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.

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.

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

I haven't seen anything like this since Elvis Presley or John Lennon died. I'm referring, of course, to public reaction in the wake of Michael Jackson's unexpected demise. From the perspective of media coverage, we haven't seen anything like this since 9/11. The two events are clearly very different, but the way new technologies (particularly mobile devices and the internet) are being used is simply phenomenal. I was most impressed by a CNN.com headline: Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him.

As far as I'm concerned, Twitter has been the best way to watch the event unfold. TV coverage wasn't even to give me the news in a timely way on Thursday evening, but Twitter certainly kept me updated throughout the next 24-hour news cycle.

The whole story really boils down to a sad death of someone who lived in the public eye, playing the interminable game of feeding the media machine while begging to be left alone. Comparisons are odious, but I'm sure other name can easily come to anyone who reads this without my mentioning any other obvious 'icon' for the past, both recent and not so recent.

As I had the opportunity of saying publicly at least three times on Thursday, I believe that many years from now, when all the controversial stories have inevitably died down, Michael Jackson will still be seen as a major figure of late 20th century popular entertainment. Hopefully he will be remembered as the important pop artist he really is; one who brought some of the white mutations of rock 'n roll back to black music.

To my knowledge, there is no significant Maltese connection to Michael Jackson. Turning my attention to the 168th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is probably as far away as I can get from the aftermath of Michael Jackson autopsy. The four tracks I selected for this week's podcast are either new or new to me. I know that regular listeners enjoy hearing new material, and so do I.

Classic rock band Fire are all set to release their second album on the 31st of July at the Farsons Beer Festival. Thrill Me is a welcome follow-up to 2007's Ignite. The title track has been released ahead of the album to promote the CD and it's a great way to open this week's podcast.

Uncharted is also planning a new release in the coming weeks. Their new single Blame Me is out on the 13th of July. Promotion for this new single has been underway for several weeks and it almost feels as if the song has already been released. So much so that I get the feeling that I may be wrong about the official launch date. It wouldn't be the first time that I got a detail like this wrong.

It's not easy keeping up with all the Maltese acts I feature on the MMI podcast. Marilyn Mifsud was first featured on the series a couple of years ago. Last year she was an active member of the girl group Vieve, which I never got around to including on my podcast simply because I was asked not to play some demos I heard and then I lost interest in the whole idea of a girl band. She2s have just appeared to continue where Vieve left off, with a completely different line-up and sound, I hasten to add. In any case, I always thought that Marilyn was one to watch out for. So I was very pleased to discover her new song entitled Where My Head's Been, on her MySpace page. To me, this song seems like the perfect way for a young Maltese singer to move away from unfulfilled teenage dreams with grace and make the best of the experience.

The Maltese hip-hop scene is also beginning to come of age. The upcoming live concert by the international artist Immortal Technique in Pembroke will be an excellent way for local acts to appear on the same stage as a major hip-hop star. Malta's own No Bling Show will be playing before Immortal Technique. Another Maltese hip-hop band that goes by the name of Effetti Kollaterali will also entertain the crowd expected. I picked their 33 RPM as the closing track for this week's podcast, partly as a personal reminder to pick things up right about here this time next week.

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.

Little Green

Goings on in Teheran right now are quite sad and very disturbing. There is very little people like me can do from afar. I've been following the protests and the violent reactions mostly through Twitter. My main source is @TehranBureau but @kvella has also introduced me to @StopAhmadi. Between tweets about the clashes I've also been interested about the media talk around the power of Twitter and new technologies in Iran. It's all quite gripping and reminds me of the political unrest we experience in Malta in 1980s; I now realize that although what we went through back then was terrible, it fades in significance compared to the current situation in Iran.

As the fall of communism twenty years ago clearly demonstrated, new modes of communication are great non-violent weapons for oppressed people seeking change. When thinking about all this I'm humbled to think that I use the same technology for things that certainly not a matter of life and death for anyone. And yet the lighter things in life are essential. They provide some the things that make life worth living. For me, music is one of those essential things in life. Aside from the emotional boost some types of music give me, I am professionally invested the role of music in Maltese cultural identity and the networks associated with it. This is why I keep producing my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast.

For the 167th MMI podcast I wanted to include only new material that I heard about directly from the artists. One of the things I really appreciate about producing this series is the direct regular contact it gives me with Maltese musicians and performers. I was thrilled when Victoria Spiteri sent me a message on MySpace to tell me about her new song Filling Days. She performs as Victoria Osbourne now and regular listeners may recall that I first played one of her songs in May last year when she had moved to Malta from London looking to expand her options as a songwriter. I'm really looking forward to see who she ends up collaborating with in the coming years.

During my most recent visit to Malta I was obviously surrounded by musicians every day. On the very first evening I was invited to a wedding and the groom's cousins included the indomitable Danjeli (to my great delight) and Salt guitarist David Schembri. I played the lastest stuff from Danjeli last week, so this week I thought it was high time to include the latest single from Salt, which David promised to send me during his cousin's wedding. Star arrived via email several weeks ago. If you haven't already heard it elsewhere, you can hear it as the second selection on this week's podcast. Will Salt manage to repeat last year's MMI poll placing? (Salt's Jars of Clay was voted Top Single on the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks.)

A couple of days before leaving Malta on this same last visit, I went to Juul's Bar in St Julian's for what I believe was the debut gig by Plato's Dream Machine. This trio is made up of musicians who have all appeared with other acts on previous editions on the MMI series. Singer Robert Farrugia Flores (whatever happened to Dominoes?) is trying very hard to channel the ghost of Bob Dylan from the early 1960s. Il-Fre provides a solid bass accompaniment while Ryan Abela keeps a steady beat on whatever percussion instrument happens to be handy on any given day. I like PDM's combination of DIY and busker spirit and it is beautifully captured on the limited edition CD single they've released, which includes their version of Dylan's I Shall Be Released. The band's main song, however, is called Journey Man and it's full of the sort of sounds that the band can produce and will hopefully continue to produce as they move into innovating on the Dylanesque elements they're in the process of assimilating. A Fuscia Sun Vessel (another trio fronted by Robert Farrugia Flores) did that beautifully a few years back, as you may have heard it on a previous MMI podcast.

Regular listeners of my weekly podcast will know that Adolf Formosa is one of my favourite singer-songwriters from Malta. He recently recorded a new song and contacted me (via Facebook) to tell me about it. Let's Bite the Morning gives us a peak at a reflective moment from Adolf. It's not as tuneful as some of his other songs, but still delightful for fans like me.

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.

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.

Always Coming Back to You

A couple of days ago I found out that Brooks McNamara, one the most influential and supportive professors I had during my graduate studies at NYU, has died. I was saddened not only by the fact that he had been sick and passed away, but also because it took me a couple of weeks to hear that he died just a few days after Augusto Boal.

Brooks retired about a year after I started working on my PhD, so I was unable to have him supervise my work, which eventually moved away considerably from what it would have been with him. However, I will always treasure how he taught me that there's great significance in giving due importance to alternative performance forms, particularly popular entertainments. He also made me appreciate amateur performances much better than I ever could ever have done without his guidance. The very first piece of academic writing I published (a book chapter I co-wrote with Vicki Ann Cremona about carnival and panto in Malta under British rule) started out as a paper for one of his classes.

In many ways, my current research interest in Maltese music owes a great deal to Brooks McNamara. I can feel his guiding hand in several of my decisions as I think through a way to bring together my academic work with my passion for Maltese music, amateur performances, hybrid forms of entertainment, and the plethora of scattered documents in the archive I long to create for future generations.

My weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast has become ground zero for all this, from my perspective. It is my notebook for the work that needs to be done to preserve and promote Maltese popular music. The 164th MMI podcast clearly demonstrates the broad spectrum of work that no radio station or record store in Malta really bothers to capture in any significant way.

Sasha Vella and Sam Hayman have released a number of new tracks on their website. Apparently a CD is in the works. I've had the great pleasure of playing their songs on previous MMI podcasts various other times. Sam even helped me out by pointing out a broken link on last week's show notes. You could say that my decision to play Nina as this week's opening song is simply a way to say thanks to Sam, or just another excuse to hear Sasha's lovely songs. Either way it's a win-win proposition.

Maltese-Australian singer Renee Cassar has finally released her debut album. If you follow the MMI podcasts regularly, you'll know that I've featured her songs on various previous editions. She is quite good and surprisingly makes for addictive listening. She has also produced a video for the song Dreary Day, which is one of the new songs on the album. I'm not sure why she's not well known in Malta yet. She produces exactly the kind of songs that Maltese radio stations like to play whenever they say they play Maltese music, without including any Maltese-language tracks on their playlists. Perhaps this album will finally get her the attention she deserves back on the rock.

I'm extremely pleased whenever a Maltese band that has been gigging for some time releases a recording. This is what happened a few days ago when the Retrophytes announced that they will be releasing their debut EP this summer. They're previewing a couple of tracks from this EP on their MySpace page. Virgin is the one I've selected to include on this week's podcast and it shows how and why the band keeps gathering a greater following with every live show they do. I have a feeling that they may be the next alternative Maltese band to go mainstream. If they do I'm sure more recordings will keep coming our way in the coming years. So it's all good.

Anyone living in Malta this weekend shouldn't miss this year's edition of the GħanaFest at the Argotti Gardens in Floriana. With tickets at just €2 it's almost as if there's no entrance fee. Festival coordinator Ruben Zahra has assembled an amazing programme featuring three consective evenings of traditional Maltese għana, contemporary Maltese folk, and various guest acts from around the Mediterranean. In marking this event on my podcast, I've included a track by his own band Nafra called Tlaqna.

The amazing Brikkuni will be playing at GħanaFest tomorrow at 8:45pm. I'm sure many of their fans will be heading out to the Argotti Gardens for this concert. In the process they will also be exposed to all sorts of other delights during the last day of this 3-day festival. Brikkuni's L-Eletti is a very appropriate way to close this week's podcast as we enter the final week of electoral campaigning ahead of next weekend's European Parliament and Local Council elections.

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.

After the Love is Gone

I can't believe it's already been a week since I left Moscow. It all seems like a blur. I guess this is partly, if not mostly, because I'm so busy with all sorts of things. Unfortunately some of the things that keep me busy are not very productive. It's really about time I learned to take the raw with the cooked, and yet it's getting better all the time.

Two deaths broke up this week's humdrum cheer. The first was that of Maltese actress Antoinette Soler. She was quite well known and loved both on stage and TV for many years. Oddly, though, I haven't seen a single obituary or appreciation for her online. Next came the shocking personal message from my old friend Robert Longo that Niki Falzon had passed away. He was only 48 but Sam Hayman told me that he'd been hospitalized about a month ago. I'm afraid that the best that I can do is remember them through my blog and celebrate Niki's music during my Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast.

The 163rd MMI podcast is a mixed bag of goodies that accumulated on my desktop over the last few days. The opening song is the long awaited debut release from Kartridge. This band, fronted by former Purple Haze singer Daryl Ebejer, has been gigging since around 2006, and I've always longed to hear them. Now that they've finally produced a recording I can fulfill that wish and share their sound with my podcast listeners. The song is called Wild Crazy Nights.

I'm pleased to see that more and more Maltese musicians and performers are taking to Twitter. On this week's podcast I've deliberately included two people who have taken to Twittering quite regularly. It was through Twitter that I discovered Christabelle's song Flame, which has just been released on YouTube accompanied by a static picture of the singer for the duration of the song. Apparently it's been out (and getting regular radio airplay in Malta) for several months but if it wasn't for the fact that I started following Christabelle on Twitter about a week ago I would have probably missed out completely on this one.

Brian Vassallo is the other inclusion on this week's podcast to come from Twitter. Several days ago, Philip Mizzi posted a short film called In The End made by Ramon Mizzi. Philip acts in this short film, but I only really became aware that the original soundtrack was composed by Brian Vassallo from Brian's Twitter account; I have been following him for a number of weeks. The track I've selected from this short film soundtrack is called My Only Son.

Regular listeners of the Mużika Mod Ieħor series may remember that I've included the music of Nick Falzon at least a couple of times in previous editions. Niki, as those of us who knew him more than two decades ago called him, was a very prolific composer of jazzy new age music and broadcast jingles. His passing earlier this week is marked with a fond final farewell at the close of this week's podcast. The music I've chosen to play to see us out until the next episode comes from a 1992 album called Twilight Moods, which Niki Falzon released under the name Masque, in collaboration with several other musicians, including saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and drummer David Vella. Glow is among the best tracks on what was one of the very first Maltese CD albums ever released.

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.

Love Reign O'er Me

I'm on the train from London going up north back home to Scarborough right now. I published the 162nd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast but I didn't have time to blog about it because I was in Moscow. I also had other plans for Sunday and today which made it next to impossible for me to blog any sooner.

I know I owe my faithful podcast listeners a decent blog entry about the most recent podcast. I also owe my loyal blog readers a post about the result of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Although I have access to the internet via the free wi-fi service on the train, we'll be pulling into York railway station within the next half hour so I won't have time to write the way I'd like to before later tomorrow or possibly even Wednesday. Normal service will resume soon enough, so for now please forgive me for writing the rest of this blog entry the way you're about to read.

The 162nd podcast was released just before the 2009 Eurovision final. So, as you'd expect there's a little Eurovision in it, but if you know anything about the MMI podcast you know to expect something quite different than what the mainstream Maltese media would give you on such an occasion. Yes, the podcast opens with Chiara singing her Belgian made song, with which she managed to return Malta to the contest's final round for the first time since 2006. Malta will never get a decent placement in the current version of the Eurovision without either an outstanding song or a strategic marketing campaign...or both. I think that's all I'll say about the Eurovision today, especially now that it's all (almost) over.

Next up is Freddie Portelli with his new single Tonight. Freddie turned 65 on the 5th of May and listening to this new song makes me appreciate how hip some Maltese pensioners really are these days.

The 2nd edition of the Malta Hit Song Contest presented its final session on the 1st of May. Neville Refalo won this year's contest with a song that was clearly better than most of the rest of those in the competition. However, one of my personal favorites was by Julie Pomorski.

For anyone interested in what Maltese music really sounds like I would currently wholeheartedly recommend the debut album from No Bling Show. I played one of their songs a few weeks ago from a live video version. Now you can hear the song about Lucija u Samuel in the CD version from the album Stejjer tal-Bandli. This album will undoubtedly standout when the end of year top picks are selected for 2009. Meanwhile, I urge you to get your hands on the album and listen to the difference. Here's a group of young Maltese artists on the verge of maturing into significant Maltese artists.

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.

For Those About To Rock

I'm writing this on the National Express train between York and London King's Cross on my way to Heathrow Airport. I'm on my way to Moscow for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. I wanted to test the free on-board wi-fi by publishing my weekly MMI podcast from the train. So far so good...or better still: it looks like everything is falling into place nicely. Wireless internet really is an essential element of the major paradigm shift that allows me (and countless others) to engage in this sort of mobile activity. For a blow by blow update on all this, you can follow me on Twitter too. I won't be offended if you don't.

To make sure I arrive in Moscow for the Eurovision in the appropriate mindset the 161st Mużika Mod Iehor podcast is dedicated to all Maltese (hard) rock fans. Starting off with a band that as not only just released a new album but also took part in the 2nd edition of the Heavy Metal Eurovision back in 2005. Aidenn Falls sees this veteran Maltese metal band Forsaken in top form. Leo Stivala's vocals give the band a distinctive mark that makes them instantly recognizable among the many other metal contenders on the scene. After the Fall came out on 1 April 2009 and marks Forsaken's first collaboration with Swedish metal label I Hate Records.

Speaking of new albums, I'm sure that every self-respecting rocker in the Maltese islands has heard about the new release from Knockturn Alley entitled Medusa. I featured this band on my podcast back in 2006 when they first appeared with their debut EP The Dream is Dead. I'm very pleased to play Epilogue (Cities Burn) from their new debut album, which is officially released tonight at the Liquid Club in Tal-Ballal, limits of San Gwann. Greek band The Source are the opening act at the launch gig. Something tells me that the connection comes through Knockturn Alley's drummer Dimitris Aggelidis.

In The Name Of is another active Maltese hardcore metal band. I've never had an opportunity to play any of their music on the MMI podcast before. This is most probably because they've only been around for a couple of years and it's only recently that I managed to get my hands on one of their recordings. Have a listen to Rise (of a Crushing Alliance) and sample the sort of thing you should expect from the if you go see them live along with Twenty Six Other Worlds and Oblique Visions at the Poxx Bar in Paceville.

This genre of music is a dominant subculture which rivals any other style of music. I believe that it's only considered underground because most radio stations refuse to play it. It's not surprising that one of Malta's most successful alternative bands emerged from a hardcore metal band. That band was called Victims of Creation. I had the distinct honour of playing their only released recording on the MMI series within the first few months after I started podcasting. It is therefore a joy that I share with numerous other Maltese rock fans that Victims of Creation have returned to play live at the Malta Doom Metal Festival, which took place at The Poxx a last weekend. Victims of Creation (with a slightly altered line up of original members) have released a garage recording of a track called Chapter 22, and that's the sound I want running through my head as I head out to Moscow for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. I'll make it up to any podcast listeners who prefer lighter genres of music next week. I promise.

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.

May It Be

I was just getting ready to blog about the fact that Wired Malta (formerly known as Wired Temples) is now active again with postings by Gattaldo when I received the very sad news that Augusto Boal has died. I have very fond memories of the summer weeks we spent together in 1999, when he gave a 3-week intensive workshop in the Theatre of the Oppressed at New York University. Assisting him during that series of workshops was one of the most beautiful experiences not only of my theatrical life but also of my life as a human being. Augusto made theatre because he cared about people. I will miss him.

The return of Wired Malta after hibernating since mid-winter is a very welcome. As some of the regular readers of WM may have noticed, Robert Micallef, its founder, has been too busy with other projects to continue updating that blog regularly. He plans to return in the coming weeks but meanwhile we've invited our long-term friend Gattaldo as a guest blogger to get things started up again. Gattaldo is setting out with the following two strands: (1) Noise - excerpts from various sources with one theme in mind, and (2) Borgo is a story, the characters of which all live in the same town. One of the things Gattaldo remembers most about his childhood was his father's imaginative storytelling and the fact that his dad would start the story without knowing where it would lead. In this little experiment, it's the journey that is important. It's a story with no end. All characters in this story are fictitious; and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Meanwhile, I've also released the 160th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. This week I've selected to play four brand new tracks and a previously unreleased recording. The opening song is the new single from The Myth. Dream sees Dion Farrell and his band finding their own style. It's been a long process and I have good reason to believe that it's far from over. Check out their MySpace page for the latest gig listings. Another new single comes from 8 Ugly, whose long-awaited album is expected later this year. Goodbyefinds singer Mark Azzopardi in top form. I'm looking forward to more from this band and hopefully I can catch them live one day sooner or later.

The Myth's Dream is a follow-up to Animal, which I played during one of the first MMI podcasts this year. During another podcast last January I introduced my listeners to the music of guitarist Stefanos. He now returns with a new recording entitled Zero Plus. Stefanos is a proficient rock guitarist and I for one would be very pleased to hear him play live and/or record with a proper band rather than a drum machine and sequenced tracks.

During my recent visit to Malta I was glad to (re-)meet Cecil Jones. We've known each other for decades but hadn't met since the early 1990s. I asked him to forward some of his recordings and I promised to include at least one of them on my podcast. Break Machine is an unreleased track writen and performed by Cecil Jones, with Mario Caruana on fretless electric bass and the late percussionist Nicki Doublet. This song helps me fulfill two long-held desires for this series of podcasts: playing something by Cecil Jones and featuring a recording featuring Nicki Doublet, who died young of a cruel illness some years before the series first appeared.

A few days ago, Tribali released a new CD called The Elephants of Lanka. After just a few minutes of listening to this album I would say that the band has matured since their first outing a few years ago. I'm grateful to Howard Keith and Dennis Fenech at Jagged House for sending me a copy of the CD by snail mail. This has enabled me to pick the track Festa as the closing track for this week's podcast. I'm sure that many music lovers will thoroughly enjoy the musical fusion presented by Tribali on The Elephants of Lanka. If you're in Malta on the 23rd of May you can catch Tribali live in concert at the GreenPak EarthGarden in Ta' Qali; tickets cost €15 and are expected to sell out soon.

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.

Beyond Here Lies Nothin’

Twitter has taken over as my social networking utility of choice. Facebook has been reduced to an alternative email/messaging system and a must-visit for playing Knighthood. MySpace is still alive and essential source for new music. This blog has now entered its 6th year of existence. And that's the current state of things with me and Web 2.0, as we used to call it.

The weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is part of this personal mediascape I've carved out for myself. This week I've even attempted to do something that I don't remember ever doing before: I've somehow managed to squeeze 6 tracks by 6 different acts in the 159th MMI podcast without making it longer than the usual approximate time of 20 minutes.

As I was preparing the music for the podcast I received an email announcing the release of an album called Manwel T Meets Mind's Eye Dub at the Temple of Dub from the newly establish net-label Dubkey Records. The whole album is available as a free download from Dubkey's website, which was established to spread free roots reggae & dub music. Manwel Tabone and David Magro have appeared in several previous editions of the MMI podcast with some of the tracks that appear on this first Dubkey album, but I've selected Back To My Dub (MANWEL T mix two) because it's a very pleasant way to open up the show.

