Cirrus Minor

Now that I've produced eighteen podcasts in my series Mużika Mod Ieħor the process has almost become second nature. My Saturday late afternoons are routinely spent in the production of this weekly podcast. I can't imagine what I used to do on Saturday afternoons before this. Probably watch TV or surf the web. I spend enough time on both those activities on most other days, so I'm glad that I've found a more productive way to spend my time on the weekend.

This week's production flowed like a stream of consciousness. The podcast opens with Scream Daisy's Can You Feel It? from 2004. They reappeared with a new release a few days ago, so I figured it was high time I play some of their music on my podcast. Their music seems tailor-made for radio airplay. Apparently it works, but I wouldn't really know since I hardly ever listen to the radio in Malta these days.

I don't dislike Scream Daisy's music, but I look forward to including material that's not played on the radio for this show. Paletti is certainly one such act. His real name is Charles Muscat, but he is better known as Charlie Paletti. He's been quite active for the last twenty odd years. I have an original copy of a cassette he released around 1990 (it doesn't have a date on it) called Styles. I'll play a track from that some other time. This time I chose to play something more recent from Paletti's music on SoundClick.

I commented about SoundClick in a previous podcast and I still think it's a great resource. Paletti has 5 tracks on SoundClick gathered under the album title Aħjar Ġibna Tnejn Biex Jgħannu, which roughly translates to it would have been better if we brought a couple of [traditional] singers. The song I've selected is the title-track and it is one of the best things I've ever heard from Paletti. I really love the way he blends his virtuoso rock guitar playing with a Maltese rap/għana vocal mash. Il-Hooligan has a lot to learn from Paletti.

An even rarer cassette in my collection is one given to me personally by guitarist/producer Robert Longo. The tape features just one track on it. The number is called Codebreaker and it's an amazing rock guitar odyssey in stereo by one of Malta's most creative recording studio mavericks. If you know Longo's work you'll love this track. If you've never heard Longo before, listen to Codebreaker and keep in mind that it was recorded about sixteen years ago on what was (and can still be) called very basic recording equipment. Still, this recording is one of the most brilliant performances by/of a Maltese rock musician you'll ever hear.

By contrast, this week's closing track comes from Toby whose work sounds as fresh now as the day it was made. I've always like the sophisticated clubbing element in his music since the first time I heard it more than five years ago. Greedy for Life is the song you can hear towards the end of this week's podcast.

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