Category: Night & Day

SATURDAY 3 | While he speaks, DJ Illest’s hands move across the decks in his Tuol Kork home studio at what appears to be the speed of sound. Lithe fingers stop and start spinning vinyl, bending beats and splicing vocals. The cross-fader slams back and forth in a blur, blinking lights monitoring the music’s vital signs. Baby scratches, flares and chirps explode from a wall of speakers, a sagging mattress propped against one wall by way of soundproofing. A product of the French hip hop scenes in Paris and Montreal, Illest switched spray cans for wheels of steel after hearing his first Grandmaster Flash mix and thinking: “Wow, he’s making musical notes just by moving the record back and forth!” Today, he’s officially the best DJ in Cambodia, according to our Best Of Phnom Penh 2012 awards – admittedly, old news to anyone who saw him at Pontoon’s decks alongside Grandmaster Flash last year.

WHO: DJ Illest
WHAT: The best DJ in Phnom Penh, as voted for by YOU!
WHERE: Pontoon, Street 172
WHEN: 11pm August 3
WHY: If he’s good enough for Grandmaster Flash…

SATURDAY 3 | The mantra of many a bar-fly, Moi Tiet – Khmer for ‘One more!’, as if you didn’t already know – is a phrase that also serves as the capital’s latest coming-together of musicians, this one producing a proudly all-original set list. Among their number are Andre Swart (Grass Snake Union and Kheltica); Chuck Erz (Musikero); Greg Lavender (Grass Snake Union, Durian, Los Poporks Jahzad, and just about every other band in town); Jenna Holliday (Holliday in Cambodia); John Shakespear (Durian) and Scott Bywater (Cambodian Space Project and Wash). Says Scott Bywater: “It brings them together for what? It brings them together to play an all-original repertoire of songs that range from the bluesy to the funky to the soulful to the poppy to the rocky.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll dance and the tunes will give you earworms for days. The only remedy is to go see them again.”

WHO: Moi Tiet
WHAT: An all-original repertoire of songs that range from the bluesy to the funky to the soulful to the poppy to the rocky
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm August 3
WHY: Of all the worms you could contract in Cambodia, earworms are by far the most preferable

FRI & SAT 2 & 3 | Unofficial music lore puts responsibility for tribute bands on Australia. A million miles from nowhere, the great outback was too remote to attract big British or American acts, so she was forced to make her own copies.

Aussiebands.com lists no fewer than 70 tribute groups, from the suicidally awful Bjorn Again (ABBA) to the expected ACCA/DACCA (AC/DC) to the suicidally awful, The Absolute Kylie show (Kylie Minogue). But the real history of the genre begins elsewhere. If any band can lay claim, that’s The Beatles, whose tribute act The Buggs released their first (and only) album, The Beetle Beat, in 1964. Then sometime around the turn of the century, tribute bands evolved into a viable genre of their own.

For Las Vegas native Kace King, a punk-rocker in his youth and now the lead singer for The Knockouts, a Social Distortion tribute band, the transition was driven by necessity. “Fast forward from my punk rock band days to trying to make money, because local bands don’t usually make money,” King recalls of his days in Pimp and Never Was, both successful Las Vegas punk acts. In Las Vegas at least, the answer was clear, if not entirely satisfying. “You jump into the casinos, but you can’t play your own music, because people don’t want to hear it… this was the start of the tribute band movement that you see in Vegas every single day. It’s just tribute band fuckin’ fever… I always wanted to put together a tribute band to Social D because I just love the band. And I didn’t care if I made money or not, so that’s what I did on the side to have fun.”

That was 12 years ago, and in fits and starts, The Knockouts have been playing together ever since. Two of the original members – including King – are currently killing time in Cambodia, backed by the terrifyingly talented power drummer Marcus Tudehope.

WHO: The Knockouts
WHAT: Social Distortion tribute band
WHERE: Sharky Bar, Street 130 (Aug 2) and The FCC, Sisowath Quay (Aug 3)
WHEN: 9pm August 2 (Sharky’s) and 3 (The FCC)
WHY: It’s all about the tributes, baby

FRIDAY 2 | ‘To Marshall Kim Il Sung / I do honour / With all that’s in my heart / His Excellency / entertains me with brotherly kindness / his words are so inspiring / long live the marshall.’ These lyrics, penned almost four decades ago and released in 2011 in a digital archive by Australia’s Monash University, are testament to the extraordinary ties that once bound Cambodia and Korea (in this case, the North). Composed during the 1970s by Norodom Sihanouk, they hint at the intimate connection that existed between the two leaders, who shared a love of the arts (Il Sung placed an entire North Korean film crew at Sihanouk’s disposal during his flirtation with movie-making in the 1960s). Cambodia’s relations with the South may fall slightly short of the aforementioned bromance, but they are nonetheless warm – a fact celebrated with this evening’s Cambodia-Korea Friendship Concert. Hosted by the Music For One Foundation and the Royal University of Fine Arts, the night will showcase emerging orchestral talent from both countries. Reservations essential (call 089 429068 or 089 340530).

