***for full gig listings jump to the bottom***

Greetings,

The last weekend before Khmer New Year is a full one.  Intan Andriana has chosen this weekend to take a trip around the venues of Siem Reap, while in Phnom Penh there are two festivals – Big Tay Out at Sam’s on Friday, and Laneway Fest on the newly renamed Palace Lane on Sunday afternoon.  LengPleng is also wondering what is to come for the holidays besides Blue Wave in Siem Reap and live bands every night as usual at Oscar’s on the Corner.

Tonight, Thursday, finds Poca de Feo at Botanico, the Cloud Open Mic hosted by Initial G at Cloud and the jam session Bosporus hosted by Anthony Armenti, and The Extraordinary Chambers late at Oscar’s on the Corner.    In Siem Reap, Giuliano & Simon are at Villa D Riverside, Intan & Friends are at Laundry Bar, and Andy Luna is late at AMBAR.

On Friday, find Nico & G at Prince Brewing, Miss Sarawan at Craft and Gareth Bawden at Botanico@Odom Garden.  Sam’s hosts the Big Tay Out Festival with Japan Guitar Shop, Geography of the Moon and Visa Runs, while The Blue Souls are at Back Street Bar and The Broken Cymbal go hard at Duplex.   There’s a grand opening party for Voodoo Saloon (formerly Downstairs at Oscar’s) with Alli G, Scott Bywater and more, and K’n’E to follow upstairs at Oscar’s on the Corner.

Meanwhile in Siem Reap, Intan & Alexey Ilin are at Villa D Riverside and the Wine O’clock Friday live features Sokunthea, Simon & Giuliano plus Andy Luna.

On Saturday Los Primos are at Aquarius, Scott Bywater is at Botanico, and Hugo is at  The Glasshouse.  Geography of the Moon is at Central Café , Soul Front plays Bosporus, and Joe & the Jumping Jacks rock Oscar’s on the Corner.   In Siem Reap New Leaf hosts Intan & Friends for brunch, then she skips across for an evening show at Templation.  Later on, Jam-Cha is at  Star Bar and PMAC plays The Harbour.

In Kampot on Saturday at Hotel Old Cinema, The Kingdom of Hustles Mixtape concert featuring Chiet Ukham of the Kampot Playboys, rapper Ramsey Judson and singer Sidavine Sun, is part of the Street Knowledge: The Kingdom of Hustles exhibition opening – the street tile inspired work of Markus Dixon.

On Sunday, Laneway Fest on Palace Lane (formerly known as St 240½) features Geography of the Moon, The Two Jacks, Gareth Bawden, Skin & Strings.

Leng Pleng has been contacted by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz who want to hear about any activities in Cambodia associated with the International Jazz Day on 30 April.  If you would like to get in touch please email gigs@lengpleng.com or via Messenger for contact details.

**For the rest of the gigs check out the listings at the bottom of the page**

Passing Chords:  a few things you might not know about…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuval Ricklis.  Currently in his last month in Cambodia (this time around), Yuval is a prominent member of The Broken Cymbal and Felafel Con Mate, as well as keyboarding his way through all manner of combos.  You can find him at two gigs this weekend:  The Broken Cymbal are at Duplex on Friday and Meta House on Saturday.  “To me music is the one language that is borderless and understood by all of humanity.  It’s the essence of human expression.”

Do you have a pet musical hate?

When an incredible musician plays a well-known song and for some reason they feel compelled to do something called reharmonising.  I find this strange and unnecessary and confusing.  There is a vague idea of the melody but the chords are all jumbled up.  I haven’t had that experience in Cambodia but in the USA for example – listen to this, and they play a strange jumble of chords, and I go what is that?  It’s Hey Jude.

Also jam sessions are great, but when they are disorganised and everyone is doing their own thing, I don’t enjoy that.  Also when working with rock guitarists and singers, sometimes ten minutes before the gig they say we’re going to play these songs, I’ll pass you the chords… and then they forget to pass me the chords.

