*** for an audiovisual version of the gig highlights click here ***

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

Greetings:

Changes are afoot at a couple of Phnom Penh venues due to neighbourhood noise complaints.  The Deck has announced a series of Saturday at 5 pm / Sunday at 2 pm concerts with many of the outstanding acts in the city, with more to come.  Back Street Bar has been forced to re-evaluate their schedule and will be back with more soon.   LengPleng notes the start of music at new venues Ariart in Kampot and Infusion Bar in Siem Reap – remember to get your gigs in by Thursday morning to gigs@lengpleng.com.  Welcome to February, and just look at that Coming Soon tab down there – plenty to get excited about.

In Phnom Penh tonight, Thursday, there’s Brooke Palmer at Villa Grange, Hugo St Leger saying farewell for now at Tacos Kokopelli and La Union guesting at Samai Rum Distillery, while the The Extraordinary Chambers are back home at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot, Low Season Riders are at KAPAL and Kora Sunya & Carlos are at Ariart.

Friday night in Phnom Penh finds Rags to Rainbows at Craft, Geography of the Moon joined by Brooke Palmer at The Tin Hat, Phil O’Flaherty at Botanico, Vince Solomon & Skeptical Chemistry at Cloud and Aisha & Serdar at Little Susie.  Later on, new band Placard is followed by The Lark at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap, Mr Zee is at Ubuntu and Bless & Giuliano are at Infusion Bar.

On Saturday night in Phnom Penh, Lisa & Jed of Mayari are at Craft and Miss Sarawan at Lantern.  Chapei Diaries/Blues Routes open up for visiting French jazzers Moncef Genoud Trio at Institut francais du Cambodge, while Antonio El Chico is at Botanico, Geography of the Moon are at Sundance and Stu Cottom is at Little Susie.  Later on, Japan Guitar Shop are followed by a rejuvenated Oscar Band at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap, Scapegoat Candy is at Pomme.

Sunday in Phnom Penh gives us Feb Fest (Joel’s birthday) at The Vine with Greg Beshers, DJs, and later on Geography of the Moon.  Geography of the Moon also play early at The Deck, while Sunshine (Mealea and Scoddy) are at Villa Grange.  Arome Khmer begin a residency at at Bat Muk Yu and Electric Muxu Orchestra continue theirs at Oscar’s on the Corner.

 

Passing Chords – a few things you may not know about

William Rosas.  A devotee of stringed instruments, William plays in a variety of Phnom Penh ensembles, including The Lark and Alli G & TheQuilas, mostly alternating between guitar and bass, sometimes ukulele or banjo.   Since arriving in Cambodia he has taken to the chapei dang veng, the Cambodian two-stringed lute, appearing with a chapei troupe on Cambodia’s Got Talent (they got to the semifinals), and has also been adapting the instrument for some less traditional contexts (see above).  He will be at Oscar’s on the Corner this Friday with The Lark.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
Jazz guitar chords – instead of resolving right away they have to do five or six variations of the chord, all the diminished stuff, before they end.  You could have got there much quicker.

A private musical indulgence:
Acoustic instruments.  There’s something about the sound when there’s no electricity involved, when a player is really skilled at working with an acoustic guitar, say.  It’s on another level.  It really disciplines you.  I play the way I play because I don’t bother with all the extra stuff, get lost in the effects.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
During COVID, 2020 or 2019.  I went to Siem Reap for a couple of months, then lived in Sihanoukville for a year, and now I’ve been in Phnom Penh for the past three years.

An early music memory:
Playing the big Chinese harp, the guzheng.  I developed a fascination with this instrument, traditionally only played by women, but because I was in the US I thought why not?  I found a teacher from Shanghai.  Surprisingly music wasn’t a big part of my life until after school, I was already 20.  When I was a teenager I had a guitar but I didn’t take it seriously.  So I got into Chinese music and traditional music and it skyrocketed from there.

The last thing you had to eat:
School lunch – pumpkin stuff with white rice.  Delicious.  And free!

A country you want to visit:
Mongolia.  Mongolian music – even their pop music is so good.  I don’t know why.  They get right to the point with their melodies, they don’t mess around.  The vocals are strong and powerful, and I normally don’t really listen to vocal music, but they treat their voice like an instrument.  Plus I don’t understand the language.  So I would go to Mongolia.  They have a version of the guzheng, they call it the yatga – in Japan it’s called koto, in Vietnam it’s the dan tranh, in Korea it’s the gayageum.  Different sizes, different string materials.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
It sounds bad as a teacher, but I don’t read at all.  There’s a Korean movie called The Man from Nowhere, about a lonely man who lost his wife and child who becomes fond of a little neighbourhood girl who then gets abducted, so he goes off to save her.  It gets so emotional.

