Subdivisions

Just before I started writing this blog entry, Andrew Lloyd-Webber appeared on my screen announcing that he was writing next year's UK Eurovision Song Contest entry. This is not a wacky story that will go away, like Morrisey's bid from a couple of years ago. Lord Lloyd-Webber will be mounting a talent contest to find the right act or singer for the song he's taking to Moscow next May. Even if you detest the kitschiness of the Eurovision, there's no denying that this is a major moment in British pop culture history. If all goes according to plan, this will potentially bring the contest back to mainstream entertainment in Britain. After all, the whole thing is running under the banner "Your Country Needs You!"

For those who couldn't care less about this sort of drivel (as Alex Vella Gera once told me it was, right here on this blog) it's a good thing that this week's edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast features music by largely unknown, new underground acts that will never ever rub shoulders with anything even resembling the Eurovision.

Simon Cutajar, who sings with the upcoming band Skatenati, contacted me a few days ago to draw my attention to the first two acts I've now included in this week's podcast. The first is psytrance duo Soul Kontakt, comprising of Colin Piscopo and Gilbert Cordina, who have just released an EP entitled Deliverance. From it I've selected Brain Telescope to open the 136th MMI podcast.

Tom Caruana is a UK-based musician who Simon and I are assuming (hopefully correctly) to be of Maltese descent. We'll see what he says now that I've included a couple of his tracks on this week's podcast. Beat King is a delightful acid jazz piece but because he too has just released an EP called Is it Free? I've also included a second offering from this artist. You can even hear his voice on Everything Costs and the whole EP is available as a free download via Tea Sea Records.

I'm very grateful to Simon for pointing me towards both Soul Kontakt and Tom Caruana. Both their EPs will be added to my list of nominations for the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks. If you would like to recommend any music you think should be considered for my podcast please contact me.

It's always a pleasure to discover odd acts from Malta. DJ Lord Vampirick most certainly has a high sense of theatrical effect, even if he may not necessarily be considered a media manipulator. I received a MySpace 'friend' request from him recently and I was immediately intrigued both by some of the images he has chosen to represent him as well as the overall image he's deliberately (or otherwise) working on. After all he's only 17, so his output should be taken for what it really is: teenage experimentation. I am particularly fascinated by a track called Tryin To Be Hard, which stands head and shoulders above anything else I've heard from him. It is a high example for the theory of mimesis and alterity I'm planning to employ in my eventual study of the Maltese music scene, not withstanding the Eurovision Song Contest, of course.

To close this week's podcast I've picked a track from a new project that's about to be launched at the Poxx Bar in a couple of weeks. Hostile Hostage is among the first offerings of Revolt.Destroy.Reform, the new label about to be launched in November. White Police is a good example of the breakcore gabber style adapted by Hostile Hostage. I, for one, am very pleased to hear this style of music brought to the local scene, and I'm sure it will be well received by many old school techno lovers and anarcho-punks. More of this in another podcast soon.

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