Starting Over

I've been thinking about something David Friggieri brought up a few days ago regarding readership on the Maltese blogosphere as well as the issue of quality in terms of the stuff that appears on Maltese blogs. However, I'm back to producing my weekly podcast now, so blogging about all that will have to wait until I get more free time to write.

Meanwhile, I give you the first podcast for 2006 in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series. This is my sixth music podcast since last November. Now that the holiday season is over, you can expect this podcasting series to offer you a new episode every weekend.

I chose to open my podcasts in the new year with Olivia Lewis. This is a do or die year for her pop career. After the three successive near misses in the Song for Europe, this year she must win or come to her senses about the true nature of the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm not ready to get into discussions about this years soap opera just yet, but at least taking some time to remind my podcast listeners of the wonderful alternative Malta had for that ghastly performance back in 2003.

I was thrilled to hear from Alfred Farrugia a few days ago. He produces music under the name Black Aura. I had never really heard of him before, even though his website is linked on aboutmalta.com. I'm glad he emailed me to point out that his first album is fully downloadable (for free!) on his website. He has just started a blog too. Including Black Aura in this week's podcast reminds me to invite anyone who would like to let me know about any music I should be listening to for possible inclusion in a future edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor to just contact me via my website.

In my last podcast for 2005, a special New York-themed edition, I play a cover version of New York Mining Disaster from The Boys. As a follow-up to that, this week I bring you music by Boy's drummer Godwin Borg's son Gavin. After a number of years playing Metallica covers and hard rock, Gavin has reinvented himself as a dance music producer calling himself Gavinizer. The track I play from him on my podcast is called Misinterpreted, but somehow I think it should have been called Misunderstood.

These three numbers lead up logically (in my twisted mind) to the final track on this week's podcast. Black Aura and Gavinizer are both metal fans, even though there's hardly any hint of that genre of music in their current output. I'm also fascinated by a Kazakhstani phenomenon called Heavy Metal Eurovision. The 3rd edition of this delightful subversion is taking place this week. The final voting day is the 14th of January. Results will be announced on Sunday, 15th of January. Maltese bands appeared in the first two editions: Forsaken (2nd edition) and AngelCrypt (1st edition). Sadly, there's no Maltese band in the 3rd edition. Anyway, this week's podcast closes music from Maltese metal band Slit who appear with fellow blacksmiths Arachnid at The Alley this Sunday.

The RSS feed for the podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page.