Dolls for Idols is a new band surfacing from the Maltese islands. Their debut tracks are well produced and augur for a stellar rise on the local scene. They gigging too, of course, but apparently not extensively enough. Any club owners or event organizers reading this should really check out this band because they sound as good as any other I've heard within their genre in Malta in recent years. The track I've picked for my podcast is called Through the City at Night.

Another new album comes from one of Malta's best underground electronica producers. Melchior Sultana's latest release published by the Cold Busted label is called Recognize the Real. He doesn't keep his personal website updated but at least there are several recent updates on his MySpace page. From the 18 tracks on this new CD I've selected Mel's collaboration with guitarist Jonathan Ellul entitled Man Flight Passion. Sultana's music is quite broad-ranging and I look forward to his releases. So you can be sure I'll be playing something else from this Maltese musician in an upcoming edition of the MMI podcast. I'll probably also play another track by Jonathan, from his own unrelated (i.e. without Melchior) tracks on MySpace.

A couple of podcasts ago I introduced you to a Maltese guitarist who seems to split his time between Sydney and Oslo. Mark Axiak is also involved in a duo called Lappalie with singer Milena. I promised I'd come back to this material, so I've picked a haunting song called Sydneymoon to keep my promise. The wealth of Malta-related material of MySpace is simply staggering.

Brussels-based Kurt Buttigieg is a well known name in the Maltese blogosphere. In fact, he was one of its pioneers under the pseudonym Gybexi. I met him in person when I visited Brussels a couple of years ago and never expected to come across the work he sonic work he has recently published under the name Skullcakes. I must admit that I love the sort of aural explorations that Skullcakes presents through the related MySpace page. You can also hear the track called Neon Wolf Amongst Them as the fifth selection on this week's podcast.

The last song that I managed to include in this week's podcast comes from Laura Zarb Cousin. This teenage singer told me in an email she wrote me a few days ago that she has just collaborated with composer-producer Toby on a song called You Bruise Me. Laura has a good voice for the type of genre she has picked and it appears that Toby has managed to play up her best qualities too. Laura has a personal page on Facebook but no MySpace presence I could find. Toby hasn't included this song on his own MySpace page, so I feel safe in saying that htis may very well be either a preview of a soon-to-be-released single or just another one of those best kept secrets the Maltese music scene coughs up from time to time. I guess only time can really tell.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Never Before

Ever since I started this blog way back in April 2004 I made it a point to post something at least once a week. I had never broken that promise, until last week. As you may have gathered from my previous two posts, I was on a two week visit to Malta. Unlike all other visits since April 2004, I didn't feel compelled to blog much about anything. I did post two entries while in Malta, both announcing podcasts, of course, but perhaps because I also took a break from producing new podcasts over the last couple of weeks I also ended up taking longer to blog than I had ever done before.

I have a feeling that the fact that I'm quite active on Facebook and Twitter had something to do with this brief blogging hiatus too. As satisfying as social networking and microblogging can be, I don't think I can easily give up blogging and podcasting any time soon, as long as I can find the few hours per week required to maintain my blog and podcasts.

So, the Mużika Mod Ieħor series returns this week with the 158th podcast. New material keeps flooding in, so it's inevitable that all the tracks I've selected for this week's podcast come from the steady flow of new releases. The first of these is a demo by The Does who follow-up last year's first single with a follow-up (demo) called My Better Side.

As much as I appreciate bands who produce well made music, I'm rarely as impressed as I am whenever someone decides to give their music a particularly Maltese twist in one way or another. The upcoming album Stejjer Tal-Bandli by No Bling Show is an excellent example of this. While others have already (successfully) attempted rap and hop-hop in Maltese, Jon Mallia and his collaborators have elevated the form to a new level. Rather than play tracks of the actual album, which is set to be released on the 3rd of May, I've decided to share a related YouTube video featuring Jon with guitarist Phil Zammit and percussionist Michael Galea jamming on one of the tunes from the album called Lucija u Samuel (l-ewwel parti). More on all this once the album has been released.

If you follow this podcast and/or blog regularly, you may recall that I introduced the work of Karl Baldacchino, who records as Synthact. Pinkpube have now released Synthact's debut EP entitled Aer as a free download. I like the minimalist arrangement on a track called Oligarchy, and you can hear it half way through this week's podcast.

During my recent visit to Malta I had the great pleasure of meeting Malcolm Galea, who has managed to make a name for himself on the local entertainment scene over the last decade or so. When we met up he told me all about the interesting work that has gone into the creation of Porn: The Musical and the current plans to develop the work further beyond the confines of the Maltese islands. As musical theatre goes, this work seems to me to be on par with many other works I've come across in recent years, so I'll be surprised if Malcolm and his company (including musicians Kris Spiteri and Boris Cezek) don't manage to get Porn noticed beyond the rock. You can get a sense of the quality of this musical by listening to the song Naked on a Sunday featuring the voices of Max Dingli and David Ellul.

To close of this week's podcast I've picked Thea Saliba's new single, entitled On The Dancefloor. This former Eurovision startlet has done relatively well for herself over the last couple of years and I'm quite impressed by the fact that she has chosen to move on from the Eurovision scene without actually completely turning her back on it. While her song choices aren't always to my personal taste, I have a feeling we'll be hearing much more from her in the coming years.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

You Know I'm No Good

I'm still in Malta. I don't feeling like blogging much but, as promised, I have re-released a podcast from the Mużika Mod Ieħor archives. I selected the 58th podcast in the series, which was originally released on Saturday, March 10, 2007. I pick this particular podcast since it takes us back exactly 100 episodes in the series from where we left things last week.

Meanwhile, I've also managed to enjoy all sorts of music during my stay in Malta, so far. Most notable are the Charles Camilleri memorial evening at the Manoel Theatre, the Ġensna Concert at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Grimaud and Chasing Pandora at Chiaroscuro, and Simon Vella's CD launch at St James Cavalier. Surprisingly all these events took place in Valletta, confirming that cultural life in the city is enjoying a resurgence after many attempts to rehabilitate it. It is indeed a beautiful city.

Another podcast from the Mużika Mod Ieħor archives next week.

Walk the Line

I'm now in Malta. Another brief visit for the usual reasons. I'm sure I'll find time to blog a little about that from time to time over the next couple of weeks, so there's no real need to say much else just yet about any of that.

I wanted to make sure to produce the 157th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast earlier this week to release during the weekend. All went well except that I got caught up in cleaning the almost crippled laptop I'll be working on over the next couple of weeks and then forgot what day it was as I prepared to attend a wedding.

This week's podcast opens with Sky Mines, the debut release from a new band called Droned. Next up is Muxu's follow-up to last years smash hit Beat My Drum. The new single is called Drop It (Say No No No). These two tracks epitomize the solid state of Malta's alternative pop scene.

Moving swiftly on, the rest of this week's podcast dwells on more Maltese electronica. Christopher Buhagiar and Karl Baldacchino team up to record as Corrupted Minds. From the various tracks they're released via MySpace, I've selected Why Be Normal. The sound of this electronica duo prepares your ears well for the unusual aural soundscapes of Mark Axiaq. This Maltese guitarist has Australian and Norgwegian connections. I'll be exploring these in an upcoming edition of the MMI podcast, but for today you can get acquainted with him through the track Sleeplessness.

I am now planning a two-week break from producing new episodes for the Mużika Mod Ieħor series. However, during this brief hiatus I'm planning to re-release several podcasts from the MMI archive. I will be revealing more about this in the coming days.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

No More Heroes

The expression "jumped the shark" means absolutely nothing to most people who are not American and even less to anyone who is not a Happy Days fan. In our household we have one of each, so "jumped the shark" features in conversations from time to time. It popped up this week as a definite reaction to the hitherto brilliant TV series Heroes.

It certainly feels like MySpace may have jumped the shark, but I'm not too sure about that: thanks to all you sent me their views on this following my request for comments over the last couple of weeks.

Sharks and jumping are things I hope my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor is very far away from being associated with simultaneously. I have a trick up my sleeve to ensure this. More about that next week. Until then, I'm pretty confident that the contents of this week's MMI podcast will please most of my regular listeners.

Carrie Haber has just released her debut EP, It's Complex. From it I picked Those 3 Words to open this week's podcast. It's followed by a track from another new release. Violinist Simon Vella - who has appeared on previous editions of the MMI podcast with Sixth Simphoni - will be launching a CD album called Unspoken: Sounds from Within with two gigs at St James Cavalier on 4 and 5 April. The name of the tune I've chosen to include in this week's podcast is called Whatever. As I'll be in Malta during the first week of April, I'm looking forward to attending one of these two gigs in Valletta. It's always good to see a classically trained musician dare to be different.

Following up from last week's inclusion of music by Mario Sammut, where I lamented of his disappearance from MySpace, I'm happy to report that this young Maltese musician is still as prolific as ever under a new stage name: Cygna. I've liked Mario's music from the first day I heard it, so I'll take any excuse to play something else from him on my podcast. This week you can hear one of Cygna's exotically named tracks called Kuintaar. I still haven't met anyone who doesn't like this type of music.

To prove that MySpace is possibly still as alive and kicking as ever, Kurt Chircop contacted me via my page on that network to tell me about his new recordings. He is better known as l urk and the track I've chosen from him to close this week's podcast is called didj.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

It's Alright

I'm still thinking about whether MySpace has lost the allure it greatly enjoyed over the last couple of years. Following last week's initial thoughts, this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast addresses this issue directly. I'm now asking my podcast listeners, blog readers, and MySpace users at large to chime in with your point of view on all this. To put things into a broader perspective, this comes along the eye-watering rise of Facebook, and the resurgence of Twitter as an alternative social networking utility.

To open the 155th MMI podcast I chose to dip back to Pinkpube's first release for 2009: Tumult & Squawk. There are several good tracks in this compilation album and this time I've picked Hadrian Mansueto's Un Run. If you'd like to sample what the Maltese electronica scene has to offer you should really download Tumult & Squawk from the Pinkpube website; it's a free download.

In trawling MySpace for new material to play on my weekly podcast, I discovered that Mario Sammut's page has disappeared from that network. I haven't contacted him to ask why, yet. Perhaps this is because through the relaunched Earth Garden website, I discovered that he is still quite active. The new Earth Garden site has a soundtrack provided by Mario Sammut and you can also hear it as the second selection on week's podcast.

I'm not sure that MySpace has lost it's original popularity. I say this because I continue to discover new Maltese acts (or musicians with a strong Malta connection) through it quite regularly. The remaining tracks on this week's podcast are precisely examples of this sort of thing.

Macropode and Clement are two electronica names that I had never seen before this year. Macropode's style is quite minimalist and experimental while Clement tends to be quite industrial and hardcore techno. The tracks I've selected are called Convengence and 909 Invasion respectively. On a purely geeky note I'd like to point out that Clement's tracks look like a stunning spirograph creation as wave files in the Audacity GUI, which I use to produce all my podcasts.

To bring the 155th MMI podcast to a close I've picked a track called Mersychippi Blues by a defunct Liverpool duo called Mekon Delta. They have performed in Malta, at the Plum Tree Pub in Qawra and you hear (and see) part of that gig on their MySpace page. Ron Cheevers has been living in Malta for the last couple of years or so. When I contacted him recently to ask about his connection with Malta, he told me that moved there after years of cherishing his father's WWII stories. You can probably still catch him at one of his solo gigs in Qawra. If you want to make his day, just ask him to play you some delta blues.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Shining Light

This afternoon I read an interesting article about the declining popularity of MySpace. It appears that MySpace is loosing out to Facebook. From my own perspective, the two networks serve a very different purpose. I've always seen MySpace as a music network, even if it has always been used for other types of social networking too. At the same time, Facebook has now gone beyond critical mass in terms of its utility as a social network based mostly on "friendship". I've rediscovered Twitter as a more rewarding environment for my personal social networking.

After reading the article about MySpace I wonder if the many Maltese singers and musicians who use MySpace to disseminate their music feel that this popular network has lost the allure it had just a couple of years ago. If you use MySpace please contact me and let me know. I ask this mostly because MySpace remains a prominent source discovery of new materials for my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast.

I need feedback on MySpace use also because only one track on this week's podcast comes directly from MySpace. The first track is from NV's CD album Envy, which was released on 28 February at the Poxx Bar in Paceville. The album features the seven singles NV released over the last three years along with a couple of new songs. Fountain of Life is one of these previously unheard tracks and it opens the 154th MMI podcast.

Sylvan Borg returns with a new song called Mouse by Day (Hero by Night). I'm always more than happy to include material from this underrated singer-songwriter. He is not a mainstream musician and this is probably why most Maltese radio stations don't include his stuff on their playlists the way they do with many other pop rock local acts. I would argue that Sylvan Borg's music is an acquired taste, which no connoisseur of the alternative Maltese music scene can ignore.

Earlier I mentioned that only one track on this week's podcast comes from MySpace. I was referring to Joe Mizzi's The Zero Chain 2009, which is possibly a remix or a new arrangement of the title track from his 2007 album by the same name. I'm not sure about this since I've never laid my hands on the said album. Note to self: get in touch with Joe Mizzi and make sure his entire discography is a matter of common knowledge for future MMI podcasts.

Although not particularly music-friendly, Facebook has become another excellent source for new music to include on my weekly podcast. It was through Facebook that I heard of the band ReBorn. I was then directed to their MySpace page, where I heard three songs they've uploaded there. Chew Me Plasticine is the one I like best out of these tracks, so I've picked it as the closing selection 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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Come Inside

From time to time popular culture icons die, as you'd expect in the circle of life, and in doing so bring up memories of things that were once significant in some way or other. Wendy Richard died a couple of days ago. She loved Malta. So much so that she picked to have her honeymoon there just a few months ago, after getting married for the fourth time. My fond memories of her come from years of watching Are You Being Served? in the 1970s but also from a very brief personal encounter at the Paris Theatre in London just after the recording of an episode of the popular BBC radio game show Just A Minute in 1988. With her sad passing I couldn't help but think how ironic it was that she picked Malta for her last proper holiday...particularly as this was a divorcee's honeymoon. And there she was in the only EU country where there's no divorce legislation. How quaintly exotic!

I see from my Facebook newsfeed that people in Malta are now experiencing one of the first round of utility bills under the new tariff system. Apparently this is just as controversial as the topic in the previous paragraph, if not more so. How soothing it is to think that I can loose myself in my podcast every weekend, just to get away from it all for a little while.

The 153rd edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor sees the return of two acts whose music was featured in my selections last year. The first of these is Richard Micallef, who has taken a leaf out of his dad's book and is now recording under his first name and his middle name, as Richard Edward. This is understandable when you have to put up with butchered pronunciations of your family name over and over. Hopefully people will focus more on his music and beautiful singing voice, as can be heard in his new single entitled Allowed to Cry.

Chris Enriquez is someone whose voice and music are completely new to the MMI podcast. It's always refreshing to feature material by performers who have never appeared on the series before. An Angel in the Making is one of two songs I found on his MySpace page. It's quite good and this quality of work makes me firmly believe that this is not the last we've heard from Chris Enriquez.

Keeping it completely new to the podcast I next turn my attention to a band called Sepia. They haven't made any studio recording yet, but we can still hear them from a number rough garage demos they've uploaded to the MySpace page. White Scar is a good way to samples this bands grungy sound. To my ears they could do with a good singer but then again they're quite tight musically so perhaps you will not miss the vocal line as much as I did on a second listen. Once again, you can rest assured that if/when a studio recording from this band crosses my path I'll be including it on a future edition of the MMI podcast.

This is precisely what happened with London-based band Ethnamorte, which includes Malcolm Callus among its founding members. After featuring a rough(ish) recording from this band last year, they now return with a very nicely done studio recording of a song called Shades of Beauty and Madness. At 10 minutes and 14 seconds, that a little too long to include in its entirety on my (roughly) 20 minute weekly podcast. If you'd like to hear the whole thing you can just head on over to their MySpace page, where you can also find other recordings and dates for their upcoming London gigs.

A couple of months ago, Pamela's debut CD Whispers, consisting almost entirely of songs written by Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan was released to great acclaim. It appeared few weeks to late to be featured in the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks poll, but it's one which will be definitely nominated along with all the other 2009 releases in the album category. I've already had the opportunity to play a couple of my favourite songs from this album when they first appeared, particularly in the Malta Song for Europe festival. To mark the release of the album as well as Pamela's upcoming gigs in Canada I've selected the song Turn Another Page. It's a really appropriate way to bring this week's podcast to a close, until we meet again for next week's edition.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Underneath the Stars

The Cure were the guest band on Jonathan Ross' chat show last night. They released an album towards the end of last year. I was quite amazed to see that Robert Smith still wears the same hairstyle and make-up as he did almost 30 years ago, and yet he didn't seem like a nostalgic throwback to the 1980s. Perhaps I was very tired after a long week at work, but I saw him as unusual and unlike anything else as ever.

I'm becoming morbidly fascinated by the aging process and how different people deal with it. An old teacher of mine told me today (in a Facebook message) that he wishes he was professionally where he is now at 66 when he was 40. And yet, so many of the artists I admire were already dead by the time they were 40 or thereabouts. Aging gracefully is not the same as living in an aging body as if your spirit refused to grow old.

Ok, enough belly-button gazing. On to this week's podcast, which is the 152nd in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Following on from last week's episode, I've picked another 5 brand new tracks to play this week. The first three come from bands who although relatively new on the local scene are each making a splash in their own way.

Cable 35 have released a single called Mary, with an accompanying video (available on YouTube) ahead of the upcoming launch of their limited edition EP entitled Hygene. The launch party will take place at the Poxx Bar on the 14th of March and features Areola Treat as a guest band on the bill. Red Electrick follow-up on last year's successful debut single The End of It All with a single called Black 8 release for radio airplay the day before yesterday. And Colourblind return with a new single called Spectre as they announce an album, which should be "out soon".

I'm always thrilled when Maltese performers contact me to tell me about their latest recordings. The thrill is even greater when its someone I haven't heard from in a while. Sasha Vella contacted me a few days ago about the new recordings she and Sam Hayman have released on their new website. I love every one of the songs I've heard from Sasha and Sam. From the new batch I've selected Lullaby for Two, which as some beautiful echos from Erik Satie's piano style. Sasha's voice is so unusual on the local scene that I'm surprised that more people haven't already heard her sing. The new songs and website should help greatly in possibly rectifying that. I'd love to see them live some day.

Last week I mentioned Antonio Olivari's album Dark Ages, which has been released as a free download from Pinkpube. Following the preview I played from it in June 2007 (that's not a typo!) it's great to see that Olivari's music is finding a new audience through this Pinkpube release. Today I've picked The Link, the opening track from Dark Ages. I would have loved to hear the set he and saxophonist Carlo Muscat played at the book launch party for Pierre J. Mejlak's Qed Nistenniek Nieżla max-Xita last week.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

My Funny Valentine

Valentine's Day is one of those things that, to me, are synonymous with capitalist fat cats cashing in on people who think love shouldn't be equally intense on all days. I know that anyone who thinks V Day is "romantic" or "wonderful" will not only disagree with my humbug mindset but also plays beautifully into the hands and pockets of said commercial beasts.

Having said this, I hasten to add that I'm very lucky that my beloved wife agrees with me totally on this one. For us, every day is an equally perfect opportunity to express our love for each other. Perhaps not everybody is that lucky but I know that enough people in this world are able to truly love the one they're without the trappings of V Day to show it.

'Love is...' was a cartoon that marked my childhood psyche indelibly. Because of this, or rather in spite of this, I find that only my beloved can tell me what love really is.

Moving swiftly on, I spent several hours of this fine Saturday producing the 151st podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Now that we're firmly into the second month of the year, the steady flow of new releases has started. This week all five tracks that I've selected fall squarely in this category. The first comes from a new Pinkpube compilation called Tumult and Squawk, which was officially released as a free download on the 17th of January. I plan to play several tracks from this compilation in the coming weeks. For today I've picked Tunnellata by the delightful Danjeli.

A few days ago I received Jon Lukas Woodenman's new single. It's called Better Man and comes in what's being labeled as an "organic" version. When you hear this song you'll see that this singer's beautiful and seasoned voice is the main ingredient in this recording. On a second listen, Better Man may indeed start standing out as the best thing this man has done since recording the classic Can't Afford to Lose almost 40 years ago.

Milk Mi follow up last year's debut single Black Sheep with a single called Disappear. This is the first of two tracks with this title on today's podcast. I liked Black Sheep and I like Disappear even more. If a band can be so good on their first two singles, I really want to see what they sound like say five years from now...if they're still together.

This was the sort of thing I used to think about The Rifffs about thirty years ago. They broke up about 25 years ago, but reunited in 2006 and started working on a long awaited debut album. Moonstomp was finally released earlier this week with a launch gig at Tattinger's in Rabat. It gives me great pleasure and a sense of unexplainable fulfillment to play the title track from this magnificent album on my podcast this week. Let's just hope that we don't have to wait another two or three decades for the next album.

The second tune entitled Disappear on this week's podcast comes from SunSatION, whose music I've included on an earlier MMI edition. Back then I didn't know that Dorian Bugeja is the brains behind this melodic electro-trance music. It is a fitting ending for this week's podcast featuring all new tracks and sounds, particularly in contrast with the material I included in the last two podcasts before this one.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Let It Shine

A few days ago I was interviewed by SBS Radio in Australia about the process by which Malta is selecting this year's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place this May in Moscow. I spoke candidly and at length about the 20 songs that made it to the Malta Euro Song 2009 final round; as well as some that didn't make it. Truthfully, most of what I said is simply personal opinion, but it was a good way for me to put myself in the right frame of mind to engage with the annual circus that accompanies this event.

This week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast follows on from this trajectory and offers my best thoughts on some of the better songs in this year's crop. I must admit that we've been spared from the same fate we suffered last year, which for me will be remembered as one of the weakest over-all years ever. This is not to say that there's a wide range of material to choose from this year, but at least there are a handful of pleasant pop songs to enjoy.

The first of these is one called Choose Your Number written by Augusto Cardinali and Giovann Attard for the young Maltese entertainer J.Anvil. It follows on from previous songs this team has presented in these local contests and it as enjoyable as a cold bottle of fine sparkling water on a hot summer's day. The same can be said for Before You Walk Away, written by Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan for the vocal group Q, consisting of Fiona, Glen, Leontine, Luca, and Pamela. The feeling I get from both these entries is that they're coming from the bittersweet experiences of similar songs in previous editions of the local selection leading to the Eurovision. This is simply meant as an honest observation rather than a criticism of anyone involved in making this impression on me.

It is therefore with great joy that I welcome a song by what to me are a new composer and a new singer: Andrew Zahra and Kylie Coleiro respectively. The song Let It Shine (lyrics by Joe Julian Farrugia) stands out as the freshest thing on this year's local selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly I can already see this young singer learning to do things that will eventually be her undoing. What I mean to say is that the best thing about Kylie Coleiro is that she is indeed someone who has just managed to break away from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It's that vestal virgin quality she should be playing up rather than the teenager who is growing up to fast. If that approach doesn't come natural to her, than a near-legal Lolita is most definitely the way to go. Turning into yet another Maltese Eurovision wannabe is the last thing you want to do, Kylie, dear. Trust me, at the risk of sounding pompous and patronizing, I'd say I know a thing or two about this stuff.

At the other end of the spectrum is Eurovision super-diva Chiara. Her angelic voice is almost literally just what the doctor ordered in a selection process such as the one most countries go through before picking a song for the Eurovision Song Contest. I believe that the fact that Chiara is singing a Belgian song (albeit in English) is a problematic (if not controversial) one. At the risk of being accused of being xenophobes, many Maltese are not admitting publicly that this is not the right song for Chiara to take to the Eurovision. Can you imagine what it would be like if Chiara actually went to the Eurovision with What If We and continued her upward ascent to the winning position at the final in Moscow with a song that is less Maltese than any of the others ever sung from Malta? It would probably be even worse for Marc Paelinck and Gregory Bilsen if Chiara returned Malta to the Eurovision final but then failed to be crowned Eurovision queen as she one day truly deserves to be.

In the midst of all this, some good singers and even interesting songs end up being discarded completely as not appropriate for the final round of the local selection. The one I feel the most for is a song called Lament. This is a brave attempt by the Maltese Schlagermeister Philip Vella: a Maltese-language ballad pairing Eurovision veteran pop tenor Ludwig Galea with venerable folk singer Fidela Carabott tal-Bambinu, who at the age of 73 has won the National Folk Singing (Għana) Festival four times. I'm very disappointed that this song didn't at least make it to the final round replacing one of the 20 that actually got to have another attempt at representing Malta at the Eurovision. It is a very fitting way to end the 150th MMI podcast, until "normality" reigns down on the Mużika Mod Ieħor series once again next weekend.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

And We Bid You Goodnight

As January draws to a close we find that Malta has already lost two iconic figures in the field of arts and entertainment. The month opened with the demise of Charles Camilleri on the third day of the new year and came to an end with the passing away of Charles Clews the day before yesterday. Camilleri was 77, Clews was 89.

I've produced two special podcast to mark each of these prominent figures in Maltese culture. Camilleri's podcast featured the very first broadcast I produced for cable radio in Malta, while Clews' podcast came from the very first episode of my 26-part series marking the end of the cable radio service in 1990.

In spite of this, I thought it would be appropriate two remember both men in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. So the 149th edition of the MMI podcast opens with Charles Clews' classic pop song from the early 1960s Sparaw Għall-Qamar. With lyrics by Dr Ġorġ Zammit (author of the Wenżu u Rożi tales) and music by Joseph Ciappara it truly captures a very different time in Maltese popular culture. (I'd like to thank Mario Axiaq and Lino Cassar for helping me remember the names of those involved.) In the same way that space exploration from that era inspired Joe Meek to compose the tune Telstar, Pink Floyd to create Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, as well as David Bowie to give us Space Oddity, Maltese pop music from the same decade came up with this classic ditty known and loved by (almost) all cable radio listeners. The use of the clarinet to simulate Morse code at the very start of the recording is simply brilliant.

Francesco Puccioni, better known as Mike Francis, died yesterday at the age of 46 after a long battle with a fatal tumour. Most people in Malta don't know him, but he had a very strong connection with Malta through his professional collaborations with fellow Mysic Diversions band mate Aidan Zammit Lupi. I've played their music on previous editions of the MMI podcast in 2007. Aidan suggested I play Friends from Mike Francis' album Inspired as a farewell to Francesco on my podcast.

I've been wanting to include something by the Maltese guitarist Simon Schembri on my podcast for many years. He was one of the very first people I interviewed on the radio in the mid-1980s. I've now acquired one of his two CDs released in France, where he is has based for almost three decades. The tune I've selected is Tárrega's Caprice Arabe.

Since today's podcast has taken on a special theme, I thought it would be best to end it with one of Charles Camilleri's best known compositions. From his Malta Suite I've picked the Village Festa in a rendition conducted by Brian Schembri from a recent recording at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta. The applause at the end of that recording is a fitting tribute for all the artists featured in 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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Get On Your Boots

As I prepare for another one of my mini UK tours (York - Manchester - Salford - London), I find myself drowning in more work than I can handle, and yet I somehow always find time for my weekly podcast. Better still, I find that it calms me down and helps energize me to do everything else I need to do with more verve.

This week's podcast is the 148th edition on the Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Now that we're already almost 4 weeks into the new year it's understandable that most of the material I'm including consists of new releases. The first of these comes from Airport Impressions, who have just launched a single called Borderline. I'm sure they'll be playing this song at the upcoming Malta Eurosong 09, where they're among the guests who will undoubtedly outshine many of the contestants.

Before moving on to two more new releases, I turn back to an EP called Idiosyncratic, released towards the end of 2008 by Gozitan newcomers The Imagery. I featured a song from this EP when it came out, but now that I've managed to acquire my own copy of the CD I though it would be an appropriate way to mention that they will be appearing along with Cable 35 and nosnow/noalps at the Liquid Club in San Gwann next Saturday, 31 January. Sounds like an enjoyable line up to me to make the evening very worthwhile for any follower of the local alternative music scene. The song I've picked to play today is called Out There and the first few verses sound to me to be beautifully reminiscent of the Maltese lament ballads from the traditional għana, even if the song has a totally different structure from anything like that.

Guitarist Billy Lee has just launched a song called Don't Give Your Heart Away. This is his debut release as a soloist. Regular listeners of the MMI podcast will remember him that he also plays guitar with Metrokueen and Dayline. I can understand why he would want to sing his own songs, but to my ears he's a far better guitarist than he is a singer. Still, it's not to say that I'm not keen to hear him sing more songs. I have a feeling that if he continues to do this, he will eventually get better at it, particularly if he tried a heavier groove...or at least we can still enjoy his very skillful guitar playing.

Extreme Death Metal band Abysmal Torment are still riding high on the success of their overseas touring. They are now poised to release a new album called Omnicide in April and have just uploaded a couple of tracks from it to their MySpace page. From this I've picked a song appropriately entitled Omega to close 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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Just Dance

As there are still a considerable number of early-year events still to come, it would be foolish of me to think that the new year is really already is full swing. It simply is not. Next Tuesday's Obama inauguration brings high hopes with it. I'm not expecting any radical changes but the fact that a new tone will be set for world politics helps me breathe easier. If I manage my time properly I should be blogging about that later this week.

Some things never change, or rather, as the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. Right now, the 147th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is my way of making sense of this paradox. It opens with a grungy ballad called Till I Die by Totema. This ties in with the last track on the preceeding edition of the MMI podcast. Guitarist Emerson Vella is the link between the two. Totema's MySpace page contains three recordings by this band but little else, so I don't know as much as I'd like to about them. I'm hoping that they're active enough in 2009 to merit another inclusion on my weekly podcast.

Daniel Cassar is a young guitarist I just met via MySpace. He has uploaded a jazzy tune called Around the Day in 80 Worlds to demonstrate his excellent guitar playing skills. By his own admission this is just a demo but it shows him as a local guitarist worthy of note. I'm looking forward to hearing more from him, either as a soloist or even with a band. He plays with metal newcomers Cyanide, so there's hope.

By contrast, I know we'll be hearing more from Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter Luke Caruana, better known as Carra. He was recently in Malta and played some gigs in France and Holland too before returning back to Sydney. There's now a Carra Facebook page too and he's working on a new album and, judging by his previous releases, I'm sure that will be one of the better Maltese-Australian releases this year. Down the Line is from last year's Gaia EP.

Back to Maltese guitarist uploading their recordings to MySpace, a few weeks ago I came across Stefanos who has uploaded a small number of instrumental tracks. The one I've selected for my podcast is entitled Little Thoughts. Stefanos' online presence is one that beautifully demonstrates the sort of worldwide audience hitherto unknown Maltese musicians can attract.

Back to the opening point I clumsily tried to make in the first paragraph of this blog post, I'm very much looking forward to developing a major research project on the arts in Malta. I've already managed to articulate the main idea for a couple of funding applications I put forward last year, but now I'm quite keen to get the project off the ground by any means necessary. To make sure that the work isn't perceived as an academic project that has limited interest to a broader public I accepted an invitation to write an article about a small aspect of this planned work. Writing this article for one of the local Sunday newspaper magazines I exchanged several emails with Freddie Portelli, among other veteran Maltese pop rock musicians.

I mention all this here because aside from answering my questions and showing me some wonderful picture from his time with the Malta Bums and Black Train, Freddie also sent me an MP3 of Play It Again, released as a single in 1979. He explained that Black Train were unable to travel abroad to promote this single widely when it came out because the band had far too many commitments to play at people's weddings. Having attended two of those weddings in the late 1970s I can attest to the frenzy that accompanied the presence of The Black Train at wedding halls across Malta. If you've never heard this song before, I suggest you listen to it in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest.

I bring this up because although Malta was not taking part in that contest at that point in time, Play it Again would have possibly gone down well with Eurovision fans and made Freddie and the Black Train into a Euro-pop sensation. Then again, this also came out at the time that punk had changed the face of rock music, but it would take the next generation of Maltese musicians to bring that around, even if an underground scene was already brewing by then. Sadly, no one has documented any of this properly so far. I'm now hoping to rectify this in a systematic way.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

You've Really Got A Hold On Me

The new year is no longer so new. By now almost everyone will be back (or on the verge of being back) to life beyond the seasonal festivities. If, like me, you worked all of last week, it's understandable if you feel that the holidays seem like that happened a long time ago. Then again, for those who worked while everybody else took a break, I'm pretty sure they're glad it's all over.

My reality check comes once a week when I sit down at my desk to produce the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. The 146th MMI podcast is already the third one I've produced this year but it's actually only the first one to feature new music. The opening song is the new single by The Myth. It's called Animal and although it's nothing like a seasonal song, it was (pre)released during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

The next two tracks on this week's podcast should be most welcome by anyone seeking to soothe their ears after clearing out all the fluff that had accumulated there over the past few weeks. Kurt Chircop records as l urk; no, that's not a typo, that's how he spells it. From his repertoire I've selected a tune called The Cloud Had A Sky Blue Colour. This leads almost naturally to Fine by Karl Baldacchino, who makes music under the name Synthact.

One of the things that Mużika Mod Ieħor is known for is the space it gives to relatively unknown new performers to air their very first recordings. The Great Escape is the band that gets this space this week. Their performed their song Run Away on national television in Malta last year to some public acclaim, but I'm almost sure that it had never been played on the radio since. You can hear it as the closing track on this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor 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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Something

Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one.

Life has already reminded us how cruel it can be: I was very sad indeed to hear of Charles Camilleri's passing at the age of 77 today. Mro Camilleri's death was announced after I had already finished producing the 145th edition of my Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. So I will produce a separate (non-MMI) podcast within the next couple of days to mark his passing. Charles was very kind to me over the decades that we knew each other, and he will always have a special place in my mind as the first person I ever interviewed on the radio at the very start of my broadcasting career almost 25 years ago.

The Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast returns after a two-week break over the Christmas period. This week's edition features music from the 2008 Listeners' Picks poll, which we carried out on Facebook over the last five or six weeks. 574 people cast their votes on the 2008 poll. This is more than double the number of people who voted the previous year.

55% of all voters cast their preference in the Top Album category. Ira Losco's Fortune teller received 18.5% of these votes but, as expected, Brikkuni's Kuntrabanda! was selected as the the Top Album for 2008, with 21.3% of the votes in this category. The track I've selected from Kuntrabanda! is the band's excellent version of Danjeli's Iż-Żufjett, which comes across as one of the most amazing Maltese songs ever written.

Thea Saliba's popularity as the singer for Malta's entry at to the 2005 Junior Eurovision Song Contest helped her achieve a considerable number of votes in the 2008 Top Single category. 58% of all voters cast their preference for Top Single and Thea's Musilicious received 13.5% of these 333 votes. However, popular Christian rock band Salt managed to garner 15.9% of the preferences in this category with Jars of Clay. My personal preference was for The Rifffs Magic of the Sun, but I believe that Salt's Jars of Clay is a very worthy winner of the MMI 2008 Top Single accolade.

Claudio Baglioni's version of L-Aħħar Bidwi f'Wied il-Għasel attracted 24.7% of the 198 votes cast in the Malta-related Overseas Release category. However, British band Airstrip One (whose Andrew Hill qualifies them in this category through his Maltese parentage) received 30.3% of the votes in this category for their EP Into the Silence. From this EP I've selected Crashing Cars, which is a much heavier offering from this band than most of their other songs. I have a feeling that Andy Hill will be making a splash on the Maltese alternative scene this year.

291 votes were submitted in the Top Online Release category. Ezzy's Puzzle People is clearly the most supported selection here with 21% of the votes. Still, for the first 3 or 4 weeks, Synthax & Chemicals looked like they could be the winners in this category with their online release Next to Hell. In the end, they only managed to secure 14.1% of all the preferences in this category.

I'd like to give an honourable mention to the outstanding Gozitan duo Chasing Pandora. I have a feeling that if rather than two EPs they had released an album during 2008 or just one EP they would be among the listeners' top picks. Two and Wide Eyed Beauty together received 23.8% of the overall votes, which is 2.5% more than Brikkuni's album. They clearly have a much deserved group of fans who adore them. The video for their song Memories (from the EP Two) received 3 more votes than The Beangrowers' Not In A Million Lovers, but 4 less than the 60 to Wax's Thoughts. Wax also won the 2008 Virtual Rockstar contest by Malta's XFM. I hope that the following and success they've built over the last year or so propels them into greater things in 2009.

Back to the 2008 Top EP category, it looked like Baz and Max Cilia (as Spriggan Mist) were set to clinch this title for their Konditions of Change. They ran a vigorous campaign for votes on Facebook but in the end Just Rock by nosnow/noalps gathered 24.6% of the 321 votes in this category. Their song Headset -- which incidentally has a great video to go with it -- brings the podcast to a close. In parting, I should also mention that nosnow/noalps managed to attract the largest number of votes out of all this year's nominations, with 13.6% of the 574 total voters behind them...just 0.4% ahead of Chasing Pandora.

There's also an enhanced version of this podcast. [coming soon!]

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It may just be that this is the earliest I've ever been grabbed by the Christmas spirit. It feels quite odd, particularly because there's at least one whole week of lectures and meetings at our university before campus starts looking like a ghost town. If I stop and think a bit why I'm feeling Christmas in the air earlier than usual this year, I'd probably say it's the dark rum and pre-production on this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast.

For the first time in years there seems to be a steady flow of new Christmas music from Malta. Some of it is far too saccharine sweet for my taste but there are a song or two that I'm more than happy to include on my weekly podcast. The first of these is Shilloo's Tree Christmastime is Here. The lyrical twist is quite refreshing and all the British references are an excellent example of the strong influence the colonial years have had on contemporary Maltese culture.

I didn't want to turn this week's podcast into a Christmas special, so I've also included one non-seasonal track. Hadrian Mansueto's music would have probably made it to my list of nomination for the 2008 MMI Listerers' Picks poll, if I had discovered it earlier. Voting is now underway via Facebook until the 3rd of January 2009 but I still wanted to sneak in Manseuto's music before the end of the year. Running Away has hints of The Doors' Riders on the Storm (if not an actual sample!) and it's as good as way as any to introduce this young musician to the MMI podcast listeners.

Back to the Christmas stuff: I was very pleased to be included in the publicity drive for Muttley's latest project, now that he has returned to Malta. Recording as Mutt Ley, he has teamed up with Gianni Zammit and Chris & Moira to deliver a new yuletide song called Christmas Time. Better still, all money generated from this song will be given to away to charity.

As Christmas is all about good cheer, I wanted to share one of the best Maltese musical moments from this season with my podcast listeners this week. X-Tend double CD Sbieħ il-Milied from 1991 was not only one of the most forward looking Christmas projects ever produced on the local scene, but also the very first double CD produced in Malta. My favourite track of all from that work is Il-Wasla tas-Slaten Maġi. It shows Charlie Dalli at his absolute best, both as a songwriter, a daring performer, and a collaborative maverick the likes of which I've rarely met.

The alternative view of Christmas (finally) has its own champions too. I haven't managed to get my hands on the Jingle Punk CD released (recently?) by Pupi tal-Logħob, but I'm still able to close this week's podcast with their wickedly delightful Wasal il-Milied based on the traditional carol named after Good King Wenceslas. It's an excellent way to end this year's Mużika Mod Ieħor offerings.

The next MMI podcast will appear on Saturday 3rd January 2009 and it will feature the top picks by my listeners and others voting on Facebook for the favourite 2008 Maltese music releases. Until then, over the next two weekend, we will once again be releasing Ġorġ Mifsud-Chircop's special christmas editions of his Tisqifa għall-Għana tagħna featuring Karmnu Debono l-Pikipakk (from Birkirkara) and Frans Mifsud ta' Żaren ta' Vestru (from Żejtun).

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Speak My Language

It has been quite a week. It is indeed quite appropriate that this was also the week that Scarborough experienced the worse snow storm in all the years I've lived here. Meanwhile, the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks poll (on Facebook) has already attracted about 250 music lovers within the first seven days. Voting remains open until the 3rd of January, when I'll be featuring the top vote recipients in a special edition of the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast.

This week's edition of my weekly podcast includes three songs from this year's Għanja tal-Poplu, which took place at the Phoenecia Ballroom last Saturday. Before playing any of these songs, I wanted to share the Maltese-Australian sound of Miss Mary. I came across her page on MySpace just a few days ago and became intrigued by both the sound and the lack of detailed information about Mary. In any case, Up in the Clouds provides an excellent opening for this week's podcast.

Brikkuni are the winners of the 2008 Għanja tal-Poplu. Their song L-Uffiċċju is not on their recently released Kuntrabanda CD, so some of their (slighly less ardent) fans will not have had an opportunity to hear it yet since L-Għanja tal-Poplu does enjoy the same level of (over)exposure as some other song contests. Drummer Michael Galea informs me that the band will be re-recording this song "properly" and releasing that as a single of sorts very soon. Until then they're currently at the top of the 2008 MMI Listerners' Picks in the album category, where Kuntrabanda has been neck and neck with Ira Losco's Accident Prone throughout most of this past week.

I've been wanting to include one of Walter Micallef's songs on my podcast since day one. For some odd reason I never got around to it. So I'm overjoyed to finally include his music on this week's podcast. Bix-Xemx Warajja landed him in second place at this year's L-Għanja tal-Poplu. It shows Walter in top form, after about thirty years of participation in this annual song contest organized by the YTC.

Last year's winner of L-Għanja tal-Poplu was awarded for 'best interpretation' this year. Aside from the song that won her this accolade, Corazon Mizzi has also collaborated with Antonio Olivari at this year's contest and I've decided to include their song Se Ngħaddi 'l Hawn on my podcast. There are several other songs worth a listen from the same contest and perhaps I'll play some of them in future editions of Mużika Mod Ieħor.

