Category: Night & Day

FRIDAY 16 | Billed as being to drum and bass what Afrika Bambaata was to the development of hip hop, DJ Hype won the London heat of the Disco Mix Club World DJ Championships way back in 1989 and has since graced the British capital’s Kiss FM and famed super-club Fabric. As one of the original rave DJs, it’s only fitting that his appearance tonight comes shrouded in mystery: it’s being held at a ‘secret location’, details of which will be revealed at codeclubasia.com on the day.

WHO: DJ Hype
WHAT: One of the original rave DJs
WHERE: It’s a secret, innit?
WHEN: 11pm August 16
WHY: What better way to relive the ’90s rave scene?

Some 50 of the capital’s finest musicians are assembling for Vibe, a ten-day music festival starting this week that will feature 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 this week:

9pm August 16: Dub Addiction & VJ/DJ Roberto
Dub Addiction summon an epic fusion of reggae and dub with Khmer saravan. Accompanying the wobble bass and distorted e-guitar solos will be a 3D visual feast by VJ/DJ Roberto. Psychedelics not required.

9pm August 17: Vibratone & DJ Bluesabelle
Vibratone is a new all-original reggae band in town; Lady Bluesabelle has played fine jazz for the launch of Ministry of Sound Radio’s chill-out sessions in London and was the first female DJ in Goa. Expect Caribbean, funk, electro swing and Afro beat.

7:30pm August 18: Kin & Swing Kings
Gabi Faja (piano), Sebastien Adnot (double bass) and Toma Willen (drums), known in their own right as the GTS Jazz Trio, recently joined forces with Euan Gray, front man of Australia’s The Rooftops and now a permanent Phnom Penh resident. New forays include pop, rhythm and soul, all bundled into a jazz aficionado-friendly package.

7:30pm August 19: Cambostomp
For centuries, the skor (‘drum’) has been at the very core of Cambodia’s musical traditions, used to emulate the sound of thunder; an important way of connecting to the natural world. Expect rousing tribal beats from Sovanna Phum’s Pin Peat Orchestra, from the percussive rumana to the giant barrel-shaped skor thom.

8pm August 20: Wash
Fronted by Scott ‘kind of a music guy; writes a bit’ Bywater, Wash brings together some of the city’s most inventive souls: DJ/VJ Warren Daly; electronic musician Alex Leonard and ‘English production guy’ Hal FX. Here, exotic soundscapes meet stunning visuals and dreamy spoken word in a collaborative effort that stimulates several senses at once.

8:30pm August 21: Joe Wrigley and the Jumping Jacks
British country singer/songwriter Joe Wrigley meets the Cambodian Space Project’s Scott Bywater (vocals) and Adrien (bass) in this new rockabilly trio. “We’re going for the Sun Records/Gene Vincent kind of sound,” says Joe. “We’re all into our ’50s stuff, so it will be authentic in terms of the rockabilly spirit… I just wish I still had my quiff!”

WHO: Gabi Faja and Friends, Lots of Friends…
WHAT: Vibe Music Festival
WHERE: Doors, #18 Street 84 & 47; 023 986114
WHEN: August 16 – 25
WHY: 10 days, 17 bands, 50 musicians: why the Hell wouldn’t you?!

SATURDAY 10 | Ever since Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple became the first to unleash heavy metal’s monstrously high-volume machismo back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, metalheads, also known as headbangers, have been branded ‘Satan’s spawn’. In truth, many are anything but – particularly within the Buddhist confines of 21st century Cambodia. “We’ll be doing our best to share everything we’ve got: our power, our minds, our feelings.” Sam, 20, is an international relations student and ‘clean’ non-screaming vocalist with post-hardcore and metalcore band, No Forever. “We do this every time we’re on stage; we love what we have and we love to share.” And how do the folks back home take to Sam’s super-loud, super-fast sound? “I have to hide from my parents. They just know I love singing and they love my voice, but they don’t know what I’m doing right now. The market for metal here is so small we can say there’s no market at all, but it’s what we love.” Hers is far from a unique experience, says Zoro. Ask this 18-year-old IT student and No Forever’s resident screamer what his family’s take is and he throws up his hands. “Oh my god! My dad, who plays guitar and keyboard, said: ‘What kind of music is this screaming? You should scream to the cows. They’re the only ones who will listen.’ I said: ‘Dad, you don’t accept the revolution. You’re only listening to hard rock like Carlos Santana, The Eagles, Scorpions.’ Zoro smiles. “Now he says: ‘Keep it up, if that’s what you want.’ Nowadays, I can scream in my house whenever I want.”