WHO: Emerging orchestral talent
WHAT: Cambodia-Korea Friendship Concert
WHERE: Cambodia-Korea Cooperation Centre, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Russian Boulevard
WHEN: 7pm August 2
WHY: “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy” – Ludwig van Beethoven

THURSDAY 1 | Before they fell to the conquering forces of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, vast swathes of central Europe – including what are now France, Switzerland and Austria – were ruled by Celtic speakers. They were by all accounts a raucous bunch: classical writers describe them as fighting ‘like wild beasts’ (and occasionally naked); they were accomplished head-hunters and, according to first century Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Celtic men openly preferred male lovers.

The term Celt itself is a perversion of the word keltoi, used by the ancient Greeks to refer to certain ‘barbarian’ tribes (eternal snobs, they considered languages other than their own to be little more than childish babble, hence the term ‘barbarous’). Little is known about the ancient ancestors of these Gaels, Gauls and Galatians. The only written histories are those compiled by the Greeks and Romans, both sworn enemies of the Celts. As Standingstone.com artfully puts it, “It’s a bit like trying to reconstruct Lakota culture from the diaries of General Custer.”

Fast-forward through more than 2,000 years of turbulent history and Celtic-speaking peoples are today found only in the British Isles and western France. And now, rather less snobbishly than during the first millennium, the word Celtic is used to describe not only this branch of the Indo-European languages, but also an extraordinary musical legacy. Enter Kheltica, who offer an “entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles”.

Their eclectic mix of songs and dances from Brittany blended with traditional Irish and Scottish folk music is rivalled only by that of the band’s make-up: a singer and a mandolin player from Scotland; a British piper; French drummer; Russian guitarist; South African bass player; Malaysian violinist and French flautist. It gets crazier: for these sessions, the bass guitarist will be playing guitar, the drummer will be playing bass and a pianist will be playing violin.

WHO: Kheltica
WHAT: “An entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles”
WHERE: Slur Bar, Street 172 (Aug 1) and Le Deli, Street 178 (Aug 2)
WHEN: 9pm August 1 (Slur) and 7:30pm August 2 (Le Deli)
WHY: For a musical maelstrom and swift-footed circle dancing

WEDNESDAY 31 | Germany has produced numerous composers, but perhaps the greatest in music history are the ‘Three Bs’, a phrase coined by 19th century conductor Hans von Bülow to signify the combined brilliance of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Representing the baroque, classical and romantic periods respectively, the trio’s finest works will tonight be channelled by award-winning German pianist Gerd Isselhardt, a one-time private pupil of Professor Siegbert Panzer who has been studying Instrumental-Music-Pedagogy at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory of Music in Mainz/Germany since 1999.

WHO: Gerd Isselhardt (piano)
WHAT: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms piano recital
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8pm July 31
WHY: The three Bs may be gone, but their music lives on

TUESDAY 30 | The end, when it finally came, was as unforeseeable as it was barbaric.

Foxy Lady, a 28ft traditional Malaysian perahu bedar, was just a few months into what was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. From Darwin harbour on Australia’s rugged northern coast, the tiny yacht had nosed her way through the crystalline waters of the Pacific Ocean, past Timor and Flores, then on to Bali and Singapore, before heading up the Straits of Malacca and around the tip of the Malaysian peninsula. On board, a trio of tanned young adventurers passed for captain and crew.

Kerry Hamill was 27 when he wrote his last journal entry from Foxy Lady in August 1978. The eldest son of a tight-knit New Zealand family, he – along with fellow travellers Stuart Glass, a Canadian, and John Dewhirst from England – would within weeks join the handful of foreigners executed by the Khmer Rouge. At the time, few people outside Cambodia knew of the atrocities being committed within. Before Foxy Lady’s course was forever altered, Kerry had sent countless letters back home, regaling his family with breathless tales. Suddenly, the letters stopped.

The silence was deafening. It would be a further 18 months before the Hamills finally discovered what awful fate had befallen their son. Thirty-one years later, on the same day Kerry’s yacht had first strayed into Cambodian waters, his little brother Rob – an Olympic and Trans-Atlantic rowing champion – arrived in Phnom Penh to confront Kerry’s killers at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. At the same time, he agreed to the filming of Brother Number One, an award-winning documentary by Annie Goldson, James Bellamy and Peter Gilbert that follows Rob as he retraces Kerry’s final steps.

Along the way he visits Tuol Sleng, where his brother was tortured; meets three S-21 survivors, and penetrates a Khmer Rouge stronghold to find the Navy officer in charge when Kerry’s yacht was attacked.

The resulting film is “the story of an innocent man brought to his knees and killed in the prime of his life, and the impact his death had on just one family”.

