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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Waiting for the Miracle

Whenever an academic year draws to a close, my brain is always flooded with ideas for things I'd like to do over the summer months. Many of them have been with me for several years, and yet I never seem to manage to make time for them. From time to time I dedicate countless hours to something or other that stays with me for many years to follow. My weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast started out as one such idea.

That idea has not only spawned 166 podcasts in the MMI series (to date) along with a number of other special podcats, but has also served as the foundation on which I'm currently building a major research project on collaborative multimedia databases exploring the way social network enliven culture through technologies of cooperation. A position paper on this work is one of the things I'll most certainly be working on in the coming weeks.

The 166th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast consists of six brand new tracks by acts that have already been featured on previous editions in the series. The first comes from the young singer-songwriter Jean Claude Vancell, whose work I've liked from the first day I heard it. He has now released a new single called Ain't Good Enough, which is very radio friendly and should receive quite a bit of airplay in Malta in the coming weeks. I've selected to play the acoustic version of the song because it really demonstrates his songwriting abilities while showcasing his unique voice.

Pinkpube continues to delight electronica fans everywhere with its regular new releases. Last week (on June 6) the new album by anti- entitled Tufts was issued as a free download on the Pinkpube website. This is Maltese minimalist electronica at its best. Żifna tal-Etere is among the most interesting tracks on this new album by anti- but it was actually hard for me to pick the tune to play among all the joyful delights on this new album.

Another new album was released by Elyk Elymur. Dismantle and Destory may give off the wrong impression about what to expect in terms of musical style. Regular listeners to the MMI podcast may remember that Elyk Elymur's music is stylistically similar to orchestral film music, with hints of New Age moods from time to time. There and Back Again fits this description perfectly, as do most of the other tracks on this album.

10 Years Too Late is the third single by Maltese pop-rock band Red Electrick. It is officially released today, so I'm glad I'm able to bring it to my podcast listeners right away. I've always liked this band, even when it's main elements performed under a different name. If you like this genre of music, you'll find that they haven't released a single song that you won't want to hear again and again. Last month they were signed to LA-based indie label Poison Tree Records, and Desert Drive Publishing (LA), who will be promoting, released and digitally distributed their music outside Malta in the foreseeable future. The American label and publisher first heard Red Electrick on MySpace.

Now that Facebook has given its users vanity URLs, fan pages for musicians and other such public personalities are also on the rise; even though you need to have 1000 followers to get a personalized URL on one of those types of pages. Danjeli is the latest Maltese musician to join the fray. Unlike most other Maltese acts who went in this direction, Danjeli understands that loyal fans should be rewarded, and rewarded regularly. He has therefore released a new track called Kolla through his new Facebook page as a sampler for the most recent material he's recording for an upcoming follow-up to 2007's amazing Kakofonija. You can hear Kolla as the closing track on this week's MMI podcast, of course, but if you're on Facebook (if?!) you should also add yourself as a fan on Danjeli's page. Not to do so would be most unpatriotic and should expose you to the ridicule of the most extreme political nut-jobs.

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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page or on MySpace. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

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Blogger EmersonV said...

Bomba mix id-diska ta Danjeli, kont smajtha ftit ilu l-Belt!

Grazzi Ton! 

12:59 AM, June 14, 2009

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