WHO: No Forever & AOA
WHAT: Post-hardcore metal
WHERE: Show Box, #11 Street 330
WHEN: 7:30pm August 10
WHY: \m/   \m/   \m/

Dub Addiction summon an epic fusion of reggae and dub with Khmer saravan. ‘Dirty’ and ‘raw’ are adjectives that sit well with their second album Dub Addiction Meets Kampuchea Rockers Uptown, the hallmark of which is a more organic, authentic dub sound than the band’s eponymous first album (a third is now ready – expect to hear new tracks tonight). The band features a veritable Who’s Who of the local scene, but the main ragamuffin toasters are MC Curly and DJ Khla, the latter someone German music producer Professor Kinski compares to Cutty Ranks, Sizla and Anthony B. Sights and sounds familiar to Phnom Penh long-termers ooze through the mixer to create a distinctly Cambodian soundscape. A high point – if you’ll pardon the pun – is The Mighty Plan, on which “the voice of LSD guru Terence McKenna is lecturing about mankind’s first contact with aliens over an ultra-massive slow shuffle dub groove of Lee Perry”. And it can only be right and proper to follow such a track with a song entitled Ganja Dub, although it’s clearly far too fast for anyone genuinely out of their mind on marijuana. “We intend to conquer the universe,” a disembodied voice declares as one track drives its mega-phat electro dub juggernaut into your sternum. Brace yourself.

WHO: Dub Addiction
WHAT: Ragga dub
WHERE: Laundry Bar, Old Market, Siem Reap
WHEN: 9pm August 10
WHY: Somewhere in the Great Dancehall in the sky, King Tubby should be smoking a fat one and smiling

FRIDAY 9 | Striding onto the catwalk in an emerald-green dress crafted from recycled water bottles, a seemingly endless train of fabric spooling over the stage behind her, Rhiannon Johnson embodied the very essence of Glamazon 2.0. Born in Barbados to English parents and having spent her formative years in Kenya before graduating from London’s much-admired Central St Martins University of the Arts, this elegant chanteuse cuts quite the dsash on the runway. But it’s what’s underneath – namely, her vocal chords – that really quickens the pulse. “Music in Barbados is a big deal,” she says. “In the Caribbean, it’s a huge part of their culture. Once a year, we’d have this big festival to celebrate the end of the crops and sugar cane; it’s called Crop Over. Listening to the radio and singing was always a huge part of my life, but it wasn’t until I got to school in Kenya that I got the chance to focus on it. It felt great: it was me coming out of myself. I’d only ever sung by myself in the shower.” From singing in the shower to fronting Cambodia’s rowdiest funk band, Durian, tonight she takes centre stage at The Groove, the newest jazz venue in town, conjuring a jazz/soul set list with the help of Barry Speirs (keys) and Ritchy (drums).

WHO: Rhiannon Johnson Trio
WHAT: Jazz and soul
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282
WHEN: 9pm August 9 & 14
WHY: If you weren’t at Glamazon 2.0, ask anyone who was

FRIDAY 9 | From twirling her stuff at the Moulin Rouge in Paris to spinning vinyl in Australian super-clubs, Chantal combines the very best of dancer and DJ through everything from funk, soul and disco to minimal tech and Latin house. DJ Cool Hand Luke, meanwhile, represents the ‘bump and grind’ end of the house spectrum with funky tech house, big soulful disco and ’70s-’80s retro.

WHO: DJs Chantal and Cool Hand Luke
WHAT: Friday’s Remixed party
WHERE: Le Bar, Sofitel, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm August 9
WHY: Did we mention ‘bump and grind’?

