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Saturday, April 28, 2007

When I'm 64

There are three major forces pushing and pulling on the shape of most of my days right now. Thankfully, most of this will all pass relatively soon. We're still settling into our new home here in Scarborough; we went to an auction looking for good deals on furniture this morning. I'm still toiling away at my book on Franklin Furnace and I'm hoping to have a revised version to hand on to my prospective publisher. Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to go spend a few days in Helsinki at the end of next week. These three aspects modulate everything and anything I can think about right now.

Thankfully, my weekly podcast can be a haven away from from such life forces, and in some way that holds true for episode 64. This week's podcast opens with the title track from Limestone Kick's 1996 album Y. I like to include the occasional blast from the past on Mużika Mod Ieħor. One of the reason's I pick to play Limestone Kick is to remember previous work by two band members who have now moved on to a very different style of music. Guitarist Jo "Sapi" Sapiano and percussionist Peter Paul Galea are now in Tribali. They will be appearing with a number of other World-Music-type acts at the upcoming Earth Garden Festival next week. More about that in a minute.

I really miss some of the Maltese bands that are no longer together. Particle Blue would definitely top that list. All things must pass, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who mourns Claire Tonna's departure from Particle Blue. Listen to the track Modele that I've selected to play and you'll hopefully see why I'm so enamored with this dissolved act.

As I'm not one to wallow in nostalgia, the next track is from 2007. It comes from Mathematikal, who have appeared on a previous edition of this podcast. I'm sure that people who follow the local alternative music scene in Malta remember Jon and Jay from Hidden Sun. They're been very active recording new material in recent months. This is Plonk is one of the tracks they've recorded and it's probably as far away from the sound of Hidden Sun as you can get.

During my recent visit to Malta, Etnika's percussionist Jason Fabri gave me an unreleased recording of the band playing in Köln, Germany, last year. From that show I've selected the song Rummiena, featuring among other elements the celestial voice of Julie Pomorski, a delightful mandolin intervention by Andrew Alamango, and the masterly tuba of my old friend Paul Borg. This is contemporary Maltese folk music at its best. Etnika will be appearing along with Tribali, Nafra, Renzo Spiteri and others at the Earth Garden on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 May from 7pm at the National Park in Ta' Qali. It should be a very enjoyable evening. Pity I can't be there but I will be producing another Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast next weekend before I scoot off to Helsinki.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor 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.

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