What languages do you have?
English.  A little bit of Spanish – enough that you try to impress someone and it goes terribly wrong.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Guitar first, but it quickly went over to banjo.  And then three years of Chinese music.  Those three are the primary.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I talk a lot.  I can carry a whole conversation and not let the other person have a word in.  You can just sit there, I will go on and on, you don’t have to do any work.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
Tommy Immanuel did a thing called the King of Strings, with him, gypsy jazz player Stochelo Rosenberg, and Russian Vlatko Stefanovski.  Acoustic guitar masters in their discipline.  I would love to be able to see one of those events live – three great players, all quite old, but you can’t get any better than them, representing different genres.  Three acoustic guitars, no voices.  And they destroy everything that you know.

A question from the last participant: how would you describe a perfect day when you were young?
Raining outside, no school, cheese steak sub, no one else home, playing computer games all day.

 

Musicians: They’re Just Like Us

Hugo puts the finishing touches to his pasta.

Department of Available Now: Last Year

Around the Traps 2023 / Passing Chords Volume V – from the pages and pixels of LengPleng in 2023, it’s the book of the year, featuring interviews with Geography of the Moon, The Lazy Drunks, Summer Lee Carlson, Derrick Walker, Lewis McTighe, Gary Custance, Cove Aaronoff and many more.  Also the Passing Chords mini-profiles for the year which include Brooke Palmer, Angkor Classique, Rod Tolentino, Felix McFadden and a surprising number of Japanese musicians.  Secure your copy by emailing gigs@lengpleng.com.   Only $7.50 (or $5 if you’re in it!) – buy one for your shelf and one to send home to Mum.

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

Our latest Friend of LengPleng is Cloud, who recently celebrated eight year of operations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a Friend of LengPleng gets your logo into the weekly email and onto the weekly wrap page and an automatically click through to a page on our website for further information, photos, videos and so on.   We also pay special attention when you have a good story for us – an upcoming event or an artist you wish to highlight.   Email gigs@lengpleng.com for further details or bail up Scoddy wherever you see him.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

It was nice to have our Darwin friend Dan Davies in town for a few weeks.  He found time to be part of The Nameless Trio that played at The Vine on Sunday 28 January 2024

If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send a subscribe email to gigs@lengpleng.com.

Musicians, venues, punters:  if there are things 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 1 February 2024

** residency/weekly

For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

*Note that Wednesday events are often not announced until early in the week – check back here for updates*

Coming soon:

  • The Busking Kings, 6 pm, 8 February, Villa Grange
  • Mirasol, George and Mika, 6.30 pm, 9 February, Craft
  • Joe & the Jumping Jacks, 6.30 pm, 9 February, Farm To Table
  • Scott Bywater, 7 pm, 9 February, Botanico
  • Loopy Reggae Duo, 7.30 pm, 9 February, Voodoo Boulevard
  • Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker, 9 pm, 9 February, KAPAL (Kampot)
  • Jam-Cha, 8.30 pm, 9 February, Laundry
  • Green Leaf Motif, 5 pm, 10 February, The Deck
  • Loopy Reggae Duo, 8.30 pm, 10 February, Cloud
  • Nestor, 2.30 pm, 11 February, Villa Grange
  • Ya, 4 pm, 11 February, New Leaf (Siem Reap)
  • Carpenters tribute with Mikayla & Jed, 6.30 pm, 13 February, Craft
  • Greg Beshers, 6 pm, 15 February, Villa Grange
  • Darthreider & The Bassons (Japan), 9 pm, 15 February, Laundry
  • Silver & Taylor, 6.30 pm, 16 February, Craft
  • Green Leaf Motif, 7 pm, 16 February, Botanico
  • Arnab Bhattacharya & Nilimesh Chakraborty, 7 pm, 16 February, Meta House
  • Bob Passion & The Indispensables, 10 pm, 16 February, Oscar’s on the Corner
  • Sinville Roadshow, 5 pm, 17 February, The Deck
  • Absolute Zero, 7 pm, 17 February, Copacabana
  • Daro Bin, 8.30 pm, 17 February, Cloud
  • Brian Wood tribute by The Handsome Devils, 8.30 pm, 17 February, Laundry (Siem Reap)
  • Darthreider & The Bassons (Japan), 10 pm, 17 February, Oscar’s on the Corner
  • Phil Javelle, 2.30 pm, 18 February, Villa Grange
  • Gareth Bawden, 5 pm, 18 February, The Vine
  • Stu Cottom, 6 pm, 22 February, Villa Grange
  • Arnab Bhattacharya & Nilimesh Chakraborty, 9 pm, 22 February, Laundry (Siem Reap)
  • Arome Khmer, 6.30 pm, 23 February, Craft
  • Lewis McTighe, 5 pm, 24 February, The Deck
  • Sinville Roadshow, 6.30 pm, 24 February, Craft
  • Green Leaf Motif, 7 pm, 24 February, Seekers Spirits
  • Bangarang (Japan), 9 pm, 24 February, Laundry
  • Craft beer festival with Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker, 6 pm, 24 February, Monkey Republic (Kampot)
  • Scott Bywater, 2.30 pm, 25 February, Villa Grange
  • David Zdriluk, 6 pm, 29 February, Villa Grange

 

By Weekly Wrap