THURSDAY 8 | Euan Gray, front man of epic Australian groove band The Rooftops and now based here in Cambodia, dreamed as a boy that he met saxophonist James Carter and asked the secret of his success. In the dream, Carter lifted his lapel to reveal a small badge that said ‘Practice’. The grown-up Gray claims not to have heeded that advice, but the seductive sound that spirals out of the bell of his almost-a-century-old sax suggests otherwise – despite his protestations to the contrary: “It’s clunky, it’s out of tune. With a new sax, the sax drives you. But with an old sax, you have to do the driving. You have to say: ‘This is where we’re going.’ It’s really out of tune and good players I know can’t play it. I was just brought up on bad saxophones, so I know what I need to do to squeeze it into shape.” Expect a bouncy set list spanning jazz and pop, with backing from Ritchy (drums) and Barry Speirs (keys).

WHO: Euan Gray Trio
WHAT: Jazz and pop
WHERE: The Groove, Terrazza, Street 282
WHEN: 9pm August 8
WHY: The grooves are feet-friendly, the storytelling soulful

THURSDAY 8 | Amanda Bloom – a willowy, porcelain-skinned wisp with a penchant for vintage clothing – is an elegant Australian singer and composer who began studying piano at the age of three, wrote her first sonata aged six and debuted at the Sydney Opera House at just 17. On her first album, The History Of Things To Come, a song by the name of Rosetta – so called in honour of the Rosetta Stone, which famously unlocked the secrets of Ancient Egypt – contains the line: ‘An idea does not gain truth as it gains followers.’ When the album was released in 2010, the lyrics were immediately seized upon by freethinkers the world over. They’ve since been immortalised on everything from websites and radio shows to t-shirts and at least one tattoo. These ten words lie at the core of what Bloom, deeply touched by baroque and world music, describes on the album liner notes as “An epic and astounding fusion of fantasy, circus, classical, and piano-driven alternative rock.” Strings, oboes, harpsichords, cellos and timpanis layer in orchestral splendour amid off-beat rhythms, stunning harmonies and still more stirring lyrics. “Imagine an 18th century tea party with Tori Amos, Cirque du Soleil, Yann Tiersen and Muse” is how she defines her own otherwise almost indefinable style. Tonight, she will conjure a hypnotic blend of narrative, classical folk songs from her soon-to-be-released second album. And we really mean it this time (apologies to everyone who turned out to see her last month only to find the gig was cancelled. If it’s any consolation, we didn’t know either).

WHO: Amanda Bloom
WHAT: A hypnotic blend of narrative, classical folk songs
WHERE: The Village, #1 Street 360
WHEN: 8:30pm August 8
WHY: “Imagine an 18th century tea party with Tori Amos, Cirque du Soleil, Yann Tiersen and Muse” – Amanda Bloom

WEDNESDAY 7 | Two filmmakers, three motorcycles and 2,700km: the tale of an extraordinary journey from Singapore to Cambodia to help support an ailing primary school in Kampong Thom. The award-winning documentary Switchbacks, by Harry Chew and Mark Philpott, chronicles the adrenalin-fuelled adventures of an outlaw biker, a roadie and a complete motorcycling novice along the long, inhospitable route to raising $30,000 to build and stock the library at Aknuwat Primary School.

WHO: The adventurous
WHAT: Switchbacks screening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 4pm August 7
WHY: An outlaw biker, a roadie and a complete motorcycling novice cover 2,700km for charity

SUNDAY 4 | For three generations, spanning more than 130 years, the Chitrakar family has served as state-sponsored ‘visual documentarians’ of Nepalese history. Employed as royal painters and court photographers, they have captured the evolution of cultural history, religion and development in the birthplace of Buddha. The family tradition began in the late 19th century with Dirga Man Chitrakar, who worked until he was 71; continued with his only son Ganesh (1916-1985) and today the mantle has been passed to Kiran Man Chitrakar, who will  be on hand for tonight’s exhibition opening.

WHO: Nepal’s ‘visual documentarians’
WHAT: The Chitrakar Collection exhibition opening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Boulevard
WHEN: 6pm August 4
WHY: 120 years of Nepalese history caught on camera and canvas