales, tempo and rhythm changes, slight dissonance and a touch of improvisation, today’s klezmorim include Sam Day, a young mandolin player from the US who, before returning home, was instrumental in founding the Klezbodians. The band features Marion Gommard on sax, Bun Hong on clarinet, Giacomo Butte on accordion, Timothy Walker on guitar and Ali Benderdouche on dumbek. Sam, now back in the US with his magnificently named Shtetlblasters, says: “There’s something danceable about klezmer music. There’s a very clear rhythm; it’s driving, propulsive music. And the scales used are sort of major and minor at the same time, so there’s something melancholy about it. It’s very vocal, too; the melodies are played on the clarinet or violin in ways that attempt to emulate the human voice, the sound of a cantor – in a synagogue, the person who’s singing the Jewish prayers…” [Erupts in song] And what can we expect of the Klezbodians? “Mostly fast-paced klezmer instrumental music – similar to gypsy music – along with some Yiddish vocal tunes. It will be feisty!”

WHO: Klezbodians
WHAT: Itinerant Jewish troubadours
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm December 14
WHY: “It will be feisty!” – Sam Day Harmet

 

SATURDAY 14 | Music visionary Danny Rampling, former BBC Radio 1 and Kiss FM DJ, is perhaps best known as the man behind Shoom, one of the first acid house nights in late-’80s London. It was Rampling who took the ‘smiley face’ logo and made it synonymous with dance music. Rampling, too, who bossed Radio 1’s Love Groove, becoming a global name after selling more than a million albums. He’s spun privately for George Michael, The Pet Shop Boys, Mick Hucknell, Gloria Estefan, Depeche Mode, Patrick Cox, Antonio Berardi and Boy George. And tonight, he – the author of Everything You Need To Know About DJing & Success – takes the decks at Riverhouse Lounge, alongside his American DJ wife Ilona, for your listening pleasure.

WHO: Mr & Mrs Danny & Ilona Rampling
WHAT: Veteran DJs
WHERE: Riverhouse Lounge, Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 9pm December 14
WHY: He made the smiley face famous

 

FRIDAY 13 | New wave, post-punk, ’80s cheese: all grist to the mill for the inimitable Jaworski 7, fronted by the larger-than-life Jerby Salas Santo. “The band loves post punk, indie, new wave and everything in between,” he says. “We’re like a Pacific/Oceania band. We now have two originals on our set and we’re planning to add more.” Think The Cure, The Smiths and brace yourself for a fist-pumping, high-jumping flashback to your formative years.

WHO: Jaworski 7
WHAT: New wave, post-punk, ’80s cheese
WHERE: Slur, Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm December 13
WHY: A fist-pumping, high-jumping flashback to your formative years

 

FRIDAY 13 | For a band that plays Khmer wedding hits from 50 years ago, The Cambodian Space Project makes for a peculiar flag-bearer of avant garde Cambodian rock. But the tripped-out ’60s psychedelia that defined the country’s golden era of music – when superstars such as Pan Ron and Ros Sereysothea ruled the airwaves – is proving almost as popular today as it was during King Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reastr Niyum. From unpretentious beginnings, the group has evolved from little more than a musical sideline into a slickly polished way-back machine driving headlong into Cambodia’s golden musical past. Expect a unique mix of space rock, surf, reggae, dub, Khmer surin and ’60s psychedelia, with out-of-this-world vocals from Srey Thy.

WHO: The Cambodian Space Project
WHAT: Tripped-out ’60s psychedelia
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm December 13
WHY: They’ll take you into orbit

 

FRIDAY 13 | At the pinnacle of the late-1980s UK club scene, when places like the Blitz and people like Steve Strange ruled a Gomorrah of 24-hour gender-bending pop excess, the truly rebellious were breaking into abandoned school buildings in Brixton, wiring the places up with admirably 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. He had come of age on New Order, The Smiths, Cabaret Voltaire and early UK electronica. London was the fount of all music. Vinyl was the substrate. “The ’80s,” says Adair, who spins under the name Dr Wahwah, “is completely underrated. A whole lot of people associate it with bad haircuts and the music videos that all came out, but look: it was a time when a lot of musical genres that dominate now came to the fore.” Untethered in the Big Smoke, Adair quickly fell in behind the turntables at London squat parties. Twelve-inch wax became his currency. His collection grew from a few dozen discs in the beginning to more than a thousand by the time he returned home in 1993. Adair’s collection has been mostly closeted since, more a souvenir from his colourful youth than any actively curated library. But he got the jones again recently and started buying records, hence Vinyl Mania, a party at Meta House for Dr Wahwah and wax lovers to spend the night together. The culmination of a two-year buying spree, Wahwah’s newest additions are “predominantly dance” he says, but there’s lots of eclectic obscurata there too: Japanese funk, limited-edition underground disco, minimalist African house. He’s joined tonight by Nico Mesterharm, aka DJ Nicomatic, who brought his vinyl collection from Germany to Phnom Penh two years ago. Combined with Dr Wahwah’s set, the library pushes 3,000 titles.

