Slip Slidin' Away

Karlheinz Stockhausen is a name I've known well for many years. I borrowed the name from one of his compositions, Zyklus, for my very first radio series more than twenty years ago. He died earlier this week but I doubt that anyone I know actually cares who he was; my music colleagues at the university and a couple of other "serious" musician friends are the exception, of course.

Whenever I think about death it's a reality check for me. It doesn't have to be the death of a person. It could even be an abstract death, like that brought about annually to every year by the end of December. It gives me pause for thought about the noble truth of impermanence.

Moving swiftly on to the last of the remaining two podcasts in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series for this year. Now that the 2007 poll of the Listeners' Picks is well underway, I must of course take some time to play some of the tracks that should have made it onto the list of this year's nominations but didn't, mostly because I was not aware of them by the cut-off date.

The first of these is a song by The Myth called Sworn Independent. I've been trying to get my hands on a decent recording by this band for quite some time. This is one of the few bands active now in Malta that has been playing for over a decade. This new song is quite good. It shows a band that has matured over the years and yet stayed in touch with recent developments in musical tastes. It's a keeper...and it's such a pity that it's not on the MMI 2007 poll.

The same goes for Scar's Stolen. Their refreshing presence at this year's Malta Song for Europe sadly overshadowed the release of this excellent song. Frontman Konrad Pule' is undoubtedly one of the most versatile performers on the local scene, with very few true rivals. Listen to this new song carefully more than once and you'll also see that my praise is well deserved.

Last week's plug for one of 2007 outstanding newcomers has actually had a direct effect on the way voting has progressed since then. Dean Saviour went from having no votes last week to topping the Internet Releases category this week, ahead of The Characters and The Rifffs. I think that's quite amazing. He got in touch with me a few days ago and mentioned that he has also recently collaborated with Jay Omaro on a song called My World. Well, since I missed that one too on the 2007 MMI poll I thought it would be a good idea to include it on this week's podcast. I like this song, but I think that's also partly because it reminds me of record I used to play very frequently on my radio breakfast show back in 1991, even if it doesn't really sound like it except for a couple of guitar chords.

David Magro is another musician who got contacted me this week to let me know what he's been up to recently. I wish more musicians and singers would do that. David is known as Mind's Eye Dub, undoubtedly Malta's foremost reggae artist. He has just released a new song called Hold On, which he dedicates to all Africans in the world. At least MED is on the 2007 MMI poll with another release from earlier in this year. So, if you like this one you can still vote for him by voting for this other track.

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