A private musical indulgence:

If it’s a late night and I’m on my own I like to listen to lo-fi.  I’m a really big fan.  For playing, I like to jam on my own and take a song I’ve played a million times and try to play it different styles – take it a salsa or a bossa or a samba, or in the style of a particular composer.  Most of the time it ends up being horrible.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:

Piano.  There were always pianos in my family, my grandmother is a concert pianist.  When I was about nine years old I came from school one day and my mum had visited a garage sale and decided to buy an 80 year old piano.  I started playing very against my will, but a few months later I pretty much left everything else I was doing, and I really got into it.

The year you first came to Cambodia :

October 2020.  When COVID hit I was backpacking in East Africa, going from village to village in Malawi.  I cut the trip short so went back to California, and found I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with my life.  I didn’t want to go back to studying, I couldn’t find a job because everything was closed, so I spent quite a difficult six months.  Then I decided to go back to teaching English, which is what I’d done in Africa, and the only countries that were open at the time were Brazil and Cambodia, and Brazil wasn’t doing well.  So I came out to do a TEFL course in Siem Reap and then started working in Kampong Cham.

An early music memory:

When I was very young, my world-traveller and drummer cousin would baby sit us when he visited.  When he was in the house with us he was always drumming everything, cooking food and drumming on the fridge, and drumming on the walls.  I thought that’s pretty cool.  When I got a little bit older he drove me to school one day and he was playing hard heavy psy-trans, straight out of a Kampot party.  He told me you need to get into this, you need to start listening to more music, it will change your life.

The last thing you had to eat:

Fried rice at a vegetarian restaurant.

A country you want to visit:

Brazil.  Before I moved to Phnom Penh, I was living in Kampot in an apartment complex that was filled with South Americans.  They were all day playing Brazilian music.   I eventually started a Brazilian band there.

A book or movie you keep going back to:

Ray, the biopic of Ray Charles.  He is one of my idols.  I love the music.  And completely unrelated to music a movie called Now You See Me, about street magicians who get into robbing banks through their tricks.  I recommend it to everybody.

What languages can you speak?

I grew up in Israel, so my first language is Hebrew.  Obviously English.  I speak Mandarin, because my first piano teacher was a Taiwanese lady who only spoke a little English – she started teaching me piano and Chinese.  So when I was nine I could say in Chinese: you need to practice more!   Spanish.  And a little Khmer and Swahili.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:

I’m 20 years old.  Sometimes when I tell people it’s a bit awkward.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past.  What do you choose?

I would go to hear Beethoven play Moonlight Sonata, hear it played the way he wanted it to be played.

A question from the last participant, Pervez Gulzar: in what ways music has brought changes in your life?

It has really become my life.  When I started travelling I was very confused about what I wanted to do, but I feel like Cambodia has given me the chance to do music professionally – it’s the only thing I’ve been doing for the past couple of months, playing live shows.  I now understand that this is what I really want to pursue.   The world is in such a strange state, and the only thing I can still understand is music.  People will always need entertainment.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

Cati being dope at The Vine Acoustic Session on Sunday 3 April, 2022

Our revived sister publication, kumnooh.com, aims to provide a lengpleng.com service for the wider arts – painting, sculpture, literature, dance, architecture and classical music – across Cambodia.  Check it out every Tuesday – to subscribe send a subscribe email to fabianhipp@kumnooh.com.

Note:  LengPleng.com has returned to its weekly email service.   If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send an email saying Subscribe to gigs@lengpleng.com.   And tell your friends.

Musicians, venues, punters:  if there are things that you know that LengPleng should know, please tell us and we’ll do our best to tell the world.

See you around the traps.

your correspondent,

 

Guillermo Wheremount
LengPleng.com
gigs@lengpleng.com (mailto:gigs@lengpleng.com)

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 7 April 2022

** residency/weekly

 For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday

 

Friday

 

Saturday

 

Sunday

 

Monday

 

Tuesday


Wednesday

 

Coming soon:

 

  • Blue Wave, 15 April, Fellini (Siem Reap)

 

Coming later:

 

 

By Weekly Wrap