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

Seasons Greetings:

Friday night in Phnom Penh find Arome Khmer at Craft, Chicago Mike & Friends featuring Chebeen at Tacos Kokopelli and Ice & Lester at Botanico.  AlliG Rockustic is at The Velvet Room while JustFin at Voodoo Boulevard, Alli G & TheQuilas go late at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot, Fish Island Community Arts Centre kicks off a three-dayworld music festival. 

On Saturday in Phnom Penh, The Broken Cymbal are at Coconut Park, Geography of the Moon are at Craft and Sibling Revelry (Lisa & Kent Concepcion) are at Botanico.  M&M (Mike & Margie) play for a boat cruise organised by Little Susie and Sinville Roadshow are at Oscar’s on the Corner In Kampot, find Playing Mantis at The Bay.

For your New Years Eve pleasure, in Phnom Penh, Tacos Kokopelli host a listening party for the Radio Oun Top 100 Countdown from 2 pm, followed by a late Sunday Sundowners open mic hosted by Scott Bywater.  Elsewhere Mirasol Trio are at Le Moon, M&M and friends jam it out at Little Susie and Mourin Terry & Alain Ou are at Cloud.  Oscar’s on the Corner hosts a no countdown just rock’n’roll NYE with Geography of the Moon followed by The Extraordinary Chambers.  In the south, Trowsers Down and the Kampot Playboys are at KAPAL and Nico Thoma, Carlos Alonso and Roberto Saldago are at Kep Natural.

Department of Bragging Rights: Radio Oun Top 100 Songs Of All Time Poll 2023

Votes close in a matter of hours for the 2023 poll – at midnight SEA time.  LengPleng and Radio Oun are being tight-lipped now about the likely highly-placed, but suffice to say there will be the as-expected as well as the surprising, there’s still time for a late surge from any direction.  Tune in to RadioOun.com from noon on Sunday 31 December or join a listening party such as the one taking place at Tacos Kokopelli.  Good luck to all those who took part this year.

The LengPleng Article

2023: An incomplete and selective review of the year

Each year Leng Pleng opens the doors and asks for the year’s live music highlights from musicians, venue and audience members, stands back and lets them speak for themselves.

Did you miss out or forget?  LengPleng will continue to accept pieces for the next couple of days that will be added to the online version of the article, and included in the annual publication Around the Traps 2024 to be released in early January.  Send in your dot points, short essays and hasty scribblings to gigs@lengpleng.com.

Read the whole article 

Passing Chords – a few things you might not know about 

Dramane Bakwan – performance name Chebeen, a musician from Burkino Faso.   “Collaborations I’ve had include Racine in Burkina Faso, Chebeen Teriya, Mille et Une Nuit, and Tum Been in Vietnam.”  From a young age, Chebeen participated in the sacred musical traditions of the Gourounsi people of Burkina Faso in West Africa. His insatiable appetite for music drove him to study the myriad of rhythms and melodies of ethnic groups throughout the region.  A love of country and continent has inspired Chebeen to write nearly one hundred original songs with lyrics in five languages. His work explores social, environmental, and political themes with the aim of inspiring people to take care of one another and the planet they share.  He plays with Chicago Mike and Friends on Friday night at Tacos Kokopelli.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
Electronic effects. I like music that is clean and authentic.

A private musical indulgence:
Practicing my Gourunsi traditional dance. It includes a lot of fast footwork, some jumping, and big arm movements.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
2 weeks ago!

An early music memory:
I lost my mother when I was young and was sent to live with relatives in a remote village. I was sad and in an unfamiliar place, without electricity or modern conveniences. My uncle was a well-known griot – a West African musician, storyteller and oral historian who plays an important role in celebrations and ceremonies. One night he was playing percussion and the rhythm spoke to me. I felt good for the first time in a long time. I came and sat with him and let the music heal me.

The last thing you had to eat:
An omelette with onion and tomato, freshly baked bread with butter, and Khmer coffee on Koh Rong Samloem. The beach makes breakfast taste better.

A country you want to visit:
Spain, to learn about Flamenco music.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
The series Vikings. I like seeing mystical practices from other cultures.

What languages do you have?
French, English, Gourunsi, Moore, and Djula. The last three are spoken in different regions of West Africa.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
I began playing the bara at nine years old. It’s a drum made from a large calabash (gourd) covered with goat skin. Inside, some pieces of metal are placed to add another layer of sound.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I like to sit on crocodiles. Many crocodiles in Burkina Faso are considered sacred. In some villages, they are the ancestors of the local people. When they die, they are buried in the same way a human would be. You can visit the sacred crocodiles and offer them a sacrifice of chickens. Then you can sit on them. Do not ever try to sit on a crocodile that is not sacred.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
The Reggae Beach Fest at Soul Beach in Hoi An, Vietnam. It began to rain right when my set started, but everyone still got up and danced.

If your life was a record album, what would the title be?
Allah Ni Ce (Thank you, God), to thank God for the life he has given me and the opportunities I’ve had to travel and play my music. In Africa, everything relates back to a supreme being.

Musicians: They’re Just Like Us

 

Andy waters the greenery.

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Geography of the Moon hard at work at Meta House, 22 December 2023

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 28 December 2023

** 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*

By Weekly Wrap