To close up this week's podcast I've included a rough recording of a song called On the Other Side by newcomers The Freuds. I have no qualms with including low-fi recordings like this on my podcast when they give listeners a glimpse of what can come later from the same musicians. All ends being equal, we'll be hearing from The Freuds again in 2009, unless they take their band name too literally.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Power to the People

It's finally time for all my Mużika Mod Ieħor listeners to vote for their top picks out of all the Maltese releases from 2008. This year's poll is once again being carried out via Facebook. James Attard has reactivated the Facebook app we created last year for yet another round of voting.

The categories remain the same as last year, with the slight difference that singles and EPs are now separate. The volume of releases has increased so much this year that this spilt will undoubtedly be welcome by all. The video section has been retained, even though there are considerably fewer nominations this year in that category.

I have my personal preferences, of course, and if you're one of the first people to vote and/or you listen to my podcast regularly you'll know what they are. Alternatively you can wait until the first podcast of 2009, when the official picks are announced and I compare the public top selections to my own. Voting continues the the second day of the new year and the results will be announced in a special podcast on Saturday 3rd January 2009.

Meanwhile my weekly MMI podcasting series continues regularly until the Christmas holidays. This week's edition open's with the music of an English singer-songwriter of Maltese descent. Victor Chetcuti's dad was Maltese but he was born in the UK to an Irish mother. I'm surprised that it has taken me this long to discover his work. He's been quite active in the last few years and is now on the verge of releasing his third album. From his 2007 CD I've picked a song called Thinking of You. Listeners can rest assured that I will be featuring a track or two from the new album next year.

To announce the 2008 MMI Listener's Picks poll, I wanted to play something from one of last year's top vote recipients. Mathematikal received the most votes in the based-overseas category for their Electrophant EP. Now that they're back in Malta they've been as active as ever, even if they're not nominated in any of this year's categories. Their remix of the Beangrowers' Good Band Bad Name can be heard as the second track on this week's podcast. It also gives me the opportunity to mention that the album from which the original version of that song is taken, Not in a Million Lovers, is among those nominated.

Incidentally, Mathematikal are appearing at the Poxx Bar in Paceville tonight in another evening of The Devil Digs Rave, along with Vinnie Vintage. Having attended a very similar gig last March I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to explore Malta's underground music scene.

The inevitable releases I should have included on the 2008 MMI poll but didn't will now start dropping like flies, of course. The first of these is an EP called Extreme Dancefloor featuring tracks by Melchior Sultana and Kevin Call a.k.a. DJ Nojz. It was release last April, but I only became aware of it a couple of days ago when Melchior contacted me with some other tracks that he recorded more recently. Anyway, this is how it goes every year and I guess by now we've all come to expect this, regardless.

For the rest of this week's podcast I've selected tracks by Melchior Sultana and DJ Nojz. The first is Melchior's The Life I Lived, which is not on the EP I just mentioned. The other, by DJ Nojz, comes from that EP and it's a techno number called Metobo.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Amid the Falling Snow

Having spent about 12 of the last 48 hours traveling on trains between Scarborough and Coventry I can't really say that my body has completely settled down by now. I still hadn't shaken the road off when I woke up this morning to see that a veritable winter wonderland awaited me outside. I expected this to happen because I watched the weather forecast on TV last night but it still made me change my plans for the day. The scene from my bedroom window was beautiful and most peaceful so I didn't want to bother with the real world, until I really can't stay away. On days like this I miss being snow bound. It never really snows that much in Scarborough.

Aside from all the traveling I probably feel this way too because I was invited to visit Malta this weekend as a judge for the Malta Television Awards. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a big fan of award ceremonies. In spite of all this, I couldn't really accept the invitation to go to Malta because travel plans were left for the last minute and I'm not very good at doing things this way. Just to be a good sport, I accepted to vote on the award categories I was asked to anyway. So I'm partly responsible for whoever wins two of the Mermaids in this year's Malta Television Awards.

When it comes to my sense of personal accomplishment and self fulfillment, all this pales in comparison to the joy I derive from producing my weekly music podcast. This week's edition features two tracks from an album released just a few days ago called Jailhouse Voices. The musicians on this album are not Maltese, but the production is by Mop Krayz, who is Maltese...even though this is clearly not his or her real name. The track I selected to open my podcast with is called Gone with the Storm by Virgill & Cons. The other track closes the podcast and it's called Jade Tinted Sky by Keito.

I picked this latter track because I wanted to mark the memory of Jade Brincat, former keyboard player with Stillborn, Momento Nostri, and Archaic Descent. Jade died on Wednesday 12 November after suffering a cardiac arrest at Mater Dei hospital following severe side-effects to medication she was given to treat a chest infection. I was a little troubled to hear rumours and unfounded gossip that she had died from a drug overdose. I can't believe that people in Malta still jump to such conclusions just because she was a rocker. Her keyboard playing can be heard on a previous edition of the Mużika Mod Ieħor series, when I featured the song Angel by Stillborn. To remember Jade today I've picked a live recording she did with Stillborn at last years rock festival in Marsaxlokk. The song is is called Lost and features Jade keyboard playing quite prominently.

I'm always thrilled to discover new music and young musicians from Malta. This week I discovered two such acts through MySpace. Gilmour Cauchi came to my attention through Nathan Inder's page. You can hear a track by each of them on this week's MMI podcast. Gilmour's tune is called Capri, while Nathan's track is called Herbert's Intro. These two young musicians are clear examples of what some Maltese teenages are up to with their computer driven home studios. It really is fascinating stuff.

In the coming days I'm hoping to launch the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks poll via Facebook. I'll post a blog entry about that if we manage to get it going before next week's podcast. I'll probably have some more things to say about awards shows too. I'm just biting my tongue for now...but probably not for too long.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Miles Away

I love living in Scarborough. It's a beautiful place to live. The only thing I'd change about it is not the weather but the fact that it's miles away from any good or bad distraction from the peace and quiet we enjoy here. This paradox makes it more rather than less appealing to me. I think about this whenever there's something going on in Malta or New York that I'd like to attend.

The latest thing to trigger this line of thought is tomorrow's launch of the debut CD by Brikkuni. Kontrabanda is being launched at the Liquid Club just outside San Gwann. Like last week's launch of Ġuże' Stagno's new novel Ramon u ż-Żerbinotti, this event is not just an excuse to publicize the work but also a great opportunity to witness the artistic spirit of the work in person. To mark what may turn out to be the album of the year for 2008, the 140th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series opens with Fil-Bar ta' Taħt il-Knisja. This song was featured in an earlier edition of the MMI podcast about two years ago from a rough recording that introduced this band to many who have welcomed them with open arms as a blast of fresh air onto the local music scene.

Following on from last week's podcast, you can hear the music of an English band The Attika State, recommended to me by Andrew Hill. Brothers Martin and Warren Mallia are two of the members in this band. This qualifies their band for inclusion in this weekly podcasting series. I'm not entirely sure how Maltese these two guitarists actually are, but I believe their paternal lineage is most definitely Maltese. Perhaps they'll get in touch and tell me more once they discover that I've included Invincible on this week' podcast.

I was please to see that Alison Ellul (of Ali & Lis fame) has decided to grow up and move away from bubblegum pop and reinvent herself, almost a la Marvic Lewis' transformation into Indigo. Ally is not as radical in her approach but if her debut single Gold Blinds is anything to go by I'm sure that things can only get better. I've decided to nominate this song for this year's list toward the Listeners' Picks poll, which will be (hopefully) launched by this time next week.

It was also a pleasant surprise to hear from Pierre Caruana a few days ago. Pierre and I used to play together in a band called Structure about 25 years ago. Die-hard followers of the local music scene may recall his most recent work as keyboardist with Scar just a few years ago. He has now re-emerged as a solo act under the name of Free Spirit. A Thousand Candles is one of two tracks he has released on his brand new MySpace page. Now that he has reappeared on my radar screen I may even dig up one of the old recordings we did together from all those years ago...not for nostalgic reasons but to air some more of the sounds that emerged from the now-legendary Tigne scene. Those of us who were there know that the Maltese music scene in early 1980s existed in a vortex rather than a vacuum.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Sing the Changes

Change has come...or so it would seem. Hopes are high, and so they should be. Things are looking up, but when things have looked down for so long it's just about time that things start looking up. I don't want to sound cynical and I hate to be as much of a realist as Ralph Nader. Barak Obama will help make the world a better place. He will also inevitably disappoint many who now believe that he holds the key to all the ills of this world. Change and good vibrations on a global scale are now in the air. This can only be good.

On a more personal note, I feel much better now than I've done in quite some time. Things are looking up. It's getting better all the time. Since things are looking up I guess I should just enjoy the upward sensation and ride the wave while it lasts. Something always goes against all hope but with some luck things will still continue to get better.

OK, enough of this belly button gazing philosophical mambo jumbo. On to this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, which is a real corker. How else would you describe a podcast that starts with a brand new track from The Rifffs? Magic of the Sun is another track they recorded this past summer towards their long-awaited album, which will be out on the 13th of February. I'm glad they're not rushing it. We've waited decades for this album, so a few more months will certainly pass before we know it.

Chasing Pandora will be releasing their third EP on the 17th of November. This is the second EP from Mel and Keith this year. I wonder why they didn't put all eight songs together into one album instead. Perhaps this is a sign that the album as we've known it for the last fifty odd years is on the way out. You hear about the death of the single and the demise of the album all the time if you try to follow industry pundits. Whatever it is, Wide Eyed Beauty is another great offering from Chasing Pandora and the song Anywhere But Here is the one I've picked to play on today's podcast.

The new one from the Rifffs and the upcoming EP from Chasing Pandora will be added to the list of nominations for the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks poll, which will be opened up for voting within the next week or two. The rest of the material feature on this week's podcast will also be added to the list of nominations. First among these are the new recordings by Adolf, mostly recorded this past summer. Calmly should go down well with both anyone who knows Adolf's songs and those who will be discovering them for the first time. This singer-songwriter is one of the most underrated Maltese musicians. Something tells me he likes it that way; after all, it's all about the songs and little else really matters.

A few weeks ago, I included a track from British band Airstrip One, featuring Andrew Hill, who is half Maltese. Adrian Hill is Andrew's brother, so he too is half Maltese. He plays in a London-based trio called The Greenland Choir. Their songs are quite delightful. I've picked one called You Can See to bring this week's podcast to a peaceful close, until the next one.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Another Way To Die

Although I know that it's silly to think so, I have the feeling that most of the things happening around me right now have already happened before. I'm not surprised by much and yet it's fairly obvious that this only really make sense (or nonsense) in my head. It's probably just that I have a lot on my mind. Thankfully most of it is quite positive; I've recovered almost completely from last week's acute depression. I have a feeling that something mindblowing is about to happen. If/when that happens it'll probably shake me out of this weird state of mind.

My weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is not spared of all this, of course. The first two tracks on this week's edition come from band that have already appeared on the series earlier this year. Both Shilloo's Tree and Dominoes have new singles. They're called Ride My Horse and Photographs respectively, and now they also appear on this year's list of nominations for the MMI Listeners' Picks poll, which will go live on Facebook within the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile both bands are joining some twenty other bands selected by Hairy Amp to appear at the European Youth Week celebrations in Valletta, playing every evening between tomorrow and next Saturday.

The other two tracks on this week's podcast are from two acts I discovered via MySpace just a few days ago. Malt.Tabulated Sounds sounds like something you'd expect to be released by Pinkpube. It's not...at least not just yet. Someday is a very cool track and it segues quite well into Ethnamorte's Vidro, which I've selected as the closing track for this week's podcast. Ethnamorte is a multicultural London-based band featuring Maltese guitarist Malcolm Callus. They're apprearing live at The Grosvenor, down in Stockwell, London, tomorrow night.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Don't Let Me Down

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around. That's some of the best advice I've ever heard, and yet if what's still around is also going down the crapper then it's likely that being optimistic becomes a harder task. This is how I feel right now. I'm sure the negative global vibes aren't helping, but most of it is personal. Not too personal that I don't want to even mention it on my blog, but personal enough that I'll leave it at that before I get into further details.

It's almost a cliche for me to say now that when I find myself in times of trouble I know I can always depend on my podcast to lift up my spirits. Cliche or not, it's simply the truth. This week's edition is further buoyed by the airing of an interview I had on SBS radio in Australia. That sort of thing validates the longevity of the MMI podcasting series in ways that can only really be judged by time.

The 137th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast contains five more tracks to add to the list of nominations for the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks, which will be open to a public vote via Facebook next month. The first song is one of a small number of tracks recorded recently by Scar, who are currently in the process of putting together a new album. They've release Cambodia as a radio single, but I picked Untenable to open my podcast.

A new band from Gozo called The Imagery are about to release their debut EP entitled Idiosyncratic. Produced by Keith Anthony (of Chasing Pandora fame), the EP will launch officially on Friday 7 November at Rookies in Buġibba; they're evening organizing special transport for their Gozo fans who want to attend. From this EP you can hear Margie Bloom as the second track on this week's podcast. I believe this new band will be very well received in Malta if they keep it up this way.

Red Electrick is another new band. They've already released a very radio friendly debut single called The End of It All. Essentially this is the band Drive with a new name. The sound is also more poppish but I'd have to see them live to really say how different from Drive this new b(r)and really is. I liked Drive's debut single last year very much and it was one of my personal favourites from 2007. Red Electrick sound good but almost too clean for my taste. Still, you could argues that it's better for a band to be too clean than too dirty.

This dichotomy is evident in the final two tracks I've picked for this week's podcast. The first comes from metal band Insurgence, who just supported the Belgian band Fungus Inc, appearing live at Remedy last Friday. They've just released some new tracks they recorded at their garage in Marsa on their MySpace page but I've chosen to play a song they recorded earlier called Shattered Integrity.

The closing track on this week's podcast comes from teenage punk throwbacks Organized Dizorder. I inferred that I'd be including their music at the end of last week's podcast, when I mentioned the upcoming label launch for Resist.Reform.Destory taking place at the Poxx Bar on Saturday 8 November. Following in the footsteps of other Maltese punk bands, most noticeably RAS and BNI, Organized Dizorder bring the visceral elements of their mother tongue into Anti-Social, which brings the 137th podcast to a crashing end.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

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.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Big Money

Two memories from my pre-adult life crept across my line of sight this week. While I'm certainly not the nostalgic type, I thoroughly enjoyed a brief exchange with a former teenage girlfriend on Facebook, even if the bottom line was just a realization that we only really knew each other before either one of had grown up. And news of a St Gregory's Church Children's Choir reunion took me back even earlier into my childhood. I was very pleased to see pictures of so many people I haven't seen in well over thirty years.

Both these instances made me aware of how radically my life has changed since my childhood and teenage years. This is probably true for many people, but it's not necessarily so for everyone. I also bring this up in light of the recent developments we're now all calling the current financial crisis. Back then I cared about money even less than I do now. Oddly, however, I find myself peripherally depressed by the economic downturn. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise and this will lead more and more people to appreciate that there's much more to life and living than financial wealth and material possessions. Or at least I'd really like to think so.

It's with these thoughts dancing around in my head that I prepared this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. It's also not accidental that three of the tracks on this week's podcast come from countries outside Malta. The first features London-based Maltese singer-songwriter Richard Micallef. People in Malta may still remember Richard as part of The Mics. His solo material is quite good and I'm really looking forward to hearing more from him as the years reshape his musical taste beyond the obvious. This man may emerge to be one of the stronger figures of the Maltese music scene in the near future. Listen closely to Take a Minute, which also comes in an acoustic version on his MySpace page, and you'll probably see exactly what I mean.

Keeping it in the family, I thought it was about time I included something by Richard's brother Wayne. These guys are clearly indebted to their father for their musical genes. Anyone who cared about the Maltese music scene as far back as the early 1990s, probably remembers Joe George Micallef, who was among the longer-serving contenders on the local pop scene and hotel circuit. Wayne Micallef's Is Someone There owe's a lot to this legacy, even though it may not appear to do so at first glance.

All the music for rest of the 135th MMI podcast comes from Maltese musicians outside Malta. I've already had the great pleasure of including a couple of songs by the Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter David Agius. I received a message from David via Facebook a few days ago asking people to vote for him on a Sing with Stevie Wonder Competition. He'll certainly appreciate your vote. You can also hear one of his own songs, entitled When I Get Old, on this week's podcast. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from David. It's a pity there's nothing from him I can nominate for this year's MMI Listeners' Picks.

I was also pleased to hear from Ray Buttigieg recently, announcing that he has some new material on the way. Ray's messages tend to be cryptic, so I'm not sure what he's referring to exactly. I did find a new MySpace page dedicated to what he calls his Maltese Rarities. I've selected Imħabba Saltan Fuqi from this collection to bring this week's podcast to an appropriate close, until the next one.

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.

Finding My Way

As expected, this past week has left me physically and mentally exhausted. My wife and I had hoped to celebrate our wedding anniversary by going to a nice restaurant on Friday evening but we were both simply too worn out to even think about making a reservation. We'll have to leave it for another day...probably Monday.

Meanwhile, the first week of the academic year went quite smoothly, even if it was jam packed with activities for both new and returning students. I particularly enjoyed lunch with the postgraduate students on Friday. What a civilized way to start a postgraduate degree! The fish & chips at the university canteen was even better than it has ever been in recent memory. It was surprisingly very non-salty and I guess that's what made it most appealing to me. The average fish & chips punter would probably find this dull or simply drown the meal in salt and vinegar.

To make me remember that a new academic year doesn't mean that everything else just goes away or changes, I made sure to relish the time I spend every weekend producing my Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. This week's edition adds four more tracks to the list of nominations toward the 2008 Listeners' Picks.

The first selection continues in the same vein I explored recently with Maltese rock bands fronted by female singers. Jeanelle and Uncharted provide an alternative sound that is quite refreshing on the local rock scene. You can hear their new song The Dream on my podcast and, if you're in Malta next weekend, you can catch them live at the Poxx Bar on October 11, along with Airport Impressions.

I normally avoid featuring the same act twice on my podcast within a short period of time. This is not a hard and fast rule, of course, but I gladly bring The Myth back to my podcast playlist as they have released a new single called How Does It Feel. This is a very welcome follow-up to Star as it shows that the band can do more than produce a song that sounds like an Oasis out-take. This new song is so much better that I've decided to replace Star with it on my list of nominations for the upcoming 2008 Listeners' Picks. I have a feeling that this band, which has been around for almost two decades, is still on a journey towards finding its own voice and when they do we may very well be hearing some remarkable new tracks from them.

I've also previously featured the Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter Renee Cassar on my podcast. She is on a very similar path to the one I just described for The Myth, even if she's come quite some way in a very short span of time. Although she has released several original songs through her MySpace page, apparently she still hasn't released an album yet. It would seem that she's aiming to rectify this by taking part in the MySpace Road Tour.

These new social networking sites have become such an essential element of the music that, like many other music fans around the world, I turn to them regularly to keep in touch with what's going on. This week through Facebook I discovered that Toby and Kristina Casolani have just written and recorded the theme song for the new Maltese TV series Traceland called Traces. It's good to have these two on the list of nominations for the 2008 Listeners' Picks.

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.

Space Oddity

MySpace have just changed the interface for the music player that appears on pages where musicians, bands and singers upload their tracks for all to hear. This in itself may appear to be just another attempt to change the way MySpace looks, but there's some bad news in it for people like me. The previous MySpace music player displayed the year for the track you were listening to (if it was entered by the artist) as well as the name of the album of compilation it came from; not to mention better/more space for the accompanying artwork.

I'm hoping (against all odds, probably!) that this will either be rectified soon or better still that artists will start blogging more about the tracks they upload or at least somehow give their listeners further information about the tracks they want us to listen to on their MySpace pages.

I'm not saying all this because I'm turning into a grumpy old man. Well, at least not just yet. The missing information is really useful to people like me who put together podcasts with material that's available mostly only through MySpace. Aside from my podcast, I also have an academic/archival interest in the extra data that comes with tracks uploaded to MySpace.

Thankfully, over the years I've also developed a two-way conversation with many of the artists I feature on my podcast. So, in many cases, the additional info on MySpace is not really something I look out for. Still, there are several acts that I either know very little about or only know what I know about them through MySpace. This became even more obvious to me a couple of days ago, when I started putting together the list of nominations for the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks.

This week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast features a number of new addition to that list of nominations, which will remain a work in progress until the public voting starts via Facebook in November. Explicit return with a new single called Sunny Again. Stephanie Chetcuti's voice reminds me why I like most, if not all, Maltese rock bands fronted by women. It is so refreshing to hear a Maltese female voice singing to an accompaniment that's anything other than the dime a dozen studio programming productions that grace the so called pop scene. I believe that more people in Malta would like alternative music if they heard it more frequently on radio and TV.

Another thing I'd like to hear more of are Maltese bands or singers doing covers of Maltese songs, even if not in Maltese. Dripht did it with The Rifffs' Dance Music for Depression, but it is far from common. 8 Ugly are preparing to release their debut album entitled Sleeper. Happily it includes a cover of Call Me, originally written by Ronnie Busuttil for his band The Refugees. Comparisons are odious, but I have a feeling that listeners will like 8 Ugly's version, particularly as they have worked closely with Ronnie and others associated with The Refugees.

