Category: Night & Day

SATURDAY 31 | In 1976, a then 29-year-old David Bowie went to Los Angeles to record his tenth studio album, Station To Station. According to biographer David Buckley, Bowie spent most of his free time taking “astronomic” amounts of cocaine, burning black candles, channelling telepathic messages from the Rolling Stones and, allegedly, having his semen stolen by witches. Unsurprisingly he later claimed to remember almost nothing about the production. Using the namesake of the album that almost destroyed him is a rather more stable Bowie cover band comprised of big players in the local music scene, including Jet Odrerir and Smokin’ Kenny Smith. The set spans 14 years, 14 albums and about as many radical stylistic changes of Bowie’s career (pre-fame/pre-cocaine, pre-cocaine, cocaine, cocaine detox and post-cocaine, to name a few). Bring your dancing shoes and prepare for the return of the Thin White Duke.

WHO: Station To Station
WHAT: David Bowie tribute band
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHEN: 9pm August 31
WHY: Meet Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, The Thin White Duke and The Man Who Fell To Earth all in one night

SATURDAY 31 | Rare posters and photographs capturing Cambodia’s filmmaking heyday in the 1960s have been gathered up, retouched and printed afresh by collector Soukhmean Sri for his new exhibition, Amazing Cambodia. Surviving stars of the country’s much-lauded Golden Era will be on hand at the opening, where students of Cambodia Living Arts College will also perform a traditional dance.

WHO: Surviving stars of Cambodia’s Golden Era
WHAT: Amazing Cambodia exhibition opening with guest speakers and live dance performance
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 6pm August 31
WHY: Bring the swinging ’60s back to life

FRIDAY 30 | British-born country singer/songwriter Joe Wrigley meets the Cambodian Space Project’s Scott Bywater (vocals) and Adrien (bass) in what was originally intended to be a Buddy Holly tribute band but has since evolved into a ‘vampire rockabilly’ trio. “We’re going for the Sun Records/Gene Vincent kind of sound,” says Joe. “It’s the awesome era of guitar sound in between jazz and rock music, so players like Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore were playing big archtops and gretsches very loud with lots of echo and it sounds like they’re just making up rock ‘n’ roll on the spot. You have that energy combined with the wild exuberance of early Elvis and Gene Vincent and it’s just wild, wild!”

WHO: Joe Wrigley & The Jumping Jacks
WHAT: Rockabilly
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm August 30
WHY: It’s just wild, wild!

FRIDAY 30 | Euan Gray, frontman of Brisbane barefoot-in-the-sand band The Rooftops, gives more than a nod to his adopted home of Cambodia in many of his songs, from Rain Gambling to Monkeys & Elephants. “This could be my long-awaited push to finish some new songs I’ve been dreaming up,” he said before last week’s Vibe Music Festival at Doors. “I have half a chorus for a new song, called Paper Lexus. Last Chinese New Year, I saw people burning paper, factory made Lexuses along with fake money. All things will pass. Amazing symbolism: ironic and hopeful at the same time. I have another one that no one has heard yet called We Live Amongst The Tigers, about how ex-Khmer Rouge are everyday folk, driving our tuk tuks, planting rice, doing business; all trying to move on. ‘Working hard at moving on, working just as hard as anyone…’

WHO: The Euan Gray Trio
WHAT: Jazz meets pop
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282 & 51
WHEN: 9pm August 30
WHY: Almost as good as being barefoot in the sand

FRIDAY-SUNDAY 30-1 | Fredy is a talking orange monkey who was fathered by King Kong, at least that’s what French ventriloquist Christian Gabriel would have you believe. You be the judge. Just don’t burn him for witchcraft.

WHO: Christian Gabriel and Fredy
WHAT: Man & monkey ventriloquist act
WHERE: New York Steakhouse, #264 Street 63
WHEN: 6pm August 30 – September 1
WHY: Talking orange monkey fathered by King Kong

THURSDAY 29 | The psychedelic voice of the Cambodian Space Project, Chanthy Kak, takes a break from orbit to spin rare Southeast Asian vinyl in the guise of her DJ alter-ego, Cuppa Tea.

WHO: DJ Cuppa Tea
WHAT: Rare Southeast Asian vinyl
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9pm August 29
WHY: See ‘WHAT’

THURSDAY & SATURDAY 29 & 31 | Guitarist Diego Dimarques is perched on a barrelhouse stool, sipping bottles of Angkor and playing Spanish jazz at the finest music room in Phnom Penh. Clean-shaven with greying, shoulder-length hair, the 50-ish-year-old guitar player could easily pass for a son of Jose Reyes, the world-famous flamenco guitarist whose five sons – Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai and Andre – comprise a majority of the Gipsy Kings. “There are rumours that I was part of the band, the one with the white hair,” Dimarques says, dispelling any notion that he might be a long-haired Nicolas Reyes in disguise. “I am not part of their family in the sense that we have no common blood.” But Dimarques is a fellow traveller on the same circuit, a compadre in heart and spirit, and considers Gipsy Kings co-founder Jalloul ‘Chico’ Bouchikhi both a friend and inspiration. “I met Chico when I was playing a hotel in Paris in 2006 or 2007 and he was there to promote his new album, Freedom. I was surprised to see him and I went to him to apologise for not playing his songs very well, but he told me: ‘The more they are played, the less we forget the culture.’ We talked together around a Pastis and he told me there was no problem if people thought I was part of the band!”

