Thank You for the Music

Looks like we made it. It gives me great pleasure to announce the 100th edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. It's really just another one in the series but because 100 has special significance in metric counting a celebration of one sort or other is in order.

Aside from using the occasion to bring my podcast to the attention of a larger audience I'd also like to thank all the loyal listeners, especially those who have followed Mużika Mod Ieħor since it first appeared in November 2005. Podcasting has enabled my return to regular appointments behind a microphone. Regular broadcasting is something I hadn't done since about 1999, after many years listing "broadcaster" as my profession. Though the MaltaMedia Online Network, I've been exploring the possibilities of webcasting since 1998. My personal highlight in all the webcasting with MaltaMedia is undoubtedly the audio reports I recorded in response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Those webcasts appeared again in September 2005 as MaltaMedia's first podcasting series, which was undoubtedly the world's first series of podcasts in the Maltese language. Mużika Mod Ieħor started soon after that with the first podcast appearing on Saturday 13 November 2005.

I was tempted to include my favourite tracks from the first 99 podcasts on this edition. As I'm not the nostalgic type I chose to open the podcast with a brand new recording from Fakawi, one of Malta's most entertaining bands. They've just released their Smart Song, which is a send-up of all the buzz surrounding the launch of Malta's Smart City. I didn't need to have my arm twisted to play this song on my 100th podcast. The fact that my old friend Mark Attard is the keyboardist for this band earned them enough points to make it to this week's playlist without any resistance.

Making sure that the tracks I selected for this week's podcast were all special for one reason or another, I chose to include a rare recording by the late 80s band Ophidian Twin. As you may recall from a previous edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor, this band was among those that appeared on Mill-Garaxx, the TV series I produced and presented back in 1989, under the direction of my departed friend Mario Ellul. Cameron's Closet is one of two songs The Ophidian Twin played live in the main TVM studio all those years ago. It would be really great if I could get a hold of some of the other recordings that appeared on Mill-Garaxx. Unfortunately there's no official archive of the recordings at TVM, but I have a feeling that some people here and there may have VHS recordings they taped off the air when the programme first aired. If you have one of those recordings, please please please get in touch with me. I've included another track by the Ophidian Twin from Mill-Garaxx at the bottom of this blog entry, which I recently uploaded to YouTube.

To my mind, it's hard to follow a recording from Mill-Garaxx with something that's not extremely outstanding. Danjeli's 2007 album Kakofonija does the trick beautifully. It's my top personal pick from all the Maltese recordings released last year. Appropriately, the track I've chosen for this week's podcast is called Interludju. If you haven't heard this brilliant album yet, just head over to Pinkpube.com where you can download a full copy at no charge.

To mark my penchant for including music my overseas based Maltese musicians or musicians of Maltese descent I've included the track Filfla from the CD Temples of Devotion by Australian band Skorba. Andy Busuttil's band has been featured on a earlier edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor and their album received my personal vote for top overseas-based released in the 2007 MMI poll that appeared on Facebook a few weeks ago. It's wonderful to be able to add this band to the list of recommendations for anyone who likes Maltese combos like Etnika, Nafra, or even Tribali.

A special MMI podcast such as the one I'm presenting today would not be complete without something from Xtruppaw. While we wait for their second album (currently still in pre-production) we can still enjoy the most excellent debut release, Is-CD tal-iXtruppaw. That album is a must-have in CD format for any fan of contemporary Maltese music. I've picked L-Għanja tal-iXtruppaw from it to close the 100th podcast with music from the same band that opened the very first podcast in the series. Interestingly, this recording had not been made when the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast first appeared.

So now on to the next 100 podcasts. At an almost weekly rate it should take just over two more years to get to the 200th podcast in the series. If all goes well, the 200th edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor should appear sometime in the spring of 2010. All I can add is that I'm really excited about all the new music and other rare recordings we'll be discovering together between now and then on this series.

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