WHO: Rob Hamill
WHAT: Brother Number One screening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 7pm July 30
WHY: The ghost of the Khmer Rouge confronted

SATURDAY 27 | Fourteen years ago, a senior member of Cambodia’s government was asked why the country seemed indifferent to the sexual exploitation of its children by expats. He replied thus: “Do you not think that Cambodians do these things yourself?”

Contrary to its international reputation as a haven for Western paedophiles, Cambodia has long harboured a secret shame: the majority of child sex offenders that plague its provinces are not from far-off lands, but native Khmers – a phenomenon not readily admitted by the proud descendants of Angkor.

The misconception that sexual depravity is a foreign problem arose following the arrival of the United Nations Transitional Authority on Cambodia in 1991. Such was the sexual appetite of the 22,000 soldiers, police officers and administrators who made up the peacekeeping force that within two years the number of prostitutes in Phnom Penh swelled from 6,000 to more than 20,000.

For the men who offend, the lure is linked inextricably to myths of luck, prosperity, even immortality.

In The Virginity Trade, a documentary by British film-maker Matthew Watson, one such buyer describes the forces that drove him to deflower a child. “Cambodian culture regards virginity as very important. It is most sought after by Cambodian men, so I decided I was ready to pay for the thing men want the most. I was told that if I had sex with a virgin girl, it would increase my powers; enhance my beauty. That is, stay young forever.”

This concept of sexual alchemy can be traced back to Taoism, a web of philosophical and religious traditions that has been shaping Asian beliefs for more than 2,000 years. In Secret Instructions Concerning The Jade Chamber, a fourth-century Taoist text on harmonising male and female energies, the author describes the potential rewards: ‘Now men who wish to obtain great benefits do well in obtaining women who don’t know the Way. They should also initiate virgins [into sex], and their facial colour will come to be like [that of] virgins. However, [man] is only distressed by [a woman] who is not young. If he gets one above 14 or 15 but below 18 or 19, it is most beneficial… The masters preceding me, who transmitted the Way to each other, lived to be 3,000 years old. Those who combine this with medicines can become immortal.’

But what of the victims? Watson’s Girls Of Phnom Penh, also screening, examines their plight.

WHO: Everyone with a conscience
WHAT: The Virginity Trade and Girls Of Phnom Penh screening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm July 27
WHY: The secret shame of child sex exposed

FRIDAY 26 | In the Western media, the word ‘Myanmar’ rarely appears far from the phrase ‘former military dictatorship’ and barely a day goes by but we aren’t privy to a picture of President Thein Sein, peace prize nomination in back pocket, glad-handing with Washington big-wigs and signing Chinese free-trade agreements with a flourish. It’s as if the ’88 revolution, the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and 60 years of military dictatorship were generally things which, for the incumbent Burmese leader, were unpleasant little hiccups which happened to other people. Some of those unfortunate other people are the Rohingya. Members of Muslim minority resident in Myanmar for almost two centuries, the Rohingya are nonetheless denied Burmese statehood and are subject to a campaign of government-sanctioned hostility so intense it has been described by Human Rights Watch as ‘ethnic cleansing’. Tens of thousands have fled to the border region to escape the violence only to find themselves adrift and alone, corralled in no-man’s land. Myanmar’s forgotten minority, they are exiles to nowhere, as documented in Al Jazeera’s new report The Hidden Genocide and the film Rohingyas In Exile, both screening tonight.

WHO: The culturally inquisitive
WHAT: The Hidden Genocide and Rohingyas In Exile screenings
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm July 26
WHY: The Rohingya may be exiled, but they’re not forgotten

THURSDAY 25 | Dub Addiction Meets Kampuchea Rockers Uptown is an epic fusion of reggae and dub with Khmer saravan. Released by Hong Kong label Metal Postcards, it’s Dub Addiction’s most ambitious project yet. Dirty and raw are adjectives that sit well with the album, the hallmark of which is a more “organic, authentic dub sound” than the band’s eponymous first release. Says German music producer Professor Kinski, known to friends as Jan Mueller: “The whole album sounds more epic, more massive, more dub than the first one.” The 13 tracks feature a veritable Who’s Who of the local scene. Cambodian hip hop icons Pou Khlaing and Nen Tum make guest appearances on The Fruit Song and Nigerian vocalist Okoro Elias Jefferson debuts on Okoro, but the main ragamuffin toasters are MC Curly and DJ Khla, the latter someone Kinski compares to Cutty Ranks, Sizla and Anthony B. From the moment the CD clicks into the disc drive and begins to spin, 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 – one of the best instrumentals on the album”. 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 the final track drives its mega-phat electro dub juggernaut into your sternum. Wobble bass slams you against a sonic wall as distorted e-guitar solos slash at your face, fishing your brains right out through your nose. You Have Been Warned.

WHO: Dub Addiction
WHAT: Reggae reinvented
WHERE: Equinox, Street 278
WHEN: 9pm July 25
WHY: Somewhere, in that great dancehall in the sky, King Tubby should be smoking a fat one and smiling