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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Have You Ever Seen Rain?

The rain can be both real and metaphorical at the same time. I thought about this quite frequently this weekend. I had planned to spend as much of my "free" time in the organic garden at home. It started out as the first truly mild weekend this season, but my plans were rained on; first metaphorically and then from the sort of clouds that always bring moisture in the air.

I've now resigned myself to yet another weekend were I can't do the work I'd like to in the garden. Hopefully it will get better very soon because the lawn really needs mowing. Meanwhile I find solace in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. At times like this it feels very much like my own private pot at the end of the rainbow.

The 111th MMI podcast opens with a song from Pete Molinari whose mother's Maltese parentage qualifies him for inclusion in this series. He has a remarkable voice that would be very well suited for Maltese għana. He has not explored that part of his personal heritage, yet. If/when he does, keep in mind that you heard about it here first. Have a listen to Virtual Landslide, one of his recent singles, and you'll see what I mean if you're familiar with Maltese folk singing beyond the hackneyed stereotype.

On one of the early editions of Mużika Mod Ieħor I featured a tune called White Russian by the Sandro Zerafa 5tet. At that time this was a new project that this Maltese Paris-based guitarist was exploring. The whole thing has now matured into a full CD release, which was launched at the recently opened venue Warehouse No.8 in Marsa. While listening to the track Sidewalk Slant it crossed my mind that the launch party must have been a fantastic place to be this weekend, particularly because Danjeli provided the music after hours.

Any opportunity to play something from Danjeli is not easily passed up on my podcast. From last year's outstanding Pinkpube release by Danjeli Kakofonija I've picked Dureb. It works well in the eclectic mix on this week's show. If you still haven't heard Kakofonija, do yourself a favour and download it (for free!) from the Pinkpube website.

In preparing this week's selection I came across singer Ann Degaetano's name. She won the Virtual Rock Star contest put on by Malta's XFM radio with her band Slur. I was hoping to see more of her by now. To my knowledge, so far she has been a one hit wonder. I hope someone tells me I'm wrong and points me towards new recordings featuring Ann's voice. Luckily, other than the song she presented for last year's XFM contest she also released It's Your Imagination, which even on a first listen shows that it would be a shame for this singer to simply disappear into oblivion just yet.

Closing up with something new, I came across B. Lee, the new lead guitarist with Metrokueen, who appeared on a recent edition of the MMI podcast. B. Lee (aka Billy) has released an instrumental blues rock track called Until I Find My Way. More than anything I really like the title of this instrumental track because it ties in with the way I feel about getting back to the garden. Until then, I'm just caught in what Joni Mitchell calls the devil's bargain.

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.

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Blogger Malta said...

Still on MMI 106, but I don't think you have included this band yet and it seems like something you would like :) .

http://www.myspace.com/itemband 

9:25 AM, April 30, 2008
Blogger Toni Sant said...

Thanks for pointing me towards Item. They were actually featured on my podcast in September 2006 on MMI 33, back when Abysmal Torment's Nicky Farrugia became the band's vocalist following Leli Apap's departure.

Anyway, I think it's time to play one of their new tracks on an upcoming edition of my podcast. I see from their MySpace page that I actually have two to choose from. 

9:41 AM, April 30, 2008
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wow!
Its very funny:) 

7:37 PM, May 10, 2008

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