Is This Love

Reggae fans around the world mark the death of Bob Marley this weekend; he died on May 11, 1981. It is therefore fitting that this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor opens with a tribute to the Jamaican legend by Mind's Eye Dub. I Wanna Love You is an innovative dub on a classic song and it bears the hallmark of David Magro, Malta's own most prolific reggae musician.

The rest of the 113th MMI podcast consists of hard rock tracks, starting out with a new recording by Joe Mizzi called Falling Apart. I'm ashamed to say that I've somehow not managed to include anything from Joe Mizzi in the series to date. This is extra shocking when I realize that he has released 2 CDs -- Unrest (2005) & The Zero Chain (2007) -- since this series started and I happen to know (perhaps I should say knew) Joe on a personal level too rather than just as a musician; we first met in the early 1980s. Anyway, this will undoubtedly be ratified, starting right now.

A few weeks ago I joined the Maltese Metal Scene Community at undergroundfactory.com. It is a wonderful example of a subculture within a subculture. Through it I've discovered a couple of metal bands that had escaped my attention until now. One of these bands is Blind Saviour who are poised to release their debut album The Master Plan. From it you can hear The Episode, which is one of two songs featuring singer Rachel Grech. The other song comes from Weeping Silence, who have recently released a new CD entitled End of An Era. From it I've selected Deep Regret, mostly because this was the only track I could get my hands on without waitng yet another week to feature this band on my podcast. Rachel Grech's voice is a welcome change on the local Metal scene, however, I need to hear more from these two bands to make up my mind in terms of which one suits her better.

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.

Always Right Behind You

It's been another strange week. I'm beginning to feel an urgent need for a proper break, but that's not going to happen for a while. At least I managed to get out and do some decent work in the garden this weekend.

I was going to post something about the death of Sir Anthony Mamo a couple of days ago but chose not to, mostly for a personal reason I'm about to share with you now. Throughout my childhood I recall my departed grandmother Ġiużeppa and the late great-aunt Ġiustina saying that Sir Anthony was their cousin. They were all Mamos anyway. I even recall my grandmother saying that she was his babysitter at one point. My father reminded me about some of this when the news of the demise of Malta's first President spread across the Maltese Islands. It feels good to know that such a revered man - a politician, no less - was a distant relative. It appears that the Mamo side of my family has great genes, as my grandmother and a couple of her siblings lived very long lives just like Sir Anthony. Unlike most Maltese men he even managed to outlive his wife Margaret, who passed away about six years ago.

Moving swiftly on to this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, which is number 112 in the series. In true spring mood it features all new tracks released in recent days, weeks or months, as the case may be. First off is the song Memories from Two, the second EP by Chasing Pandora. When this duo first appeared on the scene a couple of years ago I was one of many who raved about them. Now that they've acquired a solid following I can completely see why. They deserve every accolade they get, even if they still haven't surpassed themselves on their divine debut.

Local music scene veterans The Myth have also just released new material. In their case it's a single called Star. By their own admission this song sounds like something out of the Oasis songbook; like a cross between Champagne Supernova and Live Forever. I prefer their blues-tinged numbers but it's good to see them spread their repertoire to include the sound of other (more recent) bands they admire.

It's always a pleasure to listen to new releases on the Pinkpube website. Their most recent release is an EP by Brian James, which was actually first made available for download in January. The 4-track EP is called Ectomorph and from it I've selected Red Strobe; incidentally the whole thing is available as a free download from Pinkpube.com. Brian is one of Malta's techno pioneers and he has inspired many others to follow in his footsteps, even if they're not always aware of how significant he is for the local electronic music scene.

This type of music is/was often referred to as house. The two styles are actually quite distinct, even if most people are unable to distinguish between the two...particularly anyone for whom this is just electronic din. One of the up and coming house-masters (does that term still have any meaning on the street?) is SunSatION. I know very little about him other than the fact that he's quite young guy from Żurrieq. From his MySpace page I've included the tune Not A Wonderful World as the closing track for this week's podcast.

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.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

In memory of Dr Albert Hofmann (1906 - 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.

Metal Guru

It's been an odd week. I can't really put my finger on it but I know that it has much more to do with the latest language debacle or the new collaborative effort at MaltaMedia. When the going gets tough there's nothing like heavy metal to realign the gray matter adequately for the next challenge.

In case you're wondering how I go about dealing with this sort of thing, just have a listen to the 110th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. It's all metal all the way going from hard rock to the heaviest metal since lead and mercury were discovered.

Frenzy Mono have recently teamed up with bassist Albert Bell to form a new band called Nomad Son. The podcast opens with The Blacksmith from Frenzy Mono followed by Shallow Grave from Nomad Son, which is one of the songs that landed the band a recording contract with Italian label Metal on Metal. Albert Bell is one of a handful of rock gurus on the Maltese scene. I've known him since we were both sixth formers about 25 years ago and I'm truly impressed by his prowess.

Nomad Son are playing a gig with Lithomancy at the Poxx Bar on 3 May. Lithomancy have almost been around for two full decades. As Maltese metal bands go they're dinosaurs even if their brand of metal remains close to the cutting edge of the hardest rock genres. I like any band that Dino Mifsud Lepre drums in and Rex is one of the most versatile singers on the local rock scene. Lithomancy fans know them best for their Witness of Eternity, which has to be one of the death metal classics from the Maltese dark scene.

Hardcore metal bands are still numerous in Malta. Metal tastes on the islands have come a long way since the days of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and even Metallica. I've selected new material from two relatively new bands for the latter part of this week's podcast. The first comes from last year's Erythuria album Annihilate to Repent, launched at Poxx on October 5. The track I've selected is called Touched by the Gods. The other band is Tendency Charge. From their (possibly as-yet unreleased) EP Stages of Peripheral Diversity I've picked To Punish and Enslave.

I have a feeling that some of the regular MMI podcast listeners will not necessarily appreciate some of the hardcore metal sounds presented on this week's edition. I believe that this should most certainly not preclude this music from the series. I'm also pretty sure that listeners who understand what I'm on about with my podcasts can see why I chose to play all sorts of music from the alternative music scene in Malta.

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.