New releases will keep appearing until voting on the MMI 2008 poll starts, and even beyond. We'll try and catch as many as we can to avoid the same sort of 'oops, too late' disappointments from previous years. Music Street Productions are releasing a CD called Purely Pop Compilation on the 7th of October. I don't have a copy of this CD yet but it features a stellar cast from the local scene: Thea Saliba, Jewls Verse, and Amelia, among others. Those others include a delightful duo I'd never heard of before called Velvet Rain. I like their A Song for You very much, so I've decided to play it half way through the 133rd edition of the MMI podcast.

Speaking of goings-on in Malta, Mancunian band Autokat will be playing live at the Sky Club in Paceville this Friday the 3rd, along with local indie delicacies Areola Treat and Airport Impressions. This English band is attracting quite a bit of attention not just because their music is quite good - as you can hear for yourself from the single Innocence - but also and especially because their drummer is Mike Joyce, who played with The Smiths back in the 1980s. As foreign gigs in Malta go, this is one not to be missed. Sadly I'm stuck in Scarborough this week, even though I've had two solid invitations to come to Malta in recent days. If they're playing one of the local clubs around Manchester I may even catch them on one of my upcoming trips to Salford.

Apparently I'm not the only one who had a hard time with the new MySpace music player. Aaron Benjamin and I have been emailing to and fro about his new song after I told him I couldn't access it on his MySpace page. I'm sure he'll sort it out soon enough, but meanwhile you can hear Break the Silence as the closing track on this week's podcast. Needless to say, this too makes it to the nominations list for the 2008 MMI Listeners' Picks.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Starlings

Having finished the chapter on performance I was writing for a book on Learning and Teaching in Second Life (to be published early next year by a Norwegian academic press) I am now able to apply myself to other things. This may be as close as I'm getting to a break before the new academic year. I plan to make the best of it and stay away from the sort of things that have kept me extra busy this past summer.

One of the things I'm keen to see happening over the next few days is actual on-air use of a videoconferencing system I've been testing with David, Ruben and Lino from Where's Everybody? This is scheduled for an upcoming edition of Bondi+. I don't have full details about the show yet, but I can tell you that I should be appearing on air using Skype with iSight and the built-in mic on my MacBook Pro, which is being fed directly into the video mixer by the WE technical team via the S-Video output on a Windows-based laptop. I'm able to see and hear what's going on in the TV studio through a simple set-up that consists of a decent microphone and a Skype-friendly webcam aimed at a studio video monitor. Not a very sophisticated set-up by professional broadcasting standards, but it should do nicely as another pioneering moment in my media output in Malta. You'll be able to judge the output as soon as the thing goes on air (details to follow in another blog post) and/or on YouTube if/when I get clips from the transmission.

Since it's the weekend it's also time for another edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. The 132nd offering in the series is quite the rock show, featuring all new tracks from four diverse bands that share a passion for distorted guitars. First up is the new single from Stillborn. Following up with the first release since their last year's album Thy Feeble Soul, Angel showcases singer Diane Castillo's excellent voice very well. I hope the band continues to take their stuff to a mainstream audience the way they did last year at Rockbaze. Check them out at Rookies next Saturday night and see what you think.

Subculture return with a new line-up and their fourth CD. Revolt is released tonight at the Remedy Rock Club in Paceville, with a gig that includes sets from two other Baħri+Ħamiemu bands: the indestructible Abstrass and the earthshaking RAS. Shattered Pride are also on the bill so it should prove to be quite a night. Subculture now includes teenage bassist Dani Dolt and singer Ramona (the Cat). Ramona is a welcome newcomer to the alternative scene. Listen closely to the track The Earth Dies Screaming and you'll hear much more than the type of voice you expect in any punk band. Although I haven't heard the new album yet, I have good reason to believe that there are other tracks on the CD where Ramona's voice can be appreciated to the full. I'm really looking forward to it. Ejja Ray!

To make sure that fans of Ray il-Baħri know what he's up to (you know he's too cool or just plain old busy to update the status line on his Facebook account regularly) I thought I'd play a track by another band that now has him in its line-up. Publik Waste has been around for a couple of years with members coming and going but now they've released a new recording with the current line-up. The song is called Nobody Listens and provides a great doze of classic punk complete with off-key singing.

Since this week's podcast has taken on a very rocky sound I thought it would be most fitting to close it with the black metal sound of Lustre. This is a new duo that has emerged from a collaboration between Martin Ciappara (know to MMI podcast listeners through his Prayer of the Dying project) and Sarrum from Turkey. Divine Fetish is as good a sample of their work as anything else you'll hear from Lustre...that's if extreme metal is your cup of tea.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Trying To Pull Myself Away

Things should be better by this time next week. Right now I'm just fighting against the clock to make a Monday deadline on submitting a chapter I'm writing about performance in Second Life for a book on learning and teaching in this virtual world. The book will be published by an academic press in Norway within the next few months. On top of this, life goes on and my "to do" list keeps getting longer and longer. Ironically, as the impeding start of the new academic year looms over the temporal horizon I long for it to all come into place because it helps me structure things better.

The other thing that helps me structure things better is of course my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. In the midst of the final sprint to get my Second Life writing done on time, I can't but pause for a few hours to produce this week's MMI podcast. By taking time to do this I find that my brain works better when I get back to writing about avatars and the conceptual possibilities of virtual worlds.

I'm very pleased with the new recordings from Dean Saviour. His Marshmallow Girl was picked to top the 2007 MMI podcast listeners' picks in the online releases category. He now returns with two new online releases. Hallway of Kites is the one I've picked to open the 131st edition of the MMI podcast. I'm sure Dean's music will receive a good number of votes again on this year's listerers' picks. More about that in a couple of weeks or so.

I'm also thrilled to discover that Brikkuni are in the process of putting together an album and it looks like it'll be entitled Kuntrabanda. They've just released to unmastered tracks from it on their MySpace page. Brussel is one of them and it captures the unique sound of this band fronted by former Lumiere singer Mario Vella. The band now includes a prodigious line-up, which includes Danjeli on keyboards, his mate Michael Galea on drums, Daniel "il-Flambu" Cassar plays bass, and the other former Lumiere Matthew Cuschieri on guitar. Additional musicians include Ruth Abela on clarinet.

Their earlier recording was too raw for comfort - I featured it on the 47th edition of the MMI podcast anyway - but it also encouraged me to include a track from a recent batch of recordings I discovered on Facebook by a defunct band called A Fuscia Sun Vessel. This trio was only together for about six months in 2006 and since then Robert Farrugia Flores has emerged as one of the foremost performers on the underground scene along with his new band Dominoes. They will be appearing at the Poxx Bar with Explicit next Friday the 19th of September.

Since I've gone back in time a little bit for A Fuchsia Sun Vessel, I thought that this would be a most appropriate time to play a track from a CD I've been wanting to feature on my podcast for a long time. I finally acquired my own copy of Sigo's Perfect Existence from 2002. Sergio Gatt, the singer-songwriter who also goes by the name of his band, has withdrawn from performing original material since then but thankfully he still gigs regularly playing covers. This is a shame because as you can hear from Bliss, a duet with Marvic Lewis, there's much more than meets the eye to this performer who has been active for about 20 years now. I must dig out some of my old tapes one of these days and play you something from his days with a band called Big Foot, a time when survival on the local music scene was a much harder slog that it is now.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Black Hole Sun

Yesterday I got back from being on the road for almost a whole week. After a couple of days in Bournemouth for the inaugural Media Education Summit I spent three days in Leeds for the 4th Theatre and Performance Research Association annual conference. Such events are excellent opportunities for academic networking. Add to this several high quality presentations and you have yourself a great recipe for professional rejuvenation, just in time before the start of a new academic year.

Now that I'm back in Scarborough I know I'm home because I can easily slip into the production of the 130th edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. I cherish this weekly appointment with my listeners as I discover more new music from Malta.

HeartBeat and Footprints are two Maltese christian rock bands who have just released debut singles. HeartBeat is quite new on the scene but Footprints have already appeared on a previous edition of the MMI podcast. I particularly like the vocal combination on HeartBeat's Someway Someday between Dorienne Cachia, Bernard Bonnici, and Allen Gatt. The southern town of Żejtun has been know for its singers for many decades. Footprints' Red Line is a promising debut release, which has also appeared on the recently released CD compilation Malta Rocks, sponsored by the Malta Tourism Authority.

I haven't acquired a copy of the Malta Rocks CD but I do have a copy of another compilation CD released in Malta this year. Last week I played a track from Stagedive's Alternative Sounds From Malta Vol 1. This week I'm playing another track from it. It's pleasure to bring back to the MMI podcast the music and voice of Adolf Formosa. Does She Dream is the song by Adolf on the Stagedive CD and it is a great track to introduce this singer-songwriter to anyone who hasn't been lucky enough to hear him before.

Although I've never really been a huge fan of dance music I appreciate good music regardless of genre. The Vagabond Project's Time of Your Life shares it's title with Green Day's anthemic Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)...but there's where the similarity ends. Gavin Borg has produced an excellent dance number which is also a strong pop tune. I've always known that Gavin's sister Coryse has a solid singing voice but this recording shows her vocal prowess in full force. Comparisons can be odious but for me this new release by The Vagabond Project feat. Cor is up there with the best of the recent stuff released by Madonna. In another time in another place it would achieve the same kind of acclaim. As far as I'm concerned, it certainly deserves it.

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. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

Granpa's Grave

I've been having very unusual dreams lately. Maybe it's because there a sense of change in the air, particularly from the American political circus, which almost merits its own blog entry. Or perhaps it's because I've been spending way too much time doing my research in Second Life. More simply, it could be that I haven't really had a break this summer.

Last night I had a dream about the remains of my paternal grandfather, who died a few months before I was born. I am named after him. He was buried in the crypt beneath St Helen's Parish Church in Birkirkara, which is where I imagine he was baptized towards the end of the 19th century and married early in the 20th century. They stopped burying ordinary people in Maltese church crypts soon after the end of the 1960s and unless you came from a rich family your remains often ended up in the so-called well of bones after some years to make room in the limited burial spaces. I have no idea what actually became of my grandpa's remains, but in this dream I had we kept looking for them, finding and reburying them, only to have them returned to the well of bones again. This took place several times during my dream, just like the eternal recurrence of the same you read about in Nietzsche. Don't ask me how we recovered them from the well; DNA testing may have had something to do with it in my dream logic.

This dream follows hot on the heels of another death-related nightmare I had just a few days ago. Performance theorist Phil Auslander is someone I know personally, but not that well. I say this to explain that I see no reason why in dreaming that he died (may you live forever Phil!) I was somehow appointed the executor of his will...and most of it had nothing to do with performance theory. Do I need a holiday or what?

Until I can get a decent vacation, even if a mini one, I continue to find reprieve in my weekly podcast. Last week I was interviewed by Marlene Galea for the Maltese service on SBS Radio in Australia; I will be telling you more about that once it has been aired. As I was chatting with Marlene about the Maltese music scene, she mentioned Jay P as a newcomer on the Maltese-Australian scene and urged me to check him out. As a kid Jason Portelli (to give him his real name) was raised in Xagħra before emigrating with his family to Australia. He returns for a gig in Gozo on the 3rd of September. So, it's fitting that this week's podcast opens with the song Rain from his debut album 1565 Patiently Waiting.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a CD compilation released by Stagedive entitled Alternative Sounds from Malta Volume One. This is an excellent collection and a must have for anyone who wants to sample the rich range of alternative music from Malta. I'll be playing a couple of tracks from this CD in the coming weeks, starting right now with Danjeli's delightful Ħaġa Muħġaġa. I'm also looking forward to more volumes in this series. It really behooves the Poxx Bar to back these CDs.

Young singer Amanda Friggieri records as Amelia. Her debut song A Blind Girl's Whisper shows that she can easily shine among all the local Eurovision wannabes. Her MySpace profile mentions bands and work on an album of original songs rather than pop aspirations. This makes me think that we'll be hearing more good stuff from this performer in the coming months.

This week's edition of the MMI podcast comes to a close with a song called Promise written by Billy J with Edward Ferry and Jean Paul Debono from the band Black on White. Malcolm Pisani sings the song with the band and I must say that I like this style of song better for him than any other material I've heard him sing. He recent solo single Press Play is not bad, but to my ears Promise is 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 follow each new episode through the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.

We Carry On

I don't really have much to say this week because I'm just too busy to think properly. Nothing new there. The only really new thing, other than the fact that the kitchen is now (almost) done and some other work-related news (to be announced soon), is the MMI Podcast: Facebook Fan Page. The number of people who have added the page on their Facebook profile has now more than doubled since last weekend. I'm sure the number will continue to swell in the coming weeks and months, particularly as we start looking into the 2008 Listeners' Picks.

The opening song on the 128th podcast in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series is the debut release by Milk Mi. Black Sheep was lauched at Rookies yesterday so I doubt there's newer material I could be including in this week's podcast. There's a video to go with this song too. Good stuff.

Last night I was interviewed by Marlene Galea for the Maltese service on SBS Radio in Australia; I tell you more about that once it has been aired. Chatting with Marlene about the Maltese music scene prompted me to play some music by an Australian rock band with a Maltese connection. Missfire, fronted by Maltese Australian singer Chris Saliba, have never appeared on the MMI podcast before now, so I think it's appropriate to include Holding On Again from the EP Halfway Here, which they released last year. I believe they're about to release an album any time now. If/when I get a hold of that I'll probably play a track or two from it too.

In the last two years I've played something by Sylvan Borg every year. This year is no exception even though I don't think he has really released any new recordings. He has just been gigging in London but I'd love to hear some new stuff from him. Meanwhile, I'm playing Walk, the only track on his MySpace page that I haven't already included in a previous edition of the Mużika Mod Ieħor series.

Speaking of previous editions of the MMI podcast, this weekend marks two significant events for this series. The obvious (I would say) fact is that it was on the 25th of August 2005 that I first started test podcasts on the MaltaMedia Online Network. Two days earlier, the online independent Maltese record company Pinkpube was officially launched. I've been marking the 3rd birthday/anniversary for Pinkpube over these past three weeks; it's three years so it's three consecutive mentions, how's that? This week's podcast ends with Daisy Gonzales off the Pinkpube album from August 2006, One: A Micro Celebration For A Pinkpube Year In Action. Here's hoping that this record label lives on for many years to come.

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.

Numbers

I've just set up a fan page for my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast on Facebook. Within the first twenty four hours, about fifty Facebook users have added the page to their profile. The main goal for this new Facebook page is to serve as an easy way to communicate with all my podcast listeners who are also Facebook users. This is not to say that all the listeners are on Facebook, but I have a feeling that only the very few are not or will not be. This is the second time that the podcast is using Facebook. The first time was late last year when we designed a Facebook app for the 2007 Listeners' Picks. It looks like we'll soon be thinking about the 2008 app and the new fan page should make it much simpler to let people know that they can vote. Better still, I'm also planning to collect nominations on the fan page too. More about that in the coming weeks.

So on to the 127th edition of the MMI podcast. From time to time I feature music by non-Maltese musicians who are performing in the Maltese islands. This week it's Vanessa & the O's who are appearing along with the Beangrowers at the MITP as part of this year's Evenings on Campus. The gig is on Saturday the 23rd of August. If I were in Malta this summer, this is one show I'd most definitely go see and I'd probably be sitting next to Ġużé Stagno because this is the sort of music he's really into.

Airstrip One should be hitting the Malta too sometime sooner or later. They have a strong connection with Malta through the fact that singer Andrew Hill is half Maltese. They're about to release an album and from it you can hear the song Circles on this week's podcast.

Speaking of new albums, I've heard (if that's the right word) that Access To have released an album. I looked for info about it on their website, but the domain is simply parked and there's next to nothing on their MySpace page. In any case, I've decided to play Something About You, which may or may not be on the album. If anyone knows (and that goes for any of the band members too, of course) please let me know. I'd gladly play (another) track from the album if I ever manage to get my hands on it.

In keeping with the celebration I started last week in honour of Pinkpube's 3rd birthday/anniversary, this week's MMI podcast ends with music from the durable record label's catalog. One of the first four EPs they released on their initial launch on 23 August 2005 included one by the elusive X-18. The track I've selected is called Lynsday. I'll most probably continue with the nod to Pinkpube one more week; after all the birthday/anniversary is not until next week.

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.

Rock 'n Roll

This past week I've been attending the Beached Academy, as a student. This is an annual opportunity for budding talent in Scarborough to work with professional tutors on song-writing skills and music performance. There's also training for people who want to work on the technical side. While some would think that I don't qualify to be a student within such a setting, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. It was good to be among young, raw performers keen to see what the scene has to offer. This is why I teach at the university. And yet, it was quite good to see what the student experience is really like. Our tutors were Toby Jepson (former Little Angels frontman and the new singer for Gun) and celebrity vocal coach Dave Laudat. Their generosity is astounding.

We shall all be performing at the Beached Festival on Sunday 17 August here in Scarborough, so I'm sure I'll talk about all this some more later. I'll (hopefully) also get an opportunity to play you a recording we did together on a song written at this year's Beached Academy on my weekly podcast. Former Goldfrapp drummer Rowan Oliver, who is now a fellow tutor at the university, said that hearing me sing was a revelation. I'd certainly put that on my poster and publicity material if I were to take this further rather than return to my regular life once Beached is over.

For the 126th edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast I've picked Jean Claude Vancell's new song Heartbreaker as the show opener. Once again JCV delivers an excellent track showcasing both his skills as a songwriter and as a singer. I have a lot of time for this young man and so should you.

The Areola Treat will be appearing live with the Retrophytes at the Poxx Bar next Saturday, 16th August. Last month they released their eponymous debut EP on the Belgian independent label Kinky Star. Boulevard Werewolf is lifted from it. Playing this band's music on my podcast for the third time in less than a year (do I like this band?) makes me realize that I've never played anything by Lumiere, the band Areola guitarist Adrian and drummer Chris played in in the first half of this decade. So to right that wrong, I've included Rememberence of Lovers Past from their 2005 album It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time. That was indeed one of the finest bands to grace the Maltese music scene, ever.

Since I'm playing something from 2005 and it's August, I must pause to celebrate Pinkpube's upcoming birthday/anniversary. On the 23rd August 2005, Pinkpube was launched 4 astounding EPs. HA's Approaching the Gnu was one of them. From it I've included Festa in this week's podcast. I'll be returning to the Pinkpube catalogue again over the next two weeks to mark the third birthday/anniversary properly or as we say in Maltese kif imiss.

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.

Rat in Mi Kitchen

I'm in the middle of kitchen remodeling at home right now. This sort of thing must be up there on the list with the most stress inducing experiences in life: divorce, house moves, personal loss, etc. Although it's not cheap to put in a new kitchen these days (has it ever been?) living without the comforts of home-cooked food and putting up with all the skilled labourers can be even more stressful than the financial aspect. Apart from a kind invitation by my next door neighbours for a delightful supper, I haven't had a decent home-cooked meal in days. Yes, I am eating out but there's a limit to how pleasant an experience that can be when you're stressed out with other things.

Anyway, I'm probably making it sound worse than it really is. Like so many other things in life, it will pass quickly enough. At least with this one there will be a new kitchen to enjoy once all the hardship is over.

As you may expect, being covered in paint and the inevitable crankiness that comes with putting in a new kitchen wouldn't stop me from putting together my weekly podcast. This week I'm delighted to open it with the music of the trio Silence Kills You. For a moment I thought that I had never played anything by any of my family members on the Mużika Mod Ieħor series (but then I remembered Keith and South Central, of course). I bring this up because two of the three musicians in this band are my blood relatives: Izzy and Sean are my second cousins, their mothers are my first cousins on the Sant side of the family. Aside from this, the music is clean and simple showing that the band has the potential to be a different offering on the ever-expanding local scene. I hope they can now see beyond the rock masses and the radio contests they've taken part in over the last few years to continue playing and recording more original songs like No Button To Rewind. Their brand of pop rock is much needed locally to bridge the gaping chasm between Eurovision wannabes and underground rockers.

Speaking of underground rockers, I'm very pleased to hear that Cynic Pictures have recorded a well produced version of their song Aim High, which I played on an earlier edition of the MMI podcast. This and Skizzo their other song, demonstrate the energetic fervor with which this band is aiming to bring punk to the masses. To my ears, these recordings are rather radio friendly. I mention this because radio remains a very significant way for musicians to reach a wide audience in the Maltese islands. It is the main way all sorts of acts move from the underground into the more public sphere.

In spite of this, there are those who relish the underground. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that in my book. Prayer of the Dying, the multifaceted project by Martin Ciappara fits this bill perfectly. Who else would release an EP on a limited edition cassette only? Ghastly Laments follows up on last year's debut CD/tape Structures of a Dying Matter. Afterlife Beacon Productions from Iceland are involved in this release and if the track Anointing of the Sick is anything to go by, I'm sure it will be sold out very soon.

