How Far We've Come

This is possibly one of the most forgettable summers of my life. That's a grand statement, I know. Taking away the bombastic sense of self-importance embedded in it, I'd say that there's very little I'd like to remember from the summer of 2007 so far. I'm hoping that'll change in the remaining weeks. My weekly music podcast remains a delight to produce and it reminds me that sometimes doing something for a long period of time can be as fulfilling as the exhilarating experience that normally comes with a summer adventure.

The 80th podcast in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series features two acts whose recordings I've managed to acquire only very recently along with new tracks by two others who have appeared on previous editions in this series. The first of these return appearances is by Bitterside, who have just released a new song called Start Again. It's a very mainstream radio friendly tune so I imagine it will be played quite often on a couple of popular radio stations for the rest of the summer.

Through MySpace I'm very happy to have discovered Renee Cassar from Melbourne, Australia. I'm pretty sure that her impressive number of MySpace friends will swell to an even larger figure once other Maltese music lovers hear her songs. Renee's upbeat songs are quite enjoyable but I prefer her slower songs like Waiting, which is the one I've chosen to play on this week's podcast.

I'm always thrilled when Maltese singers and musicians contact me to let me know about their most recent recordings. The remaining songs on this week's podcast I'm including following two such communications. Marty Rivers follows up on his Nashville recordings from last year with a new rockabilly-tinged song called I'm Available. It shows that Marty is finding his own voice and style in a genre that feeds on itself and other genres that crossover into it. As far as I know, Andre' Camilleri is the only other Maltese country singer who has managed to do this.

The closing track on this week's MMI podcast is Mindstate's debut release My Adrenaline. They are currently in Liverpool along with two other Maltese bands - Fire and Cable 35 - as part of the prize they all won at last October's Battle of the Bands in Malta. I'm sure all three bands are having a great time gigging in the UK and I'm especially pleased that I can now play a song from Mindstate on my podcast since they were one of the few bands I've been wanting to hear and showcase for several months.

I'm off to do some more organic gardening now. I must admit that my garden is becoming a sanctuary of sorts. Maybe I'm no longer the free-spirited adventurer I once was or perhaps this is just some much-needed quiet time so I can gather my thoughts and energy for the next adventure that's just around the corner. I'll keep you posted if there are any development before next week's podcast.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.