WHO: Diego Dimarques
WHAT: Gipsy and Latin music
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282
WHEN: 9pm August 29 & 31
WHY: Our very own Gipsy King

THURSDAY 22 | It is the sort of sound you might expect to hear in deep outer space – the sound of planets aligning, synthesised notes rising and falling like an angel’s sigh. The muffled heartbeat of the bass throbs from deep within an echoing womb; a tambourine rattling past the microphone with a sudden metallic swoosh. High above it all a chirping flute swoops and soars, like some giant winged intergalactic thing. 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. Joined for their first all-improvised show earlier this month by flautist Anton Isselhardt, their second gig will feature trombonist and could 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), Tim King (guitar) and Volker Müller (trombone)
WHAT: Live ambient fusion
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 9pm August 22
WHY: “Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think” – Brian Eno

THURSDAY 22 – SUNDAY 25 | Some 50 of the capital’s finest musicians have assembled for Vibe, a ten-day music festival ending this week that features upwards of 17 bands. It’s carved up into three ‘vibes’: Dancing & Bouncing (August 16, 17, 18 & 23), Cooling & Chilling (18, 19, 20, 21, 22 & 25) and Quiet Listening (24), the only night for which there’s a cover charge ($3, available in advance at Doors on Street 84 & 47 and The Piano Shop on Street 13 & 178). Here’s what not to miss:

7pm THU 22: Khemera, Akhia & Amanda Bloom
Doubling as frontwoman for post-hardcore band No Forever, 22-year-old Sam tonight goes unplugged, along with her guitarist Tim, in acoustic act Khemera. Watch out also for Akhia, a self-taught guitarist from the Philippines who will be channelling Chrissy Constanza, Alex Goot and Boyce Avenue. Amanda Bloom, meanwhile, arrives fresh from recording her second album, Atlas, which features Australian saxophonist Euan Gray and Malaysian Asia Beat drummer Lewis Pragasam. “The album draws its inspiration from my experiences living in Cambodia for the last two years and is a melting pot of world, classical and piano-driven melodic pop music,” says Amanda.

9pm FRI 23: Jahzad & Lady Bluesabelle
Mixing their danceable rhythms with popular jazz tonight are some of Phnom Penh’s most talented musicians, among them Sebastien Adnot (bass), Sam Day Harmet (mandolin), Greg Lavender (drums), Euan Gray (saxophone) and Alexandre Scarpati (trombone). Known collectively as Jahzad, they promise an evening of “infectious beats and tasty horn lines”. Afterwards, expect from the lovely Lady Bluesabelle everything from Caribbean and funk to electro swing and Afro beat.

7:30pm SAT 24: Master Kong Nay & Krom & VJ Roberto  
Silence is indeed the only way to greet the work of Krom. The tune She’s Seven Years Old (Her Body Sold), from the band’s forthcoming second album, Krom – Neon Dark, is perhaps the single most disturbing item on the Vibe menu. It recounts the true story of a young Cambodian child sold into sexual slavery and was described by BBC broadcaster Mark Coles as “Harrowing; a very disturbing, powerful song.” On an ever-so-slightly lighter note, Krom will also perform material from their first album, Songs From The Noir, and the ethereal vocals of Sopheak Chamroeun and her sister, Sophea Chamroeun, for which the band is famed. Even more famous is master musician Kong Nay, one of the few to survive the Khmer Rouge regime: a man known in certain circles as ‘the Ray Charles of Cambodia’, who will be joining Krom for several songs tonight.

8pm SUN 25: Charlie Corrie, Euan Gray & Friends
Drawing on the sounds of Smokey Robinson and Sam Cook, with a dash of James Morrison and Gavin Degraw, is self-taught pianist/guitarist Charlie Corrie. And Euan Gray, frontman of Brisbane-based band The Rooftops, has promised his first all-original solo: “It will be some Rooftops stuff, some non-Rooftops stuff and possibly some new stuff.” You heard it here first.

FRIDAY 23 | Named in honour of Fender’s Leslie speaker designed for use with electric guitars, Vibratone are a new all-original reggae band in town, featuring among other locally based talent Luis ‘El Brazilero’ (drums), Benoit ‘Schkoot’ (guitar) and Maia Diokno (vocals).

WHO: Vibratone
WHAT: All-original reggae
WHERE: Slur Bar, #28 Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm August 23
WHY: Dem got riddim!