click here for an audio-visual look at the gig highlights

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

Phnom Penh International Music Festival 2024 highlighting Eastern European musical heritage, particularly Ukranian composers, will be held this weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – at Raffles Le Royal.  For more information see our interview below with Festival Artistic Director Anton Isselhadt.

Taking a look at Halloween adventures tonight in Phnom Penh, David Zdriluk is at Tacos KokopelliKai is at Autumn, Antonio Elchico & Toyoyuki are at Big Mama, Clay George is at Lost Bar & Grill.  There’s a spooky jam with Phil Javelle at Little Susie alongside regular open mics at Noisy Chili and at LOLA Music Lounge, and The Extraordinary Chambers are at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot, Mr Zee joins Sinville Roadshow at The Bay and Frankie Teardrop Dead are at Ariart.  In Siem Reap Kiko & Carlos are at Amici Signature.

Friday night in Phnom Penh Skeptical Chemistry are at Craft, and Scott Bywater is at Noisy ChiliArome Khmer are at Vinoteca, Phil O’Flaherty at Botanico, Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker at Bat Muk Yu and Lyta Ly & Adam are at Little Susie.  Going louder are After God at Hometown Hangout  and Montra at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap Joe & the Jumping Jacks at are Laundry.

Saturday find Adam Marsland at The Deck, Treebu at Craft, Carmela Santos Torres at Botanico and Swing Time at Au MarcheVisa Runners and The Stuffs are at LOLA Music Lounge, Stu Cottom is at Paparazzi, Baird Smith is at Little Susie and Gerry the Cosmic Joker is at Lost Bar & Grill.   Later on We Are Ewe is at Oscar’s on the Corner with Smack the Unicorn opening and The Lark following.  In Siem Reap, Gareth Bawden is at Ubuntu in the afternoon.

Come Sunday, Miss Sarawan & Scoddy are at Villa Grange, Clay George is at The Vine, the Sunday Sundowners open mic is on at Tacos Kokopelli and Stu Cottom is at Bar Oz.  Later on The Lost Girls are at Lost Bar & Grill and Montra is at Oscar’s on the Corner .  In Kampot Graham Cain is at Fu Bar, and in Siem Reap Joe & the Jumping Jacks are at Arin’s, Pomme hold their open mic, and Kiko, Carlos and Stephane are at BR Gourmet.

Department of Coming Soon

As high touring season gets into gear, LengPleng has a new special feature at the bottom of the page:  dates for visiting acts over the coming months, along with useful links for further information.  Check out where and when to find Plan B (Australia), Miserable Man (Italy), Lifesick (Denmark) and Chakra Shakers (Portugal) at venues across the country – with more to come.

The LengPleng Interview

Celebrating a 21st in Kyiv – the 2024 Phnom Penh International Music Festival

Last year the annual Phnom Penh International Music Festival celebrated its 20th year.  This weekend, the 21st festival, a series of three concerts to be held at Raffles Le Royal, has the theme Eastern European heritage, highlighting four European capitals – Leipzig, Prague, Budapest and Kyiv – to take a look at Ukranian music.  LengPleng sat down with Artistic Director Anton Isselhadt to discuss this year’s programme.

“This year is the first edition of what will be several years exploring European music traditions,” says Anton. “We will be exploring Eastern European composers, contempories from the mid-19th Century to the mid-20th Century.  Alongside lesser known Ukranian composers are big names like Dvorak, Chopin, Franz Liszt – all from countries surrounding Ukraine.

Read the whole article here 

Passing Chords: a few things you might not know about

 

Vivian Chaizemartin.  A heavy drummer.  “I’m in three completely different projects.  Nightmare A.D. is the most technical, improving my drumming skills.  L.D.L.P. (formerly L’Amant Dans le Placard) is about making music with friends.  We Are Ewe uses my natural type of drumming, tightly written.”  Vivian grew up in the Paris region without ever living in Paris, playing in high school rock bands until he moved to Asia at 19.

Do you have a pet musical hate/pet peeve?
I’m not really into modern hip-hop, all the voice modifications.  And I don’t really like reggaeton, it’s a style of music that annoys me.

A private musical indulgence:
Dragostea din Tei, by O-Zone, a Moldovan electronic/boy band.  I secretly like that, but I would never play it in public.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
In 2017.  I came to intern for the NGO PSE in the IT department. I went back to France to do my Master’s, then came back to do another internship and wound up staying throughout COVID, I never left, and I’m still here.

An early music memory:
Sitting in the back seat of the family car, maybe I was three years old, driving through a city, I remember seeing all the lights around the car with The Prodigy album playing, the album with the crab on the cover.   My parents got me into rock music in general – where we were living music was always playing, all the time.  I remember albums by  Archive, and the French rock band Noir Désir.

The last thing you had to eat:
The rest of a sandwhich from last night that was in the fridge – chicken with onions.

A country you want to visit:
I don’t have a lot of time to travel, and when I have holidays I stay in Phnom Penh or travel in Cambodia, or save my leave to go to France to see family and friends.  I really want to go to the Philippines or Indonesia – I’ve never been.  I have a vision beautiful landscapes.  This year I visited Sri Lanka, just for a week, it was amazing.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
I don’t watch movies much.  When I go back to something again and again it will be listening to the same album by the same band over and over for up to a year.  The latest one that I did that with was The Way of All Flesh by Gojira, a very heavy album, I love it.  I like Tarantino movies, I like to go back to them as much as I can.

What languages do you have?
French, obviously.  English of course – lots of broken English with a strong French accent.  Very little Khmer.  I used to have some basic Thai but I’ve forgotten everything.  Also very broken Spanish from high school – that’s actually a language I would love to get back to.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
The drums.  My parents pushed me to play music when I was young, and I said okay, but only if I can play an instrument where I don’t have to play notes.  A big mistake, it was harder than I thought.  I started at eight years old, took a few lessons, a very nice experience but I got bored, and I switched to bass and then guitar during my teenage years.  When I moved to Asia I stopped playing, I was a bit shy to get into the music scene, there were a lot of very good musicians, everyone at the jam plays so well – I’m just going to watch.  I got back to drums two years ago after a very long break.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
People who see me playing are often surprised that I am a software engineer.  I work with an IT services company based in Phnom Penh, with a client based in Paris, specialising in video platforms – apps for small brands catering for children.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
I would love to see a gig by the original line-up of Sepultura, with the Cavalera brothers, Max and Igor.  I also never got to see Noir Désir.

A question from the last participant – what’s a song that you wish you had written, and how would you have approached it differently?
Everything that comes to mind is perfect, wouldn’t change it.  But one I wish I’d written is The Art of Dying, by Gojira, with simple guitar but insane drum parts.  It sounds complicated but it’s just four/four.  Nine minutes long, it feels like three different tracks in one.  Also I wish I could have written some of the songs on the early Slipknot album Iowa, with Joey Jordison, but again, not to change anything.

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

      

 

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Steve Porte Photo of the Week

Neil Furey of Soselo Summer at Hometown Hangout, Friday 25 October 2024

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See you around the traps.
your correspondent,

 

 

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

 

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 24 October 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:

Visiting bands coming soon: