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.

Lacrimosa

On Good Friday morning I've taken to playing the double CD of Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber: the original London concept version from 1969 featuring Ian Gillan before he became famous as Deep Purple's singer. It's a ritual that strangely connects me to my childhood in Malta during Easter time, particularly Good Friday, for a number of reasons, some of which I've already mentioned in a previous blog entry. My fraternal friend Immanuel Mifsud plays Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in a similar ritual on the first day of spring. Oddly enough, this year they both fall on the same day.

On this quiet day I can't fail to think about some of the deaths we heard about in recent days. First on the list is artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan who passed away at Mater Dei Hospital last Sunday. I only met Ebba a couple of times. Once at the home she shared with her husband Saviour in Naxxar at the the of the 1980s and then one other time at an art event in the early 1990s. It's always sad to hear of people who die young. Ebba was 50 and that's far too young to die. The same goes for film-maker Anthony Minghella, a former drama student and lecturer at the University of Hull, who lost his life unexpectedly mid-week at the age of 54. I'm sure they both still had a lot to offer in making other people's lives more enjoyable.

Death is saddening whenever it comes. It's an irrevocable end like no other. It's one of the subjects that makes frequent appearances on my blog. I'm moved by death even when it befalls older individuals. Two such moments happened on Wednesday this week with visionary writer Arthur C. Clarke at 90 years old and actor Paul Scofield at 86. Both played a significant part in my creative imagination as a teenager. Scofield with his iconic film acting and Clarke with his TV series Mysterious World more than his futurist views on 2001.

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.

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.

See Saw

2007 is history. If you've followed this blog for more than a year you probably already know that I at the end of every eyar I take stock of the previous 12 months. This all started in 2004 and went on with slight variations the following year and last year. I've come to see it as a way to have a quck look at all (or most of) my blog entries in one go.

So now, for the fourt consecutive year here's a partial, most subjective, list of blog entries from the year gone by, in random order. This list is only meant to mark the highs and lows in my year, as chronicled on my blog throughout 2007:

UPPERS

Interview on BBC Radio York

World's first enhanced Maltese podcasts

Results of the 1st annual MMI Listeners' Picks + MMI podcast: 50th & 75th

Oliva Lewis wins the 2007 Malta Song for Europe

Easter in Malta

Visiting the National Media Museum with my students.

Lunar Eclipse + Eklissi Perpetwi

Pierre J. Mejlak's Riħ Isfel

Second Life - YouTube - Twitter - Facebook

Visiting Helsinki and the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest debacle

Post-Eurovision comments for Malta Today

The Simpsons Movie

Conferences: SL in London + SL-related in Salford

Discovering Drive + Dean Saviour

Patti Smith, Radiohead's In Rainbows + Danjeli's Kakofonija on my iPod

Taking the 2nd annual MMI Listeners' Picks poll to Facebook


DOWNERS

Morrissey is not the UK Eurovision entry

RIP: Apakuki Coka - Jean Baudrillard - David Hatch - Bergman+Antonioni - Tony Wilson - Marcel Marceau - Karlheinz Stockhousen

My friend Ġorġ Mifsud-Chircop is dead

Olivia Lewis' drean turns into a nightmare

Big Brother (not the celebrity version)

10th anniversary from Diana's death

Summer bummer

Radio Malta sinks to further low

Xtruppaw return on the scene with a football anthem

In putting these two lists together I realized that there were a number of things in 2007 I'd have liked to blog about properly but didn't find the time or the muse to do so. At least most of them get a mention here and there, in unrelated posts. Here are the main ones (in random order): Frank Camilleri and Mario Frendo visit Scarborough, Pan's Labyrinth, Amy Winehouse, moving house, transliteracy, 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Steve Dixon's Digital Performance book, support for the Burmese monks, attending academic conferences in Birmingham + Leeds, the joys of organic gardening, Yoko Ono's Yes I'm a Witch, and Joni Mitchell's Shine.

One thing I (very oddly!) didn't blog about was my interview with Clare Agius for her Mhux għall-Kulħadd on TV series. It's available on YouTube, of course. Perhaps that's why I forgot to blog about it.

Anyway, many thanks for reading my blog and listening to my podcasts in 2007 and a special thanks if you contributed to all that in any way...I wish you a very happy new year!

Ninu Ninu tal-Milied

Although my weekly music podcasting series is on a hiatus for the holidays, there's a two-part podcast of traditional għana with a Christmas theme, produced by Ġorġ Mifsud-Kirkop.

This year this seasonal podcast takes on a special meaning: a tribute to the sadly departed Dr Mifsud-Kirkop who passed away just a few days ago.

Part two appears next weekend.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ghost Dance

This should become my Halloween tradition quite soon: I first posted these photos in 2004 and again in 2005, but I thought it would be a good idea to re-blog them today along with the original text:



My father sent me these two pictures of a tomato he just cut up for some traditional Maltese ħobz biż-żejt. He just couldn't resist saying Happy Halloween with this. So, a Happy Halloween to you too. Boo!



OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: This post is not to be considered as an endorsement of Halloween, which is the second most commercial festivity after Christmas.

So Far, So Good...So What!

I've compiled a list of alternative music from Maltese recording artists released so far in 2007. In keeping with what I started last year, my plan is to poll my blog readers and Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast listeners towards established the top favourite releases of 2007.

I am incredibly impressed by the even larger number of releases this year. As ever, I have a feeling my list is not complete. Please let me know if you think there are any additional titles I should add to this list before starting the voting in November. The list is not meant to be fully comprehensive - I am selective - but I would like to include as many titles as possible at this stage, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you think I've missed out on your favourite 2007 release.

Here's the list, so far, in alphabetical order:

Aaron Benjamin In My Head Ailas Town Ambulanza The Bubble Andre' Camilleri & the Broken Hearts One Fine Day Arachnid Compelled to Distort Beige Anything Bitterside Start Again Bomba Hold Your Ground [track] Cable35 It's Over Caligula Surreal [tracks] Carra Be Yourself [album] Carrie Flooded Roads Charlie Calleja Dancing with Dolphins [tracks] Chasing Pandora Mock the Mocking Bird [album] Chemical Orphan What If It Was You Christabelle Borg Tonight Club Murder Preserved in Pain Corazon Hawn Jien Cordin Sky Man With The Microphone Cynic Pictures Aim High Dean Saviour Marshmallow Girl Deckchair Gurus Summertime Demis Ethereal Travel Different Strings …It's Only The Beginning Drive In Your Eyes Explicit Objection/Games Fakawi Eileen (Live) Franco Tartaglia In Memoria Fraser Gregory No Ordinary Eyes Freddie Portelli Hangin' On Grimaud (w/Marc Galea) Purple Haze ipconfig lagggggg Jean Claude Vancell Of Hopes & Dreams Jean Pierre Zammit Wipe Every Tear Jewls Verse Taking It Easy John Galea Faded Popstar jon lukas/WOODENMAN Fade Away JPG Return Karm Debattista mssp Agħmilni Bħalek Karm Debattista mssp Ħejju Triq għall-Mulej Kristina Casolani & Toby Search L-Amerikan Għana tal-Fatt Manuel Casha Tifkira Marc Galea My Journey Marilyn Mifsud Evicted Marty Rivers I'm Available Mathematikal Electrophant/This is Plonk Melchior Sultana No More Mind's Eye Dub Trod On Dub Mindstate My Adrenaline Prayer of the Dying Structures of a Dying Matter ReAct Dismissed Recoil The Great Divide Renee Cassar Waiting Scream Daisy Bees Shilloo's Tree Expression/Waiting for Your Smile Shockleader Say NOW! Sin Selection Casanova Sixth Simfoni feat. Rachel Fabri Breakthru Skimmed Where is Your God? Skorba Temples of Devotion Sky of Yuggoth Transmissions from the Chthonic Depths Slur (Ann de Gaetano) Back to You South Central Crystalling Starbrights You Ran Away From Me Stillborn Thy Feeble Soul Stoned Joker Alone Subculture Resist the Abuse The Areola Treat Disco Party The Characters So Alive The Monitors Fade Away The New Harmonics Red The Rifffs Jack The Ripper The Vagabond Project Deepheat Thomas Hedley Just Your Picture On My Mind Thy Legion Proclaimer of Chaos Toby Everytime it Rains Various Malta Song for Europe 2007 Vinnie Vintage Sea to the Salt White Crimson Julia (live) Winona Riders Love Can Do You No Harm Xtruppaw Forza Malta

What Goes Around

Every six years a calendar date occurs on the same day again.
It's Tuesday September 11 again today.

Not much new to say. Still bad. Still sad.

Remember all the fallen.

Easter Parade

I'm in Malta right now. I had hoped to record this week's podcast before I left Scarborough, but there was too much to do and so I made it here today. This is the first time I've made a podcast in Malta.

The technical quality on the sound of my voice is quite a giveaway. Rather than the warm sound I usually get from one of the microphones I have at home I used the iTalk plug-in on my iPod to record my voice this week. Desperate times require desperate measures...or something like that.

This may be the first year in many that I'm not sticking to the ritual of listening to Jesus Christ Superstar on Good Friday. I forgot to bring the CD with me to Malta. Perhaps one of the radio stations will do the decent thing of playing it for me. We'll see. In any case, I didn't want to miss the opportunity of producing an Easter podcast this year, especially since I now have my own copy of Ikun Li Trid Int, and I've managed to dub the entire rock mass by Tony Grimaud from 1984.

Before getting to those goodies I chose to play a couple of tracks by contemporary Maltese singers who clearly fit into the Christian genre. The first of these is Chris D'Alfonso who recently announced that he's working on a new album to follow-up on the success of his debut release Blueprints. From that album you can hear the title track on this week's podcast.

Someone else who is working on new material in a similar vein is Robert Galea. I completely spaced out on his 2006 CD Closer, and I must admit that it is entirely my loss. Although the idea of a seminarian from Malta who currently resides in Australia is hardly the way to entice me to listen to someone's music, Galea's stuff is quite appealing and nicely crafted. To show how far this delightful musician has come I've picked something pre-Closer. A song in Maltese called Libbisna bil-Qawwa, which is an excellent way to introduce more Maltese language material on this week's podcast.

I can now finally play a couple of tracks from Ikun li Trid Int. I've selected a song called Karriera, sung by composer Manwel Mifsud as a duet with Merga. Sammy Bartolo sang the part of Jesus and you can here is beautiful smooth baritone voice on the track It-Tielet Waqgħa. I would like to thank my good friend Mario Axiaq for helping me sort out my own copy of Ikun Li Trid Int. It is one of the most treasured recordings in my possession. You can rest assured that I'll play at least one more song from it this time next year.

The same goes for Grimaud's rock mass. This week's podcast comes to a close with the final song from that glorious religious event/rock concert. I believe the track I called Just a Little Love. Since I'm in Malta I'm hoping to meet Grimaud with a CD dub from the cassette I've treasured for years, which podcast listeners have heard me play from on a previous, non-Easter related edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor. Perhaps he'll grant me a full interview. That could make a good podcast for a future date, if all goes well.

This week's podcast, which is number 61 in the series, will probably have to hold until I return to Scarborough after Easter. This means that there will not be a new podcast until the weekend after Easter. I plan to blog anyway before then, so I'll refrain from wishing you a happy easter until 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.