The Clock

Anyone who follows this blog on a fairly regular basis knows that I'm simply too busy to put as much time as I'd like to into writing here. If I didn't have a weekly music podcast to blog about, I have a feeling that I wouldn't post at least one blog post a week. So, if for no other reason, I podcast to keep my blog active.

Whenever I sit down to produce my weekly podcast, one of the first things I do is write down the number for that particular episode. I frequently surprise myself by the ever-growing count. This week it's number 88.

As it happens, this week's podcast contains a relatively laid back selection. It's as if there was a chill-out theme guiding me as I was putting it together. To dispel any such thoughts I'll just say that I actually replaced one of the songs with a more upbeat track at the last minute.

Sasha Vella's Melody sets the tone perfectly. I only discovered Sasha's songs very recently. They're quite beautiful. It's also quite refreshing to hear a Maltese singer deliver vocal interpretations that are not feeding from an obvious palette. She has released 4 songs on MySpace and on Sellaband, which she sees as her possible ticket to a future recording in a professional recording studio. Her demo recordings are remarkable and I hope she keeps producing more of them until she gets to record in a sophisticated studio.

About a year ago I played a track from David Agius, a Maltese-Australian musician based in Sydney. He has recorded and released more tracks since then. At first I was tempted to include his haunting ballad When I Get Old but eventually I picked Can't Help It, which demonstrates the best qualities of this singing guitarist, who plays all the instruments heard on his songs.

From time to time I discover a Maltese CD release I missed simply because it was not publicized on the Internet well enough when it first came out. One such CD is Clifford Borg's Drifted, which ironically has a very strong online presence. It's quite a good recording of piano music made on the Manoel Theatre's Steinway grand, with the occasional sparse string arrangement. The title track appears on this week's podcast as one of two instrumental selections.

The second instrumental track comes from Mario Sammut who first appeared on my radar in connection with the amazing Mantra Fest held at the Garden of Rest in Belt is-Sebħ a couple of months ago. He has recently released a live recording of his performance from that event. You can hear Urn as the closing sound on this week's podcast. This is the sort of chill-out music that everyone should hear from time to time to realign their chakras.

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