Everything In Its Right Place

Last week I wrote about the way things seem to come together at this time of the year. Ritual and routine help give us a sense of who we are and where we are. It's quite wonderful really, even for someone like me who celebrates chaos most of the rest of the year.

This blog and my weekly podcast are a central part of that routine for me. As one of my teachers once told me, I prefer to promote chaos through order. It's a paradox but I must admit that order is only really surface deep. Creativity and disorder are great (even if odd) bedfellows.

The 192nd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is the last one for this year to feature new music from 2009, before next week's Christmas special. The number of missing nominations from the 2009 MMI Lister Picks poll is much smaller than it has been in previous years. This week's podcast includes two of the songs missing from that list.

The first is a duet featuring Muxu and Talitha called Still Missing You. Thankfully, if you're a Muxu fan, you can still vote for him on the 2009 MMI Listener Picks poll since his video for Gone is nominated in that category. Muxu continues to be an interesting enigma in the Maltese pop scene. My feeling is that he will be a huge role model for the next generation of male pop singers in the Maltese islands.

The new album by Christian rock band Salt was only released a few days ago, but it did manage to make it to the Top Album category on the 2009 MMI Listener Picks poll. Less Noise More Love will give the band's ever-growing fan base an excellent way to appreciate what is undoubtedly Malta's most prolific act in this faith-based genre. Still, to see Salt only within that sphere is to miss what a tight band they really are. Stronger, the song I've picked to play on today's podcast, is clear evidence that this band has much more to offer than cool prayer beats.

Being contacted by singers and musicians via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or directly through my website is one of the things I treasure most about the Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Different people have different ways of telling me about their music and I'm fascinated by the different ways people present themselves. Earlier this week I received a Facebook friend request from Dana McKeon. Nothing more. Like many other people on Facebook I get friend requests from people I don't know all the time. Before accepting them I take a look at their profile page to get a sense as to why they'd like me to have access to them via Facebook and vice versa. This was how I discovered Dana's song Voice in My Head, which is available in two versions on her MySpace page.

Others send me their CDs in the post. I cherish each and every one of those little plastic discs, especially because I realize that in the not too distant future they will no longer be a viable way to distribute music. Manipulated by Twenty-Six Other-Worlds is a little metal gem. I think it's been underrated on the local scene, partly because their long songs are not very local radio friendly. And yet their melodic hard rock is among the best in the Maltese metal scene at the minute. I've played their songs on the MMI series a couple of times before, but I wanted to end this week's podcast with their song Lady Deadly. Manipulated is among the list of nominations in the Top Album category on the 2009 MMI Listener Picks poll. Voting is only open until the end of the year, so if you haven't voted yet please do so now before it's too late.

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 or listen to the podcast on the player right below this text.