Cold Shoulder

Things are more or less back to "normal" now after the ups and downs of the last couple of weeks. The weather still doesn't want to play nice just yet, but that's to be expected in Britain. Luckily I managed to find a few hours to work in my organic garden this weekend but there's plenty more to do now that it's (supposedly) springtime.

The 108th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series is out a few hours earlier this week. This is mostly because it's too cold to work out in the garden this afternoon, but it's also a way to make sure that I avoid another nightmare scenario like the one I went through last week. As a way of recentering myself and the podcast I open with a track from last year's debut album by Peklectrick. I featured his Reclaiming Space when it first came out last November, but it's high time I played another track from it. So this time I've selected a song called Six Strings. If you like alternative music from Malta and you haven't heard this album yet I highly recommend this CD. It deserves much more attention that it has received so far.

Metrokueen is a new band on the local scene. Most recently they appeared at the BJs music marathon where they undoubtedly delighted fans of classic rock. They've already recorded two of their own songs. Insanity is the one I prefer and you can hear it as the second selection on this week's MMI podcast. The bassist for this band is none other than James "Jelly" Attard whom listeners may recognize as either the bass player from White Crimson or the uber-tech guru who gave us the Facebook app for selecting the 2007 listeners' picks.

If you're a regular listener of the MMI podcast, you'll have already heard me play two tracks from the band Colourblind. They're currently working on an album but meanwhile guitarist Alistair Galea has recorded a very interesting instrumental track as a soloist. The tune is called Nowhere to Run and it's delightfulness is only rivaled this week by the guitar chimes at the heart of the Metrokween song I played earlier.

Closing off this week's podcast is a young singer whose output has so far been fairly eclectic in terms of quality. I like Lyndsay Pace's voice but I'm not impressed by most of the songs she sings. Thankfully there's one that's good enough to hear from beginning to end without a single cringe. What You're Made Of shows that this singer can either really make a name for herself on the local scene or disappear without a trace like so many others before her have done. I should probably make a note of that as an idea for a future podcast.

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