I'm always thrilled to hear from podcast listeners. When whoever writes in is also a musician I know I'm usually about to discover some new sounds to include on my weekly podcast. Baz Cilia contacted me a few days ago and introduced me to the recordings of Spriggan Mist, which is his current project with his wife Maxine. They're now based in Bracknell, here in the UK, but there's still close ties to Malta. I've selected two tracks from their new EP Konditions of Change - The Merry Mead and Lazy Stones - to bring this week's podcast to a rather different close than what I've been playing in recent weeks. They're now working on an album, so you'll most certainly be hearing from them again on the Mużika Mod Ieħor series in the coming months.

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.

Electric Barbarella

Duran Duran have finally performed live in Malta. It's about 20 years too late, if you ask me. Then again not everyone is as allergic to nostalgia as I am. To be fair Duran Duran have remained active and released some interesting material since they were the huge pop sensation we remember from the 1980s. Back then I didn't really like the band but eventually I came to appreciate some of their stuff in ways that people who know me well could find rather surprising.

There may be some parallel between all this and this summer's other most significant gigs: Danjeli's Kakofonija live, the reemergence of Xtruppaw (with The I-Skandal) and even last week's return of Hunters Palace along with the cabaret by Alex Vella Gregory. Perhaps the connection (or lack of it) relates to the true significance of money and glitter within the music scene; and not just locally, of course.

Being away from the Maltese islands I find solace in seeking out as much new material as I can. In this spirit, this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast features four brand new tracks. The first is by a duo closely associated with Metrokueen: former singer Shawn Ryan and guitarist Billy Lee. They recently appeared on MySpace under the name Dayline with There's Another Place, which they describe as an "impromptu song whilst jamming."

Frank & Chris is/are another duo that broached the local scene this summer. Frank Cachia entered the Virtual Rock Star contest singing alone and a capella last year. He has a wonderful baritone voice, it appears that Chris Peregin appreciates it enough to team up with him for this year's edition. Sadly, they didn't win. Their Toad Song (am I the only one who hears a delightful homoerotic undertone here?) is a worthy effort but their best work is undoubtedly still ahead of them. Any songwriter looking for a good singer should give Frank a good listen. He has one of the best male voice I've heard coming from Malta in quite some time.

Fr Karm Debattista mssp has just released a new CD of songs in English. The album is called Dance of Joy and I've included the title track on this week's podcast. He is currently in Australia, where just a few days ago he launched this new CD at the World Youth Day events in Sydney. I'm sure this record will be well received by fans of Christian music down under and beyond.

Radio-friendly pop is not one of the genres featured frequently on the MMI podcast. However, from time to time there are some tracks that cannot be overlooked. Thea Saliba's Musilicious is one such song. She is a trained musician and not just another diva wannabe, even though she chooses to swim in those shark-infested waters. From where I stand, we need more Theas on the local pop scene to make it a little more palatable. Still, I doubt it will every be as palatable as I've found some of the Duran Duran sounds beyond the obvious hits that everyone at the Luxol Ground expected them to play tonight.

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.

Magic Bus

Now that the public transport system in Malta is back to "normal" it's good to start thinking about what will really come from the shambles created on the roads of Malta and Gozo throughout most of this past week? Will the liberalization of mass transport on the Maltese Islands really improve in the coming months. Perhaps it'll take a couple of years or more. Will the characteristic authentically vintage buses (not the ones made for tourist) survive much longer?

Knowing how hot the temperature gets at this time of the year in Malta, I seriously doubt anyone has the necessary energy to really bother with all this right now. Truthfully I must admit that I'm impressed by the Transport Minister's actions toward reforming the sector. In Malta it takes a hard-headed political animal like Austin Gatt to change anything that's been ingrained into the Maltese way of doing things for generations.

You could ask why I should care about all this when I don't live in Malta? Aside from the fact that I'm fascinated by this sort of this, the simple answer is that I depend on mass transit to a large extent whenever I visit the Maltese Islands now. So it really does matter to me. Unlike the first-time visitors to the Malta who swore never to return after the mess their holiday turned into, I must return to the islands several times in the coming years.

Ironically, it's at times like this that I miss (if that's the right word) being there. I'd have been able to stay on for the upcoming Hunters Palace gig at Warehouse 8 on July 25. Alex Vella Gera and Peter Sant recently recorded a number of tracks in London along with percussionist Vinicius Duarte. From these London session I've picked Brussels, to open the 123rd edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. Alex Vella Gregory will also be appearing at the upcoming gig, so it promises to be a splendid evening of fine music for discerning ears.

Last week I mentioned that Pink Pube has just released the music for Dubbien by Particle Blue. This release is blanketed in sweet sorrow for me and all Particle Blue fans. The recordings are devoid of Claire Tonna's unique vocals and this recording is possibly the last we'll hear from what was undoubted one of the most interesting musical duos to grace the local scene in recent memory. Antoine seems to have found his groove again with Shattered Pride (featured in MMI #122) and I'm hoping to including a recent recording by Claire on an upcoming edition of the MMI podcast.

Errol Sammut seems to have appeared on this series more than any other singer in recent months. This is because he is involved in a relatively large number of bands and projects. The most recent of these is a band called The Does; called so after the initials from the band members - Dirk, Owen, Errol, Steve. To me it sounds just like an alternative version of Stone Joker, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Errol's voice is very recognizable and it makes you either become a fan instantly or tune it out after one too many listens, depending one your personal taste, I suppose.

After last year's impressive line-up for Malta's XFM Virtual Rock Star contest, which was won by Slur/Ann Degaetano, I was expecting an equally palatable cross-section of new acts and songs this year. There are a few good contestants but I must admit that I'd have liked to see more participants. I wonder what happened. Anyway, one of the better bands taking part is called Wax. Their song is called Thoughts and it comes with a decent video that I'm sure will be nominated in that category for the listeners' picks towards the end of this year.

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.

The Windmills of Your Mind

When Kilin died earlier this week I paused to focus on my obsession with death and everything Maltese. I resisted temptation to blog about Kilin's passing when it happened, not just because I only met the man a couple of times and knew him only marginally through his writings, but more so because I felt the need to shake off the obsessive impulse I mentioned in the first sentence of today's blog entry.

I was also tempted to listen to a recording of an original Maltese song I wrote and sang with Kilin's daughter Cecilia in 1986. The song was written for Skruġġ, a Maltese musical based on Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I honestly believe that including it in this week's podcast would have been most inappropriate, for various reasons. I haven't seen Cecilia since before I left Malta for good in 1994, but I was pleased to see her name in print again, on a short note to thank people for their respectful tributes on one of the local newspaper websites. Perhaps I'll play that song on the Christmas edition of my podcast. Yes, that would certainly be more appropriate.

Not being physically able to attend the great gig by Xtruppaw and The I-Skandal today, did help my mood as I prepared this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. I'm not surprised, however, that once I got into it I got over both my Kilin-related thoughts as well as my misplaced longing for Maltese culture.

A new duo called Shattered Pride has just released some tracks via MySpace. Singer Dorian "Sid" Turner and electro-musician Antoine Vella got together in May when they discovered they shared a common taste in dark '80s electro-rock, which they've managed to capture beautifully on tracks like Beneath. They seem to be producing new material quite fast but that comes as no surprise for anyone who knows how prolific Antoine can be when the muse strikes. Fans of his former band Particle Blue are undoubtedly delighted by the official release of their 2005 recordings for the Dubbien performance. More about that next week.

I'm very pleased to see that Carrie Haber (as she now calls herself) has released a number of new recordings of songs we've heard as raw demos just a few months ago. The original version of They Turned Me To Plastic was featured on an earlier edition of the MMI podcast. So it gives me great pleasure to include the full-band studio arrangement of this same song on this week's podcast.

Carrie is currently in London doing a couple of gigs. Tonight she is Tony Moore's guest at The Regal Room. If you follow the Maltese music scene closely, you'll have seen Carrie championed by Tony on TV show Let's Talk Music a few week's ago. That TV series is quite unusual for Malta but it's wonderful to hear that there are plans for it to return next year. Since Tony likes Malta so much, it's only fitting that we include his music on a MMI podcast. From his album Perfect and Beautiful I've picked Face in the Window. Look beyond his history with Iron Maiden and Cutting Crew and you'll see that Tony Moore is a remarkable artist in his own right. I really enjoyed a set he played at SecondFest last year, and I'm currently revisiting that for my own research into Second Life.

"It's all good" is a mantra I've picked up from my wife. It's what leads me to include Black Metal act Improbus Atrum towards the end of this week's podcast. They released an EP entitled Bearing the Mark on the 4th of July. I haven't heard the whole EP, but for personal reasons I'm partial to My Immortal Master. From pictures I've seen of this band, I have reason to believe that they're interesting to watch live too.

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.

Doctorin' the Tardis

Just as most of us thought that Doctor Who was about to regenerate into a new actor, the current series came to a close, in what has arguably been the best season for the show ever, bar none. Yes, gentle readers, I am a Dr Who fan. I'm a little sad to see the Doctor go away (until next Christmas) but the knowledge of a Cybermen return gives me just one more reason to live.

On a different note, former US Senator Jesse Helms died on the 4th of July. Helms is seen by many as one of the worse opponents to freedom of expression in art, particularly in performance art. I came to know his name well in my research on the culture wars, particularly in relation to Franklin Furnace. While I can never agree with his point of view on art and culture, I've oddly come to appreciate his oppositional rhetoric and actions. Reaction to his abhorrence of works by artists like Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Karen Hughes, among others, made these artists produce interesting pieces of art in response. I believe this is not the way he is viewed in the art world, but I find it's better to relish the not-so-obvious positive that comes with the death of an oppressor.

As if all this wasn't enough to spice up my weekend as I sat down to produce this week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast, Xtruppaw announced their return on the Maltese music scene earlier this week. How can I ever resist an excuse to play some more Xtruppaw on my podcast? The 121st edition opens with Rajt Ma Rajtx from Is-Cd tal-iXtruppaw. The I-Skandal, how have been on a hiatus for the last two years, will be appearing ahead of Xtruppaw at the Poxx Bar in Paceville on Saturday 12 July. From their 2006 CD Skaccomatto I've selected Adjectives as the second track for this week's podcast. Now that il-Fre is back on the rock, I wonder if Dripht will reunite anytime soon. I, for one, sincerely hope so.

It's always a joy to discover new Maltese acts. Ezekiel Micallef appeared on my radar via MySpace a few days ago. Ezzy has released a number of varied tracks on his MySpace page and I've picked Puzzle People. I have feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from this newcomer in the future.

This week I've also made sure not to repeat a mistake I made last year with the musical activities of the ŻĦN. Antonio Olivari D'Emanuele has written and produced a new track for the Symphonik Choir, featuring Melanie Saliba on lead vocals. The Language of Music is one of two new recordings by the ŻĦN choir, written specifically for the upcoming Musequality concert at the University's Temi Zammit Hall on the 18th and 19th July.

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.

Shut Up And Let Me Go

It has already been one week since George Carlin died. His death was announced after I had published my weekly podcast, so it was only this week that I could really pay tribute to this great American artist. Carlin was no ordinary stand-up comedian. He continued in the spirit of Lenny Bruce long after seeing him arrested for obscenity. Carlin was one of the most eloquent artistic voices of reality in America. To my mind, never was the image of the wise fool who helps others see the truth better embodied in American culture, except perhaps by Hunter S. Thompson on his good days.

The 120th podcast in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series opens with the voice of George Carlin just like the first fifteen editions did back in 2005-2006. His wonderful rant against commercial radio and the consumption of bland music comes from his audio book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?. His words and ideas were highly influential in the tone my weekly music podcast took when it first appeared.

The Feast of Avalon by Marco Ellul, better known as Larski, is the first piece of music hear on this week's podcast. I've been hoping to hear more stuff coming out of his studio for quite some time; including a renewed collaboration with Jody Fiteni and Kevin O'Neill. I'm a very patient man and sometimes it helps to keep hoping against all hope. I have a feeling that the inclusion of this track will prompt a response from Larski, which may include an update about more recent recordings.

Offset Collaborations is an interesting project led by Adrian Trevisan. Along with his collaborators Vinnie Skillz (one of the Leguesse brothers), Diane Castillo (also known as the lead singer for Stillborn) and Nik Poland (a finalist in this year's XFM Virtual Rockstar contest). Sweet Lips is the last in a series of tracks released by this group before Trevisan returns to London to study Audiological Science. Hopefully there will be further recordings as acts like Offset Collaborations are excellent ways for Maltese singers to sing songs that aren't the sort produced for the sole purpose of appearing in some song contest or other.

Veteran UK-based Maltese singer Jon Lukas reinvented himself as jon lukas woodenman a few years ago. This year he appears to be at it in full throttle. He has already appeared on a previous MMI podcast this year with his latest tune, but he has now just released a new song called My Time. I particularly like the long outro on this one and I'm sure it will delight the singer's many fans, particularly in some countries in the Middle East, where for a brief time (it is claimed that) he was more popular than The Beatles.

The end of June brings with it the great Glastonbury festival. In recent years I've been delighted to see some Maltese musicians perform at this amazing event. Mandala Malta and Tribali immediately spring to mind in this regard. This year we can add South Central to that list. Tomorrow (June 29) they're appearing in the Dance East at 16:30 and at 19:30 in the Silent Disco. Next month they'll be performing in Holland, France, Italy and Belgium before they return to Japan and more gigs in France after the summer. You can hear Golden Dawn, the single they released earlier this year, as the closing track on 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.

If I Was

If I was in Malta today I would most definitely be at Warehouse No.8 in Marsa listening to Danjeli's Kakofonija live. My Facebook friends know this from reading my status message, and my podcast listeners know this from listening to last week's Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. Danjeli's live concert is as much an historic event for the Maltese music scene as the release of Is-CD tal-iXtruppaw in June 2006 or Claudio Baglioni's version of L-Aħħar Bidwi f'Wied il-Għasel more recently.

It's events like this that make me realize that my weekly podcast is an excellent way to keep in touch with what's going on in the Maltese music scene. This week's edition contains tracks that have either just been released or relate to upcoming gigs. The first song is one that's apparently making a big splash on the local airwaves this summer. Muxu's Beat My Drum is one of the most catch tunes I've heard coming from Malta so far this year. Produced by Jay Omaro it's pop laden R&B track, which cannot be easily dismissed as just another song in this genre. Listen to it closely and I'm sure you'll be singing it over and over in your head for the rest of the day, if not longer.

Former Radio Malta 2 Reggae Club DJ Manwel Tabone has metamorphosed into dub master Manwel T. His mixes and dubs have already appeared on previous edition of the MMI podcast. A few days ago he released a new bunch of tracks and I've selected Umtha Welanga Dub (feat. Mind's Eye Dub), which will surely delight anyone who likes this type of music and probably everyone else who enjoys good music.

Eve Ransom have released their second new song for 2008. Paradox is a well-made follow-up for last February's Just The Way I Am. The band's grungy sound is crowned by ex- Scream Daisy guitarist and songwriter Brendan Jackson's voice. I honestly can't imagine a different voice for this band. I have a feeling that this band sound quite good live too. Please write back and let me know if you've seen this band live and agree or disagree with this. They're appearing at the Splash & Fun Park on the 5th of July.

Another upcoming gig that will undoubtedly attract a nice crowd of die-hard metal fans is planned for July 18 at Remedy in Paceville. Norm Rejection will continue their reunion activities leading towards new recordings and , The July 18 gig will be the first time that the band's new bassist - the most prolific Rex - appears in public with Norm Rejection. I'm particularly looking forward to a recording of their new song Kemm Hawn Dwejjaq fil-Pajjiz. Evidently, plus ça change.

Martyrium will be sharing the bill with Norm Rejection at Remedy. This monster black metal band are currently preparing to release their third CD, Awakening the Ancient, which should appear later this summer. You can listen to a preview of the new material on their MySpace page. To close this week's podcast I've selected Eden from Martyrium's 2001 debut CD Withering in in Voluptuous Embrace.

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.

Better Get To Livin'

As the academic year winds to a gradual close I start looking at the best way to organize my summer. As you would expect, my 'to do' list is never-ending. However, for once in recent years I can see myself setting myself enough time to really feel that the summer has not passed me by once September rolls along.

One thing you can certainly continue count on is my weekly podcast. A glut of releases will undoubtedly appear over the coming months. This will not only make for several action packed editions of MMI but also continue to validate my plans to look at working on studying various aspects of Maltese music and music-making in the coming years.

The 118th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast opens with a song by Miriam Christine. She recently returned to the Malta Hit Song Contest, which I originally mentioned on an earlier edition of my weekly series last February. This TV contest is now approaching its final and Alone Today is one of the 11 songs that have made it to the final. I may actually return to this TV show to play you one more song in the coming weeks. As for the rest of the songs, I'd better not say anything else since I have very little that's useful to say.

Moving swiftly on to the sublime, I'd like to draw your attention to the upcoming live concert of Danjeli's Kakofonija (his most excellent album from 2007, which you can still download for free here) at Warehouse Number 8 in Marsa on Saturday 21 June at 9pm. Joining Danjeli on stage will be several of his recent collaborators, including Jon 'Pen' Mallia (from Sixth Simfoni) as M.C., Mario Vella (from Brikkuni) on vocals, Andrew Alamngo (from Etnika), Jimmy Grima on alto sax, and Michael Galea on drums among others. This event is not to be missed if you're in Malta, especially if you'd like to sample authentic Maltese music for the early 21th century.

From time to time I'm contacted by musicians I've featured on previous editions of my podcast. Brian Vassallo contacted me a few weeks ago to thank me for featuring something from his debut album from way back in 1998 in one of my podcasts. He is now about to release a new album called Angelique Beute. From it you can hear a track called The Eyes of Mercy. He's be releasing another track from this new album before it actually appears later this summer. All should be well received from anyone who likes popular instrumental electronic music.

In last week's podcast I included a song from Ambulanza, the Polish funk band fronted by Mario Cordina. He drew my attention to the fact that one of his other Polish bands, Skambomambo has recently released a CD called Made in Polska. So, to close this week's podcast, I've selected Taxi Driver from this CD. I'm in awe of Mario and how prolific he is in his music activities in and around Szczecin. If you've never heard of him before I recommend that you listen to the special podcast I dedicated to him earlier on in the MMI series.

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.

Too Old to Rock 'n Roll

I'm swamped in marking final assessments for this academic year. The weekend is a welcome break but the rest of my life tends to catch up with me whenever I'm not fully engaged with work at the office. News of change (supposedly real change, or so I've been told) tends to be like the proverbial water off a duck's back with me these days, be it Barack Obama's tough road to the White House or Joseph Muscat's not as tough road to Castille Place.

As ever, my weekly podcasts keep me sane. For the 117th edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor I've chosen to present a couple of live recordings I discovered in recent days. The first of these comes from The Free Blues Club in Szczecin, Poland. As MMI regular listeners may recall, Polish funk band Ambulanza is fronted by Maltese music maverick Mario Cordina. The live version of Telefon is a prelude to the forthcoming album from the band, expected later this year.

Keeping it live, the next track on this week's podcast comes from a television show from last December that featured the song All About You by Grimaud. As with the song from Ambulanza, you can also watch this video clip via YouTube, along with other rare footage from Grimaud's long career as a singer.

Going back down under to see what Maltese musicians are up to we find that Andre Camilleri & the Broken Hearts have just released their second album. Australian is out on CD soon but you can already download all the the tracks for free from the official website. Stuck in Melbourne is the track I've selected to include as a sample from this album for my podcast listeners.

The rest of this week's podcast features material from two musicians who appeal to niche markets within the local underground music scene. They've both been working on their respective albums. Elyk Elymur's Dismantle & Destory should be out this summer but meanwhile you can listen to There and Back to determine whether the album is something you should be looking forward to.

The CD Maġija Sewda by Saħħar is out next week. It will be launched at the Elements Rock Cafe in Paceville on Friday the 13th. Did you expect it to be on any other day? Nsejjaħ il-Mejtin is available as a rough mix through MySpace and since I don't have a preview copy of the CD I can only share that with anyone who may be interested in this dark release.

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.

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Life is as back to "normal" as it can be now. During most of the week I'm marking essays by my students or dealing with one of my research projects. On the weekend I spend a good chunk of time working in the garden, when it's not raining. My weekly podcast remains the constant marker than realigns everything for me. I could almost say the same thing for the monthly aboutmalta.com newsletter, but it doesn't come anywhere near the podcast in terms of making me feel like I've done something that really matters.

The 116th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast features four new tracks from recording artistes we've heard before on the series. The first comes from Salt who have just released a new single called Jars of Clay. At the risk of blasphemy I'd say that this band would be a great contender for Malta's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest one day, but first they need to get themselves on a few touring circuits across Europe; something which is much easier said than done. Incidentally, Jars of Clay is available as a free download from the band's website.

Someone else who would make an excellent Eurovision entry for Malta (if it's technically possible - he lives in Melbourne) is Nicky Bomba. At first glance his work is too sophisticated for the Eurovision but his recent project with Nicol Caruana (his father) shows that he has a keen ear for Maltese music. I must see about getting my hands on this new album of Maltese songs. Meanwhile, we'll stay as far away from all that as possible by listening to the title track from Nicky's new EP Jah in the Moment. Jah...bliss.