WHO: Dr Wahwah and DJ Nicomatic
WHAT: Vinyl Mania
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 9pm December 13
WHY: Sounds from the European underground have never been so accessible

 

FRIDAY 13 | The thought of endorsing roots reggae groups founded by Frenchmen can trigger apprehension in reggae snobs, especially when such groups have never set foot on Jamaican soil. But what Vibratone lack in geographical legitimacy they more than make up for with enthusiasm, as evidenced by their recent performance at Doors’ Vibe Music Festival. Between them, Ben and Leonard (guitar), Julien (bass), Vibol (keys), Luis (drums) and Maia (vocals) boast an eclectic background, with musical roots from Brazil to France to the Philippines, yet their all-original reggae genuinely rocks. Keep your ears peeled for Dreams, of which Maia says: “Dreams talks about just that: dreams. The wants, needs and desires that we all have. When I wrote it, it began on a really materialistic note – be it money, a house, a car – then Julien and I spoke and I realised it needed more substance, so there is this transition between the first and second verses.  It talks about being at peace with oneself and gaining happiness through fulfilment. We have another song called Who Are You Fooling? and it’s very political; it criticises the status quo and speaks about injustices.”  Joining Vibratone tonight is DJ Polaak.

WHO: Vibratone & DJ Polaak
WHAT: All-original reggae
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm December 13
WHY: See ‘WHAT’

 

MONDAYn 9  | Oh, the Irish: never ones to miss an excuse for boozin’, bless ‘em, and Christmas is no exception. Join the ever-pickled livers behind The Irish Place today for a Christmas tour of no less than 12 bars across the capital. And don’t forget to ask Santa for some Alka-Seltzers. Ouch.

WHO: The seasonally spirited
WHAT: The 12 Bars Of Christmas
WHERE: The Irish Place, plus 11 other bars
WHEN: December 9 (time TBC)
WHY: Christmas may come but once a year, but there’s no reason the hangover can’t last a month or two

 

SATURDAY 7 | Prima ballerinas at Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh take to the stage tonight for Aspects, a three-part dance programme which includes a 20-minute one-act ballet, a contemporary dance trio and a community dance work by young Cambodians. Tickets ($9) are on sale now at Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh, #10 Street 183, and Amrita Performing Arts, #128 Sothearos Boulevard.

WHO: Central School of Ballet Phnom Penh
WHAT: Aspects dance performance
WHERE: Department of Performing Arts, Sangkat Tuol Svay Prey I, Khan Chamkamon
WHEN: 7pm December 7 & 8
WHY: “We should consider every day lost in which we don’t dance” – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

 

SATURDAY 7 | Male and female. Fire and water. Dark and light. Life and death. Many natural forces that might at first seem contrary are in fact complementary, a concept embodied in the yin yang of Chinese philosophy. Together, such forces interact to create a sum far greater than their parts. Such is the case with Krom (Khmer for ‘the group’), quite possibly the most reclusive band in Cambodia. Public performances are rare; interviews even more so. In Krom, East meets West. Mournful delta blues guitar mingles with celestial Cambodian vocals. Tales of human atrocities are tinged with the slightest suggestion of hope. Angelic opera singers Sophea and Sopheak Chamroeun are backed by Australian guitarist Christopher Minko, a man onto whose features more than a thousand lifetimes have been etched (the three were introduced by Cambodian Living Arts). Nearing 60, Minko is not without his demons. A professional musician with Australian cult band The Bachelors in Prague in the late 1980s, he is today a recovering alcoholic who smokes more than three packs a day, wears any colour so long as it’s black and has been in a near-permanent state of mourning since the death of his wife, the mother of his only daughter. When he speaks of her, cross-legged and barefoot on the floor of Krom’s studio in a tiny Phnom Penh alleyway, a single tear slowly meanders down one of the many ravines that years of hard living have carved deep into his flesh. She’s Seven Years Old (Her Body Sold), from the group’s recently released second album, Neon Dark, is perhaps Krom’s most disturbing track. It recounts the true story of a young Cambodian child sold into sexual slavery and was described by BBC Radio broadcaster Mark Coles as “Harrowing; a very disturbing, powerful song.” Minko was motivated to write the lyrics after reading a story in the local press that described the rescue of a seven-year-old girl from sex traders on the Thai-Cambodia border. The photo accompanying the article showed her chained to a bed: “a horrendous mix of fear and utter bewilderment shown within the eyes of the enslaved young girl”, says Minko, noting that the song “is meant to make the listener feel uncomfortable, very uncomfortable”.

WHO: Krom
WHAT: A rare public performance, featuring Gabi Faja on piano
WHERE: Doors, #18 Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm December 7
WHY: They’re elusive, reclusive and exclusive

 

SATURDAY 7 | Atheists, look away now: Bluetree, from Northern Ireland, bill themselves as a Christian band and are best known for their song God Of This City, inspired by a trip to the oh-so-seedy Pattaya in Thailand. “I was frustrated with the idea that worship is only to do with your heart,” says lead singer Aaron Boyd. “I don’t really agree with that. It’s bigger than just your heart attitude towards something, like the idea that music can be secondary and as long as you love Jesus, that’s fine! I don’t think that’s right.” Here endeth the sermon.

WHO: Bluetree
WHAT: Bible-bashing Irish rockers
WHERE: Sugar & Spice Garden Cafe, #130a Street 430
WHEN: 5:30pm December 7
WHY: Lest they smite thee