Master Blaster

In all the years I've lived in the UK I don't ever remember nicer summer weather than what we're heaving this year. I'm very amused whenever any of my British friends or work colleagues complains about the heat. How would they survive anywhere south of the Alps during the summer? I wouldn't even dream of going to that part of the world in July and August unless I really had to.

Sadly, Scarborough is being deprived of the annual Beached festival this year, but hopefully it'll be back next year. It's almost as if the same thing happened (but didn't) with the Malta Jazz Festival. I mean, it's finally back to its original venue and groove after being lost to a commercial venture for a couple of years or so. I'll probably include something on next week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast about all this. The 169th edition, which I'm releasing this weekend, opens where the last one left off. Like Effetti Kollaterali, No Bling Show will be appearing before the major American hip-hop artist Immortal Technique on Sunday 5 July in Pembroke.

I've been wanting an excuse to play No Bling Show's Anzi s-Sajf since the first time I heard it a few months ago. It's a really cool Maltese song. I dare you not to like it...at least a little. To give my podcast listeners a little taste of what's expected in Pembroke on Sunday, I've also included Caught in a Hustle by Immortal Technique. If you're not a hip-hop fan it's easy to dismiss this artist as just another performer of a genre you may don't appreciate, but don't think for a minute that this is a just another half-baked or over-hyped rapper. Immortal Technique is as credible an artist as any hip-hop performer can ever be. The fact that No Bling Show and Effetti Kollaterali are sharing a stage with him says a great deal about them. No Bling Show in particular are undoubtedly Malta's most significant hip-hop act because they've managed to find a way to explore this genre from a very Maltese perspective. I so wish I could be a this concert on Sunday.

The rest of this week's podcasts consists of two brand new singles by Maltese singer-songwriters that regular MMI listeners will have heard me play before. The first is In Ecstasy by Thomas Hedley, who continues to surprise me with excellent pop tunes that are not too ordinary to ignore after just one or two listens. The other is On My Mind by Aaron Benjamin. He seems to have found himself quite a following in Malta since moving there from the UK a couple of years ago. Listening to this song I can understand why.

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