Last April I introduced my podcast listeners to a new band on the Maltese scene called Metrokueen. Back then their singer was Shawn Ryan who recently parted from the band and re-recorded Insanity, the same song I played from the band a couple of months ago. This song is slowly turning into this year's Bleed by Tears of Revenge. Remember that song? Listening to Shawn Ryan's new version of Insanity make me think how much I'd love to hear a new version of Bleed.

Stepping backwards to move forward one last time today, we turn to another remix by Toby. This time I've selected his remix for Aaron Benjamin's new single. As you may recall, this singer has moved to Malta from Brighton and he seems to be settling into the Maltese music scene quite nicely. Toby's remix of Let It All Go sounds quite different from the actual single, so there's a little something for everyone in this combination; or at least I'm sure we'd like to hope so.

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.

I'm Not in Love

In the past two year I've always produced a "special" podcast for the Eurovision weekend. Lordi moved me to do the first one and I was too deep into it last year not to do it again. This year I'm putting a stop to it, even if (professionally) I can't ignore this phenomenal annual media circus completely. In any case, I've blogged more than enough about it this year, so now it's (almost) time to turn my attention to other things.

Ironically, perhaps, this week's podcast opens with a track from Ira Losco's new album. Fortune Teller is her 3rd CD and it will be released on the 14th of June at Sky Club in Paceville. Idle Motion is the song from this album that I've selected as the first one for the 115th podcast in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series.

Another new album to be released in the coming week's is the debut solo album from Sharleen Spiteri. She is probably best known as the singer from the Glaswegian rock band Texas, for the last twenty odd years. Sharleen qualifies for inclusion on the MMI podcast because her father is Maltese. The album is called Melody and it comes out on the 14th of July. A single called All The Times I Cried has already been released from it but I've chosen to play That Was A Lie, a promotional track that her record company is giving away as a free download.

Victoria Spiteri is an unknown London-based songwriter who has recently moved to Malta and is now seeking representation and a publishing deal. She recently released a couple of demo recording on her MySpace page. I first heard them a few days ago and I liked them enough to want to include one of them on my podcast as soon as possible. Every Time's the Last Time I picked for my podcast listeners to sample.

As I was putting this week's podcast together I realized that I had played three song in a row from female singers for no particular reason. I also couldn't fail to observe that the tone and mood because somewhat calmer and more sophisticated than it has been over the last few podcasts. So to counter all this, I chose to close this week's podcast with a song called Jipapej by the ever-entertaining Fakawi. I think I'll leave it all there until the next edition.

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.

Stuck in the Middle with You

I can't believe I'm writing this from Belgrade. Believe it or not I'm here for the next few days. The reasons are not as obvious as they may seem and I hope to be able to blog about something other than the obvious over the coming days. Meanwhile, I've produced the 114th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series.

This week the podcast opens with a double dose of Niki Gravino. First a remix by Toby of Pieces from the superb 2007 album The Politics of Double Beds. This is followed by Catwalk Baby from the same album. I've managed to get my hands on courtesy of the Gravino marketing machine and I must say that I'm mighty grateful. The CD production is outstanding and the whole thing is a milestone in alternative Maltese music.

Bitterside are preparing to launch an album called Underrated on the 29th of May. To promote it, they've released a single called A Selfish Cry. After it comes out I'm sure I'll play you another track from it. This band has worked hard over the last few years to establish itself as a household name in Malta. Once their album is released they'll certainly be one step closer to achieving their goal.

From time to time I like to keep up with various local bands to see what they're up to. Recently my attention was drawn back to Item, a metal band I originally featured on the MMI series about a year and a half ago. I honestly can't keep up with their line-up changes but I must say I am glad that they're still churning out recordings and the core is strong enough to keep the band going. They've released a couple of unmastered tracks on their MySpace page from what appears to be an album in the making entitled The God The Slave The Machine. The one I've selected to end this week's podcast with is called Birth of a Myth. And it's an excellent place to leave my podcast for this week...until the next episode.

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.

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.

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.

Nine in the Afternoon

My weekly music podcast is on the 109th edition this week. The four tracks I've selected to play are all new. This is a clear indication of how vibrant the local scene has become. At least that's how I see it, even if two of the recordings I've included don't really originate from Malta.

The opening song is the new one from Fraser Gregory. It's called Let It Rain and comes with a video on YouTube too. Apparently Fraser is now firmly anchored in London gigging at various small venues. I wish the listings on his MySpace page were up to date. Perhaps he's just too busy making music.

Keeping it Maltese abroad, the second song comes from Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter Luke Caruana, better known as Carra. He has recently released a new single entitled Gaia, apparently inspired by his 2007 visit to Malta. It's worth noting that Carra's band features a Maltese-Australian drummer by the name of J.J. Portelli. It sure is a small world.

Back on the rock centre of the universe, the gravitational pull of the alternative music scene these days seems to be at the Poxx Bar in Paceville. This weekend nosnow/noalps played two gigs there. Last night they appeared sandwiched between Cable 35 and BNI. Tonight they're supporting the Beangrowers as they launch their new album Not In a Million Lovers, which was featured on this podcast last month. To celebrate what seems to be the hardest working band on the Maltese music scene, you can hear Lights On from the nosnow/noalps EP (just rock), which was released last February.

This week's podcast comes to a close with what is undoubtedly one of the heaviest new bands in Malta: Dying Signals. They made their live debut last summer Slit and Ktinodia. Earlier this year they started recording their first CD at Splitter Studio entitled The Last Of A Dying Breed. They've just released some demos from these session and I've picked Neglected for my podcast. Hardcore metal is an acquired taste and I must admit that after some years I seem to have come to like it more than I thought I ever would. I think it's at least as entertaining as watching anything else that doesn't normally happen on a quiet Sunday morning.

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.

Cold Shoulder

Things are more or less back to "normal" now after the ups and downs of the last couple of weeks. The weather still doesn't want to play nice just yet, but that's to be expected in Britain. Luckily I managed to find a few hours to work in my organic garden this weekend but there's plenty more to do now that it's (supposedly) springtime.

The 108th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series is out a few hours earlier this week. This is mostly because it's too cold to work out in the garden this afternoon, but it's also a way to make sure that I avoid another nightmare scenario like the one I went through last week. As a way of recentering myself and the podcast I open with a track from last year's debut album by Peklectrick. I featured his Reclaiming Space when it first came out last November, but it's high time I played another track from it. So this time I've selected a song called Six Strings. If you like alternative music from Malta and you haven't heard this album yet I highly recommend this CD. It deserves much more attention that it has received so far.

Metrokueen is a new band on the local scene. Most recently they appeared at the BJs music marathon where they undoubtedly delighted fans of classic rock. They've already recorded two of their own songs. Insanity is the one I prefer and you can hear it as the second selection on this week's MMI podcast. The bassist for this band is none other than James "Jelly" Attard whom listeners may recognize as either the bass player from White Crimson or the uber-tech guru who gave us the Facebook app for selecting the 2007 listeners' picks.

If you're a regular listener of the MMI podcast, you'll have already heard me play two tracks from the band Colourblind. They're currently working on an album but meanwhile guitarist Alistair Galea has recorded a very interesting instrumental track as a soloist. The tune is called Nowhere to Run and it's delightfulness is only rivaled this week by the guitar chimes at the heart of the Metrokween song I played earlier.

Closing off this week's podcast is a young singer whose output has so far been fairly eclectic in terms of quality. I like Lyndsay Pace's voice but I'm not impressed by most of the songs she sings. Thankfully there's one that's good enough to hear from beginning to end without a single cringe. What You're Made Of shows that this singer can either really make a name for herself on the local scene or disappear without a trace like so many others before her have done. I should probably make a note of that as an idea for a future 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.

Show Must Go On

The 107th podcast in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series is now online. Better late than never. It's only late because of the mental meltdown that accompanied the failure of my hard drive over the weekend. I won't bother you with the details of the two days I spent in technical hell. I'll just say that I've finally learned my lesson about having a proper back-up system. I'll be working on that later this week but first I have some unfinished business I need to tend to, which includes the most recent MMI podcast, of course.

I decided to take a brief break from the podcast over Easter to recharge my creative juices. In the meantime, a number of new releases accumulated on my desktop so this week I'm seeking to put out as many of them as possible. The first offering is the second single from Beige called Say Hey. They've released it on ReverbNation. Singer Claire Falzon's voice is reminds me of Linda Perry from San Francisco early-90s grunge band 4 Non Blondes.

Another new track comes from Shilloo's Tree who were first featured on the MMI podcast last year. Breakfast Serial is a very well-crafted song and shows that this band puts some thought into their tunes. I also think that Max Dingli's voice brings it together quite nicely.

The Areola Treat released their debut single at the Poxx Bar on Sunday during a gig that featured British band The Violets. SIBBI is an excellent debut single from a band that's at the forefront of the current Maltese underground music scene. The other demo recordings that this band has released. Christine (my wife) told me that this band is one of the best things she's heard coming out of Malta in recent months. I agree. It's quite energizing.

Back to the Poxx Bar for a minute: it was there that I saw Mathematikal supported by Vinnie Vintage during my most recent visit to Malta. Poxx is right on the edge of Paceville so it's a very appropriate venue. Mathematikal were very enjoyable to watch live, even if the sound wasn't quiet as good as any musician would like it to be. To make this occasion I'm playing part of the Mathematimix celebrating the strong presence that Jon and Jay have established on the local hybrid music scene.

To close off this week podcast I've decided to play a song I heard several times on the radio during my recent visit to Malta. One reason it was being played so frequently because it had just been released, but the other reason is that it is a truly remarkable arrangement of one of the best Maltese songs of all time. The song is Paul Abela and Alfred C. Sant's L-Aħħar Bidwi f'Wied il-Għasel and the new interpretation comes from Italian singer Claudio Baglioni. It's simply divine.

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.

The Only Way Is Up

I'm still in Malta for another couple of days. Scarborough beckons and not a minute too soon. I miss my monkey and my dog but for the first time in years Malta doesn't feel the same way it has to me since I left the country in the early 1990s. I wonder whether this feeling will linger on in the coming months. Perhaps it's because this visit has turned out to be quite different than ones in recent years.

Whatever it is, there are thankfully some things in life I know I can depend on. My weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is one of them, even if I'm tempted to take a brief Easter break next week. To prepare myself for the brief rapture (although I seriously doubt that this is the right word to describe it) podcast number 106 is held together by divine intervention (and again I very much doubt that the proper term to describe it).

The Y4J Band appears to enjoy a strong following among the Maltese charismatic movement in the Pembroke/St. Julians area. In The House is the theme song used by the group in what can only be described as an excellent example of Christian branding. If you think Christian worship in Malta is too stuffy for your taste, just check out this band and the group they pray with.

Lest you think that I plan to simply play contemporary Christian music during this week's podcast, I should mention that there's always more than one predominant perspective I'm (more than) happy to take into consideration whenever looking at anything. About 35 years ago, Maltese rock legend Freddie Portelli released what to my mind is the most outstanding devotional song to emerge from Malta in my lifetime. Mulej remains an amazing testament of the singer's spiritual side and it has hardly dated after all these years. He recently released a new CD album entitled Viva it-Tewmin. Although this album has an unlikely title, it contains what can be considered a follow-up to Mulej called Nitolbok Illum. While it bears the hallmark of all the best laid-back tunes in the Freddie Portelli songbook (including a spoken interlude and some delightful whistling) only time will really tell if this new song will become as memorable as Mulej.

Chris D'Alfonso is undoubtedly one of the brightest star of Maltese Christian rock. Broken, on the tracks from his 2006 album Blueprint was recent voted the top song for Eucharistic adoration on the Top Catholic Songs website. The available of Blueprints on iTunes has certainly contributed to this accolade. Well done Chris!

The contemporary Maltese Christian music scene is growing at a steady pace. Footprints and Quicksand are two new Christians bands currently gracing the local scene. The final two track for this week's podcast from these two bands. The first offering is Footprints' debut song I Need You, followed by Quicksand's Silence. Although the latter is a pleasant instrumental track, the band has also just released a song called Hu Magħna Llum, specially made for the Maltese World Youth Day 2008 and selected as the theme song for the upcoming Maltese Pentecost celebrations.

That's probably as far as the series will go before Easter. As I return home to Scarborough in the coming days, I know I'll be wading through a mountain of chores that have accumulated in my absence. This coupled with the sacred idea that rest is an essential part of life, it's most probable that the next MMI podcast will appear during the weekend after Easter. In spite of this, I promise to post non-podcast-related blog entry before then.

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.

Election Day

I'm in Malta. It's election day. The logical fallacy is that I'm here to vote. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I'm here because I had planned to be here at this time even before the national polling day was announced.

It may seem downright odd for anyone interested in the outcome of the Maltese General Elections that this blog post is actually about podcast number 105 in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Regular followers of this blog and the weekly podcast should not be surprised at all. As I find myself in Malta during the release (but not the actual recording) of this week's podcast I'm convinced more than ever that although election fever is running high, there's a sense that things are not what they used to be; by which I mean that if all goes well there should be at least one unexpected outcome from the predictable norms established by the mainstream over the last 35 years or so.

This week's edition opens with music from a band whose members have certainly not voted today. The Beangrowers are in Austria to promote their new album Not In A Million Lovers, just days away from their return to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. I'm looking forward to hearing the whole album, mostly because from the new tracks available via the band's MySpace page there's a strong sense that the Beangrowers have matured into one of the most outstanding bands to ever emerge from the Maltese Islands.

Following tracks from Airport Attractions and Stone Joker in recent weeks, you can now also hear a solo track called Affection by Errol Sammut, who listeners will know from either or both these bands. This kind of performer is unusual on the Maltese scene but most welcome by those who, like me, appreciate musicians who can vary their output over different projects. Errol's new solo demos would make interesting tracks for either one of the bands he plays in but they show well what he brings to the table with any of his collaborators.

For the simple reason that I follow the Maltese music scene from abroad, there are a number of acts that I don't get to hear about or from as soon as they appear on the local circuit. StarBunker is one such band. Move On is the single from their debut EP Forecast, which didn't appear on my radar until just a few days ago when I exchange a friends request message from guitarist David Cassar Torregiani, whom I've known for about 25 years since we both played in Tigne bands. To be more precise, we were both members of a band called Structure...but not at the same time.

The election spirit has moved me to present a couple of alternative music styles on the fringes of any mainstream taste. The first of these comes from Synthax & Chemicals, an electronica duo I know very little about, mostly because their MySpace page focuses almost entirely on their sounds rather than any other useful information punters like me look for. Listen to one of their two tracks Next To Hell and make up your own mind.

Hardcore metal is the other alternative style I've picked this week. I must admit that I've become a closet hardcore fan of sorts since I first heard this extreme brand of metal during an early morning radio breakfast show in New York City over a decade ago. Newcomers Cypher will be appearing with a couple of the best Maltese hardcore exponents - Loathe and Beheaded - at the Poxx Bar on March 22. I'll be back in Scarborough by then but I'd have loved to still be in Malta just for that. Anyway, listen closely to What Else Remains and you'll possibly see how hardcore can become much a sought after acquired taste.

It will not be business as usual in Malta or for the MMI podcast over the next couple of weeks. For more on that check back on this blog where I'll be blogging about this, that and the other in the hope of keeping some sort of personal record of these strange days.

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.

In A Little While

My hope to find some time to blog about my Second Life activities in recent days needs to wait another day or two. It's been one roller coaster of a week. I've seen the depths of hell and soared majestic to the heavens. I probably prefer to live in a Prozac-like state, but extreme ups and downs are interesting too.

Anyway, it's time for the 104th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Mike Bugeja's interview with me about MMI and my podcasting adventures appears in The Times (of Malta) this week so I'm expected at least half a dozen new listeners to discover the podcast at this point. With this in mind, I've put together a very varied edition this week; I'm sure regular listeners will enjoy it and I hope new ones will like it too.

The opening track comes from the debut album by a new Gozitan band. The album is entitled If Symptoms Persist. The band is called Inner Grey and the song is Your Vacant Stare. Metal has come a long way in the unlikely setting of Gozo over the last several years. Inner Grey are much slicker than my darling buds of 2005 Tears of Revenge but I miss the raw passion that makes for soul torturing songs. Still, judging by the rest of the tracks from the album, Inner Grey is one of the best sounding heavy bands to emerge from the northern isle.

My old friend Grimaud provided me with some much needed positive vibrations earlier this week when he released Aquaman on his MySpace page. The song was apparently recorded in 2007 and meant for an earlier release. I hope to catch up with Grimaud during my upcoming visit to Malta and I'll make sure to ask him for the back story to all this. I could email him about it, but why would I want to when I can speak with him face-to-face over a cold pint of Blue Label soon enough.

Also through MySpace I found out about bassist Oliver Degabriele's most recent recordings. He is now a member of the Riot jazz quartet based in France, where he has established his professional base. I hope the French musicians he plays with can appreciate that Oliver brings more than his formidable bass skills to their sets. Riot is an odd name for a jazz combo but somehow the track Kuumatt provides an appropriate balance.

For this week's final offering, I'm delighted to share with you a new recording by Caligula, the UK-based project of Glenda Azzopardi better known as Gia. Infidelity is produced by her husband Muttley Zammit and shows a musician and a singer finding their own voice filtered through what are undoubtedly very eclectic sources. I want to hear more from Caligula and I'm pretty sure that I won't be disappointed.

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.

Get Over It

I'm trying to resist blogging about how busy I am and how much I wish I had the time to write about some of the things I'm doing. I think it's actually counterproductive, so that's all I'll say about it today. In the coming days I'm going on a work-related mini-tour starting in Hull on Wednesday, then on to Leicester on Thursday, and Leeds on Friday. Most of it is related to my adventures in Second Life, so I'll (hopefully) be blogging about it next week.

Right now it's time to share with you my 103rd podcast in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. Starting off with a new song from Colorblind. Miles is even more sophisticated than any of their previous offerings. As contemporary progressive rock goes, this band is really doing something right. They've already been at it for 10 year, and it now shows.

Last week I played something by a duo called Airport Impressions. As I pointed out, Errol Sammut is also a member of Stone Joker. I've also recently found out that he has recorded a number of solo tracks too. Before I play any of these tracks (I'll do that in the coming weeks) it's appropriate to bring you Hero, Stone Joker's follow-up single to their Alone debut. Is it just me, or did this band go from being called Stoned Joker to Stone Joker?

While the first two tracks in this week's podcast come from bands that have already appeared on previous editions, the next two tracks add new names to the list of singers and musicians featured on Mużika Mod Ieħor. Although we've heard the band Salt before, singer Luisanne Tate also sings on her own. I just heard a song she's singing for the Malta Hit Song Contest 2008 and I like the arrangement so much that I thought it would do very nicely on this week's podcast. This TV song contest features some of the usual suspects (many of whom would do better to never sing in public) but it's good to see such events because otherwise there would be far fewer opportunities for songs like No Harm in Dreaming to get heard by a broader audience. Needless to say, this song and others that are musically worthy are the recipients of the lowest number of SMS votes. The TV contest is now on hold until after the general elections. Someone thinks they have their priorities straight, no doubt.

Away from all that, I came across the music of Kris Spiteri on MP3.com a few weeks ago. He's been active for a number of years, so I was slightly surprised that his worked hadn't crossed my path before. He is clearly not an ordinary musician and his songs are among the most pleasant I've heard in recent years. You can hear Come Taste the Band as the closing track on 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.

Chasing Pavements

Apparently Malta is gripped by the political campaigns ahead of next month's general elections. Whatever the eventual outcome I'm not entirely sure there will be a better or a worse off Malta than we've seen in recent years. I'm most amused by the great fuss over relatively so little. Living abroad over the past 3 Maltese general elections has given me a very different perspective on things than what I would have if I had stayed there.

Oddly enough, I'm flying to Malta on the eve of election day. Many will interpret this as as move towards exercising my right to vote, even though I haven't lived in Malta full-time since 1994. As it happens, I had made my travel plans before the election date was announced, so I can't even say I'm taking advantage of the cheap(er) Air Malta flights for election trips.

The official purpose of my visit will be to continue my participation in the Erasmus programme and deliver a number of lectures and workshops at the University of Malta. I'm also looking forward to seeing my parents again, of course. I'll certainly spend some quality time with friends (old and new) but most of all I'm very keen to take in as many gigs and unique cultural events as I can in the few days that I'm there.

Meanwhile, aside from my academic activities, I continue to present my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. I plan to bring the two closer together in the coming months. Mike Bugeja interviewed me about all this a few days ago for an upcoming feature in The Times of Malta. More about that later, as things develop.

This week it's podcast number 102. It opens with a new song from Uncharted called Another Day. This is their follow-up to last year's debut Song for you. Uncharted is one of the few Maltese bands I know of that has a Facebook profile. There's nothing sensational about that but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Through Facebook I also became aware of Airport Impressions, a new acoustic guitar duo comprising Errol Sammut from Stone Joker and Johann Schembri. They've released a couple of songs on MySpace and you can hear Wake Up as the second track on this week's podcast. Johann has also been seen playing with Bernard Bonnici in recent years. Bernard, who is better known as Ben, has released some tracks on his own through his MySpace page. In Memory Of is the one I've chosen to play.

