A Quick Guide to Phnom Penh’s Small, Fierce Hardcore Scene
By Josh Feola · July 22, 2020

To say there’s a lot to listen to in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, is an understatement. There are a handful of artists plugging in to the current pop-trap zeitgeist, like K W A N & SCOTTY BLVCK and RuthKo, alongside MCs like Kreative Kingz and Morano morno, who rap in Khmer over older-school beats. There’s Vibratone, the standard bearers of Phnom Penh reggae, who feature a player on the Roneat ek, a hardwood xylophone used in Cambodian classical music. And of course, there’s a vast sea of traditional music from the periphery, some of which are carefully archived by a small group of field recordists and archival labels.

The city also shares an especially fascinating—not to mention fraught—history with rock music. Amid the genre’s rise to prominence in the late 1950’s, former king Norodom Sihanouk—himself a musician—encouraged the importation and development of pop music in Cambodia. This ushered in the “golden era” of Khmer rock in the 1960’s and ’70s, a thrilling combustion of psych, garage, and local styles documented on the largely uncredited Cambodian Rocks compilation series. This golden age came to an abrupt halt with the brutal ascent of the Khmer Rouge in 1975, which expelled musicians from Phnom Penh and later unleashed a genocide killing roughly a quarter of the national population.

Strains of the golden era of Cambodian rock can still be heard in singers like Miss Sarawan and the late Kak Channthy of the Cambodian Space Project, a group that has toured widely around the world and counts Nick Cave among their fans. But it’s the tiny, tight-knit scene for metal making the loudest noise in the Cambodian capital today.

“It’s an everyone-knows-everyone type thing,” says Vanntin Hoeurn, a 27-year-old Phnom Penh native who goes by Tin for short. Tin’s musical awakening came around 2006, he says, when his family could finally afford cable TV. Linkin Park was an early influence, but Tin also dove into pop, hip-hop, R&B: “anything that was unfamiliar.” Ultimately, YouTube would become his primary resource for discovering increasingly extreme strains of metal. “The intensity was the main element that got me really head over heels for metal and extreme music.”

Serious devotees of this scene in Phnom Penh today have limited options for gathering. Only two venues, Cloud and Oscar’s on the Corner, will host Tin’s current metal band Reign in Slumber, or like-minded artists like the thrashcore band Nightmare A.D. and death metal unit Doch Chkae. “Before the pandemic, we would perform once a month in the city if we were fortunate,” he says. Yab Moung Records, a shop and label that has worked closely with this small group of artists, has provided a valuable support structure, but may have to close their physical location soon.
More including band list here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report ... ene-report

Disappointing,,, thought this would be about Fierce Hardcore Porn .

Nothing to see here , lets move on.

Duncan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:42 am Disappointing,,, thought this would be about Fierce Hardcore Porn .

Nothing to see here , lets move on.

Right?! I was like- oh bless maybe I CAN live there if there is a BDSM scene.

Alas, no.

(And now everyone knows a lot about me )

armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:01 pm

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:28 am
Serious devotees of this scene in Phnom Penh today have limited options for gathering. Only two venues, Cloud and Oscar’s on the Corner, will host Tin’s current metal band Reign in Slumber, or like-minded artists like the thrashcore band Nightmare A.D. and death metal unit Doch Chkae. “Before the pandemic, we would perform once a month in the city if we were fortunate,” he says. Yab Moung Records, a shop and label that has worked closely with this small group of artists, has provided a valuable support structure, but may have to close their physical location soon.
More including band list here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report ... ene-report

Haha, Oscar tolerates this stuff on infrequent occasions. He sits outside when it happens.

They host those shows before the regular crowd comes in. Usually starts at 7 or 8 pm. Great fun. Nighmare AD is exceptionally good.

I like Doch Chkae, lovely lads, they played Waken Festival in Europe last year n got a great response!

I think Ned Kelly is involved or used to be involved in this scene
yes sir.. i see him in the photo!