Starting today, Saturday 16th February, the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast will also be aired on SydneyOne Radio every Saturday at 4pm, Sydney time. This is the second radio station that has opted to syndicate my MMI podcast. Central FM a Maltese community radio station broadcasting from Attard, picked up the podcast in January last year. Central FM renounced its FM frequency last month and is now only available as a live webcast. By contrast, SydneyOne Radio doesn't even have a website.

To mark the presence of Mużika Mod Ieħor on the Australian airwaves, I thought it would be appropriate to feature an Australian band with a Maltese connection. The John Smith Quintet is based in Melbourne. There's no John Smith in this band, which is actually a quartet. The Maltese connection comes in the form of drummer Melchior Borg, who I met via MySpace a few days ago. You can hear the funky rock sounds of this band on a track called Gone. An excellent title for the final song selection until next week.

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.

Piece of Me

Anyone following my Facebook page in recent weeks knows that I've just undergone a colonoscopy at Whitby Hospital. This my third such intervention since 1994 and things have never been as bad as the first time. I'd even go as far as saying that I'm now better than I've ever been. I'm very touched by all the kind words and wishes of good health I've received over the last few weeks. I'm also very grateful to the NHS staff in Whitby who took care of my procedure.

I've now almost fully recovered from the whole thing. To prove it, I've even gone ahead with producing the 101st podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series today. I'm not pushing it. I'm really not. So much so that I'm also giving a lecture to our third year Digital Media students on Monday morning.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog entry is to tie-in with the 101st MMI podcast. This week it's business as usual with three brand new tracks, one new comer act and an interesting connection between two previously unrelated performers.

Dominoes is a new trio on the Maltese music scene. They seem to have appeared out of nowhere with their debut song Love Maze, grooves in a T-Rex kinda way. They're now gearing up to appear as one of the supporting acts at the upcoming 22 February launch of the nosnow/noalps EP. More from them all in the coming weeks and months, no doubt.

Now that we're in the second month of the new year I'm no longer surprised to see new recordings being released on a fairly regular basis. Eve Ransom give us their new song entitled Just the Way I Am, and it's a grungy tune in an early 1990s kinda way.

If you're looking for a sound like no other look no further than Sky of Yuggoth. This long running project from Joseph Mercieca, the same performer who gave us the trippy sounds of MJ.5, has reemerged with a new release called Three Seals of Masshu. Music doesn't get much darker than this without the lyrical grace of a Leonard Cohen or some sludgy blood-drinking metal monster.

By contrast, this week's closing track comes from Russian singer Julia Kay who qualifies for an appearance on Mużika Mod Ieħor by virtue of her marital status to the man behind the previous track on podcast number 101. The song I've selected to play comes from the band she used to sing with before she moved to Malta. Luxeterna is the name of the band and the song is called Angel Teardrops. Next time you'll hear the name Julia Kay in relation to music in Malta it will either be as a Eurovision contender or in some delicious electro-gothic combo...and remember, you read about it here first.

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.

Thank You for the Music

Looks like we made it. It gives me great pleasure to announce the 100th edition of my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast. It's really just another one in the series but because 100 has special significance in metric counting a celebration of one sort or other is in order.

Aside from using the occasion to bring my podcast to the attention of a larger audience I'd also like to thank all the loyal listeners, especially those who have followed Mużika Mod Ieħor since it first appeared in November 2005. Podcasting has enabled my return to regular appointments behind a microphone. Regular broadcasting is something I hadn't done since about 1999, after many years listing "broadcaster" as my profession. Though the MaltaMedia Online Network, I've been exploring the possibilities of webcasting since 1998. My personal highlight in all the webcasting with MaltaMedia is undoubtedly the audio reports I recorded in response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Those webcasts appeared again in September 2005 as MaltaMedia's first podcasting series, which was undoubtedly the world's first series of podcasts in the Maltese language. Mużika Mod Ieħor started soon after that with the first podcast appearing on Saturday 13 November 2005.

I was tempted to include my favourite tracks from the first 99 podcasts on this edition. As I'm not the nostalgic type I chose to open the podcast with a brand new recording from Fakawi, one of Malta's most entertaining bands. They've just released their Smart Song, which is a send-up of all the buzz surrounding the launch of Malta's Smart City. I didn't need to have my arm twisted to play this song on my 100th podcast. The fact that my old friend Mark Attard is the keyboardist for this band earned them enough points to make it to this week's playlist without any resistance.

Making sure that the tracks I selected for this week's podcast were all special for one reason or another, I chose to include a rare recording by the late 80s band Ophidian Twin. As you may recall from a previous edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor, this band was among those that appeared on Mill-Garaxx, the TV series I produced and presented back in 1989, under the direction of my departed friend Mario Ellul. Cameron's Closet is one of two songs The Ophidian Twin played live in the main TVM studio all those years ago. It would be really great if I could get a hold of some of the other recordings that appeared on Mill-Garaxx. Unfortunately there's no official archive of the recordings at TVM, but I have a feeling that some people here and there may have VHS recordings they taped off the air when the programme first aired. If you have one of those recordings, please please please get in touch with me. I've included another track by the Ophidian Twin from Mill-Garaxx at the bottom of this blog entry, which I recently uploaded to YouTube.

To my mind, it's hard to follow a recording from Mill-Garaxx with something that's not extremely outstanding. Danjeli's 2007 album Kakofonija does the trick beautifully. It's my top personal pick from all the Maltese recordings released last year. Appropriately, the track I've chosen for this week's podcast is called Interludju. If you haven't heard this brilliant album yet, just head over to Pinkpube.com where you can download a full copy at no charge.

To mark my penchant for including music my overseas based Maltese musicians or musicians of Maltese descent I've included the track Filfla from the CD Temples of Devotion by Australian band Skorba. Andy Busuttil's band has been featured on a earlier edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor and their album received my personal vote for top overseas-based released in the 2007 MMI poll that appeared on Facebook a few weeks ago. It's wonderful to be able to add this band to the list of recommendations for anyone who likes Maltese combos like Etnika, Nafra, or even Tribali.

A special MMI podcast such as the one I'm presenting today would not be complete without something from Xtruppaw. While we wait for their second album (currently still in pre-production) we can still enjoy the most excellent debut release, Is-CD tal-iXtruppaw. That album is a must-have in CD format for any fan of contemporary Maltese music. I've picked L-Għanja tal-iXtruppaw from it to close the 100th podcast with music from the same band that opened the very first podcast in the series. Interestingly, this recording had not been made when the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast first appeared.

So now on to the next 100 podcasts. At an almost weekly rate it should take just over two more years to get to the 200th podcast in the series. If all goes well, the 200th edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor should appear sometime in the spring of 2010. All I can add is that I'm really excited about all the new music and other rare recordings we'll be discovering together between now and then on this series.

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.

De do do do de da da da

Don't think me unkind. Words are hard to find. I'm really disenchanted by the final eight songs in the 2008 Malta Song for Europe. It could have come to this earlier but here we are now, and there's very little I can (or care to) do about it. In spite of this and because I've committed myself to taking the raw with the cooked, I've produced the third annual podcast tied to the Malta Song for Europe in the weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. [See also MSFEonMMI: 2007 & 2006]

There are only a couple of songs from the 17 selected to compete at the semifinal stage that I care to ever hear again. So it was not easy putting together a playlist for this week's podcast. Luckily, Australian Pop Idol Natalie Gauci has been invited as a special guest for the final night this evening so I open podcast number 99 with one of her pre-Sony contract songs. Take It Or Leave It shows the verve that got this singer to the level of success she's currently enjoying down under.

Jean Claude Vancell has appeared on an earlier edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. He is quite an adventurous song writer, even if a relatively quirky performer. I like him. I also like his debut MSFE song Contradiction, which obviously didn't make it to this evening's final round. I'm looking forward to his upcoming album, which I understand is either entitled Unspoken or Of Hopes & Dreams. I'm sure I'll be featuring his music again on the MMI series once the album is out.

One song at this year Malta Song for Europe semifinal was clearly a cut above the rest. Unbelievably it didn't make it to the final round. I refer, of course, to the Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan song Whispers performed by Pamela. I've been attracted to Pamela voice for the last three years or so. Whenever I hear her songs my mood sublimates without fail. This is the closest that Maltese pop music comes to art.

To my mind there's no way to follow Pamela singing Whispers with any other song from this year's Malta Song for Europe. The only way I can end the 99th edition of my weekly podcast is to play the most sincere recording I've heard from a Maltese singer in quite some time. They Turned Me To Plastic by Carrie, the 2007 Eurovirtual Song Contest (what's that?) winner who is clearly not giving in to any of that nonsense. Listen closely to this home recording of this young Maltese singer in a Tori Amos inspired confessional mode. I think it's quite chilling.

As I write this, Malta's entry to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest has not been announced yet. To be quite honest, I find it hard to see Malta doing well in Serbia come May. I could be wrong. I'm frequently wrong but sometimes I'm dead on.

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.

That's How People Grow Up

The balancing act of working on regular tasks and spending time on Facebook (which was the subject of a troubling article in The Guardian a few days ago) is something that I'm sure I share with many of my blog readers. I'd like to think that Facebook is not a distraction from everyday life but an integral part of whatever it is that I do from day to day. Taking my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast as an example of this, I can now clearly see/say that Facebook is an essential part of letting people know that the podcast is available, while keeping in touch with people who have all sorts of contributions to make to the series.

This week's podcast is number 98 in the series, which means that in a couple of weeks time we'll be celebrating the 100th edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. Since next week's podcast will feature my pick of music from the 2008 Malta Song for Europe festival, I wanted to pack as much new music as possible into this week's podcast because we won't really have a regular edition for another three weeks.

Dimension-Al has launched his 2008 activities with a remix for the band The Secret Meeting for their track Into the Future. Aldo Lombardi has clearly established himself as a force to be reckoned with and I have a feeling we'll be hearing from him again this year on my weekly series. The same goes for Ivan Filletti who will hopefully release his long awaited second album. A few months ago he released a single that I've been meaning to play on my podcast for sometime. I Keep Standing shows Filletti has what it takes to follow-up on Somedays, his debut album from 2005.

From time to time I look for music websites other than MySpace for new Maltese music. One of these sources is GarageBand.com. One of the acts I found on GarageBand.com is called LeftPlay, but the two songs they have on this site seem to go back a couple of years, so I'm not sure if they're still active. In any case, they sound quite good and the track I've selected to play is called Breathe. All I know about the people in LeftPlay is that they're called Andie and Daniela, but I'd really like to know more. Please contact me if you can help me out with this.

The final two tracks on this week's podcast come from two newcomers on the local music scene. The first of these is Charlie, a teenage British-Maltese Pop/R&B singer who is looking for a musical future in the UK. Judging from Crazy Life and some other things she has been up to recently I have a strong feeling that we'll be hearing more from her in the coming months and years.

Rhythmic Havoc is the other new act on this week's podcast. This interesting Hip-Hop combo has its roots in extreme metal. I'm not particularly crazy about the vocals on their tracks, but the music and the production are very good indeed. I'd love to hear them do a song with a guest vocalist (and there are quite a few of them in Malta) because I'm sure that their production skills will be appreciated even more.

I'm now off to consider this year's Malta Song for Europe. I must admit that on first listen I'm not too thrilled about this year's offerings. I most definitely don't see a Eurovision winner in any of them...but stranger things have happened on that scene in recent years, so I'm not willing to make any grand statements just yet. More in next week's podcast, of course.

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.

97 Lovers

My weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series returns to its regular format this week with the 97th edition of the podcast. I'm quite amazed at the amount of new material that's already around this year. Still, there's some stuff I didn't manage to include in last year's podcasts that also need to be included on my playlist. Comparing these early January offerings to previous years I'd say that this should be quite a prolific year.

Mindstate follow-up on their debut single My Adrenaline with a song called Come With Me. It's the noisiest of all the tracks on this week's podcast, so probably just for that reason it's at the very start of the show, followed by the second loudest track. nosnow/noalps is a band that first appeared last summer. It's the new outlet for former Dripht frontman Nick Morales. This band sounds quite different from Dripht, mostly thanks to the multi-talented Sarah Falzon (aka Sarah Snow) who plays keyboards and shares vocal duties with Nick. Their debut single is called Taking My Time. It's quite raw, but not too rough. I like the edgy sound of this band and I'm looking forward to the release of their EP, entitled Just Rock. They're off to Denmark for three gigs in Copenhagen during the last week of this month, so I suppose their EP should appear soon enough. They're serious contenders for any "best newcomers" type accolade in 2008.

Ailas is back with a new single too. This time it's called Town and shows the former boxer in a slightly less vulnerable mood than other recent tracks. It should go down well with his fans. A few days ago he left a comment on my MySpace page saying that he's working on a video for this song as well as his next album.

I was very please to see the return of Bee & Ade in a new guise. They recently recorded a number of songs for their upcoming debut album at the legendary Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Singer Bianca Caruana and guitarist Adrian Camilleri are now calling themselves SubEgo. My Lullaby is one of the tracks recorded for the The Naming Trees album and you can hear it on this week's edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. I'm really looking forward to the release of SubEgo's debut album, Adrian is an excellent guitarist and Bianca's voice is very gentle on the ear across the broad range it covers.

The final song on this week's podcast comes from jon lukas/WOODENMAN. Jon is the granddaddy of the Maltese pop and rock music scene; I hope he doesn't mind me saying that. I say it respectfully, of course, because he's been at it for four decades now. His formidable voice sounds as fresh as ever and its a great match for his most recent songs. The most recent track is called Ode to Laura - Far Away, which also comes in a wonderful acoustic version, which I may very well play in a future edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor.

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.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place

2008 looks like it's going to be a very eventful year. And is it just me or does it seem like there's lots of things going on already? I've always thought that the new year takes a week or two to get back in gear after the holidays, but this year seems like the exception to prove the rule.

Anyway, the true purpose of this blog entry is to bring you news of a podcast featuring the Listeners' Picks from Maltese music released in 2007. The songs selected to top each of the five categories are but a sample of the excellent releases from last year. I've already shared my observations about the smorgasbord on offer in 2007 elsewhere. I would not have been surprised if the final results on the poll for 2007 was different than what we've actually ended up with. In some cases the number of votes was very close.

Scream Daisy had Ira Losco hot on their tail for weeks in the 2007 Top Albums category. The band managed to outdo the former Eurovision singer with just 4 votes. On the other hand, Scream Daisy's Pretty was voted the 2007 Top Online Music Video garnering more than twice the votes of the next contenders on the list, who were Winter Moods with their video for Marigold beautifully shot at the Manoel Theatre. Scream Daisy were the runner-up in last year's Singles/EPs category, so I'm not surprised that they've swept the board in two categories this year.

Two bands managed to get an equal number of votes at the top of the 2007 Singles/EPs list. Xtruppaw undoubtedly delighted thousands with their Forza Malta (B'Għajta Waħda) while The Rifffs more than made up for last year's position with Jack the Ripper, the follow-up single their comeback release Life of Crime from 2006.

The top place in the 2007 Internet Releases category was also equally conquered by two acts. Ray Mercieca's other band, The Characters, hit the spot with their power track One In A Million, the second of their releases for 2007. Yet the great and pleasant surprise is to see newcomer Dean Saviour receive as many votes as the behemoth band. His Marshmallow Girl is a delightful song indeed. I always expect newcomers to do well in this category but now that established acts are also using the Internet to release new material it stands to reason that its not as much a foregone clear win for newcomers. The Areola Treat would have certainly picked up more votes had their been fewer well known names on this list. I have great expectations for this band in 2008.

Mathematikal came out the clear victors in the 2007 Overseas-based Releases. Their Electrophant EP clearly shows why not everybody with a computer can produce electronic music worth listening to. Jon and Jay have a broad musical sensibility, which is something that can't escape any discerning listener. No other overseas-based released managed to receive more than half the votes they got. I'm very pleased that the 2007 list of overseas-based artists is much broader than the one we had the previous year.

All in all, I'd have liked to seen Danjeli's outstanding Kakofonija album receive more votes, but I have a feeling that most people's taste in music is more conservative than mine. This poll is not about my personal picks but you can say that to some degree my choice of nominations flavors the whole process. We'll see what this year brings...but I'm pretty sure we'll find a number of releases to admire and rave about before this time next year. As that famous line for the old Bette Davis movie goes: "don't let's ask for the moon...we have the stars!"

I'm quite satisfied with the way the voting worked out on Facebook. I'm forever grateful to my friend James Attard who developed the app that has enabled everyone to vote on Facebook this year. I'm sure we'll enhance it some more next year, whether we keep it on Facebook or not.

Speaking of enhancements, this edition of the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is a special edition in that it presents the results of the Listeners' Picks from 2007. In keeping with a tradition I started last year in an attempt make it even more special by presenting it in an enhanced version. I'll be working on that over the next day and I'll post some more information about it as soon as it is available.

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.

Baby It's Cold Outside

If you live in the northern hemisphere I'm sure you're feeling the cold right now. Along with that you may also be suffering from a common cold, as am I. I'm so congested now it's not even funny, but I'm sure it will pass soon enough. Thankfully, I wasn't so under the weather yesterday and managed to record the last Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast for 2007.

Before stopping for a couple of weeks to enjoy the seasonal holidays, podcast number 95 in the series continues in the same vein as recent editions but this week it starts with some Christmas spirit. Classic rock band Fire has just released a new Yuletide song called Miss You This Christmas. It's great that we now have one more Xmas rock song to play along with the other mind-numbing muzak featuring sleigh bells and/or saccharine sweet voices.

I also wanted to make sure to play something from Robert Galea's new CD album What A Day, which was released earlier this month. Robert is currently visit Malta from Australia where he is normally based and I'm sure that some of the MMI podcast listeners will catch him at one of his many gigs before he returns to the glorious summer in the land down under. To the End of the Earth is one of the tracks from this new CD, which is currently at number 3 on the MMI 2007 poll in the overseas-bases artists' category, right behind Mathematikal and fellow Aussies Skorba whose Temples of Devotion is my personal pick for 2007 in this category.

Chris D'Alfonso is someone else who should have made it to the MMI 2007 poll but didn't. He would probably be in the overseas-based category now seeing that he has moved to Germany. It looks like he's working on a new album to follow up the successful Blueprint from last year. The new song is called Light of the World and his brand of Christian Rock blends is beautifully with that of Rob Galea.

To bring this week's podcast to a close I've selected a song that was released towards the end of last summer. Perhaps it too should be on the MMI 2007 poll; it's one of the ones that really got away. Keep on Strummin' is written and produced by Antonio Olivari D'Emanuele with Errol Cutajar singing the lead vocal accompanied by the ŻĦN Symphonik Choir. It's not a Christmas song, of course, but the choir gives it a festive feeling and the idea of more to come in the new year is indeed one that's most appropriate to end on until the series returns with the results from the MMI 2007 poll during the first weekend in 2008.

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.

Slip Slidin' Away

Karlheinz Stockhausen is a name I've known well for many years. I borrowed the name from one of his compositions, Zyklus, for my very first radio series more than twenty years ago. He died earlier this week but I doubt that anyone I know actually cares who he was; my music colleagues at the university and a couple of other "serious" musician friends are the exception, of course.

Whenever I think about death it's a reality check for me. It doesn't have to be the death of a person. It could even be an abstract death, like that brought about annually to every year by the end of December. It gives me pause for thought about the noble truth of impermanence.

Moving swiftly on to the last of the remaining two podcasts in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series for this year. Now that the 2007 poll of the Listeners' Picks is well underway, I must of course take some time to play some of the tracks that should have made it onto the list of this year's nominations but didn't, mostly because I was not aware of them by the cut-off date.

The first of these is a song by The Myth called Sworn Independent. I've been trying to get my hands on a decent recording by this band for quite some time. This is one of the few bands active now in Malta that has been playing for over a decade. This new song is quite good. It shows a band that has matured over the years and yet stayed in touch with recent developments in musical tastes. It's a keeper...and it's such a pity that it's not on the MMI 2007 poll.

The same goes for Scar's Stolen. Their refreshing presence at this year's Malta Song for Europe sadly overshadowed the release of this excellent song. Frontman Konrad Pule' is undoubtedly one of the most versatile performers on the local scene, with very few true rivals. Listen to this new song carefully more than once and you'll also see that my praise is well deserved.

Last week's plug for one of 2007 outstanding newcomers has actually had a direct effect on the way voting has progressed since then. Dean Saviour went from having no votes last week to topping the Internet Releases category this week, ahead of The Characters and The Rifffs. I think that's quite amazing. He got in touch with me a few days ago and mentioned that he has also recently collaborated with Jay Omaro on a song called My World. Well, since I missed that one too on the 2007 MMI poll I thought it would be a good idea to include it on this week's podcast. I like this song, but I think that's also partly because it reminds me of record I used to play very frequently on my radio breakfast show back in 1991, even if it doesn't really sound like it except for a couple of guitar chords.

David Magro is another musician who got contacted me this week to let me know what he's been up to recently. I wish more musicians and singers would do that. David is known as Mind's Eye Dub, undoubtedly Malta's foremost reggae artist. He has just released a new song called Hold On, which he dedicates to all Africans in the world. At least MED is on the 2007 MMI poll with another release from earlier in this year. So, if you like this one you can still vote for him by voting for this other track.

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.