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Show notes for the 356th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Second Pass – Confession
Ritchie Rizzo was one of the rock drummers we knew in Malta back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Eventually he moved to Canada and has now come brought to my attention this band with which he’s drumming. I like the sound of this band quite a bit and I think I’d listen to them even it wasn’t for the fact that I knew Ritchie back when we both still lived in Malta.

Demis Fenech – From Above
It looks like Maltese rock guitarist Demis Fenech has recently acquired some new gear. I love the fact that he’s sharing his joy of owning new instruments with his YouTube followers. Here’s the video of him playing one of his own instrumental compositions featuring the newly acquired way to play music just as he likes it. This a demo of his custom-made Mayones Setius using low to medium crunch tones, and the guitar sound is processed through a Digitech RP20 Valve and Randall Amplification. Check out the fretboard inlay too: it’s Knights of St John’s Maltese Cross.

Blind Saviour – The Episode
This is one of those Maltese metal bands that has featured on a previous edition of the MMI podcast but I’ve actually lost track of for reasons that I’m not sure I can explain. They’ve been waiting on my playlist of forthcoming inclusions for some time and this wasn’t necessarily the track I wanted to play from them. In any case, here they are playing a song from their long awaited debut album The Master Plan.

Abysmal Torment – Amidst Your Scorched Barren Shrine
It’s always a joy to include this band on my podcast. I don’t know how they come up with the titles to their songs or where they really get their inspiration from. They stand out to me as masters of the type of metal they play. This type of music will always hold a very special place in my heart, for very personal reasons. I’m sure others like it for their own reason. Ultimately, I suppose no one really cares, just as long as we’re able to give it a good airing from time to time. There’s even a lyrics video for 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. An archive of MMI podcast is also available on Mixcloud. If you have no idea what any of this means, just enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

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Show notes for the 355th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Neil Cork – On the Beach
Neil Cork has made Malta his home. This song sheds some clear light as to why he really likes it there. It’s a pleasant song and although not really specifically Maltese in any overt way, it’s still a very pleasant way to open this week’s podcast. People are still on the beach in Malta, but not so much in places like the UK, where I live.

KażinSka – Santos
This is one band I’d really love to see live one day soon. Here they are playing a tune by Danjeli and capturing both the fun of ska and the Maltese pagan rites associated with the village Sunday morning marching bands that litter the summer calendar year after year. What’s not to like about this?

Texas – Dry Your Eyes
The second single from the 2013 album The Conversation. I’m also more than happy to include the voice of Sharleen Spiteri on the MMI podcast. I’m really surprised that this band (or Sharleen as a soloist) is not more popular in Malta. Then again, this sort of music doesn’t really appeal to large masses and to some degree or other adult oriented rock is an acquired taste.

Nat Mahri – Better You, Better Me
Andy Hill is someone whose music I’ve included more than once on previous editions of the MMI podcast. This is simply because, like Sharleen Spiteri, he is a Brit of Maltese descent. I have not idea who Nat Mahri really is. She has quite a pleasant voice and I like this song, but that’s no real reason for her to be included in the M3P database. That privilege is afforded to her through her collaboration with Andy Hill.

John Galea – Gold Diggin’
One more Brit of Maltese (and Irish) descent here. This song featuring rapper Scorcher comes from his new EP Under Attack. I’m currently involved in discussions about whether the Wikipedia page about him should be deleted or not. The world’s most popular online encyclopedia has fairly strict guidelines on levels of notability for including pop music artists. I think John Galea is notable for at least two or three reasons, but then again I’m hoping that his new work attracts enough attention to be notable without a shadow of a doubt, from a Wikipedia perspective.

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. An archive of MMI podcast is also available on Mixcloud. If you have no idea what any of this means, just enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

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Show notes for the 354th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Gypsy Genes – That Girl
Following up on their summer hit Red Hot Money, Gypsy Genes return with another scorcher. It’s already receiving considerable airplay in Malta and at this rate I expect it to become one of the trailblazers among the few Maltese pop rock songs that get further airplay over the years after the brief few months when they first appear. I hope they make a video for this one too. If/when they do, you can rest assured that I’ll place it right here and nominate it for the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll, which opens in just a matter of weeks now.

Norbert Bondin – Feel Again
I’m delighted whenever singers or musicians contact me out of the blue. Such was the case with Norbert, who drew my attention to his debut song, which I’ve gladly included on this week’s podcast. He has a really good voice and I hope that this isn’t the last we hear of him. I haven’t seen him perform live, so I don’t know what his stage presence is like, but I’m sure that a few songwriters will want to give him their songs to sing at one of the many song contests in Malta. Whether he’ll take the bait or not is a different matter, of course.

Skimmed – Summer Lovers
Skimmed are back…not that they ever really went away. I don’t really have much to say about this new song especially because there a video for it too and that makes it pleasurable to watch. I was also mighty pleased that my old colleague Ray Bajada, who is currently trying hard to make Radio Malta have a playlist it can be proud of once again after decades of neglect, picked this video to comment that Maltese bands will get due airplay on Radio Malta 2 under his watch. I know he is sincere in his intentions, so if you’re in a band and have the opportunity to send in your recordings to have them played on Radio Malta 2, don’t pass up this chance to get more Maltese music on the local airwaves. It’s about time too!

The Shh – You Can’t Be In Love
Alison Galea and Ian Schranz are in the process of releasing an album as The Shh. Meanwhile, I’m reassured that the Beangrowers haven’t split up and this is just a side project. To be honest, I like the sound of this duo even more than I ever liked the Beangrowers. I think it’s more sincere and far less pretentious, even if that wasn’t intended. In any case, they’re probably the closest thing to an art band to ever come out of Malta.

Joseph Lia – Arranġament fuq l-Għana tal-Fatt
I was walking in Valletta with Albert Marshall a few weeks ago and a young man approached him to talk about music. I was eventually drawn into the conversation and this young man played me an impressive video clip of himself singling with the Andreevski Folk Orchestra conducted by Dmitri Hohlov in St Petersburg last June. That young man was baritone Joseph Lia, and he was singing Reuben Pace’s new words set to the traditional lament heard on much għana tal-fatt.

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. An archive of MMI podcast is also available on Mixcloud. If you have no idea what any of this means, just enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:06 — 18.5MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 353rd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Re-né feat. Chess – Perfect Love
Francesca Galea, better known as Chess, has one of the more pleasant voices to emerge from the Maltese music scene in recent years. She is also a seeker, searching for her own way rather than being dragged down into the way things are done in Malta. It is delightful to hear her on this dance track by Re-né and a joy to have the opportunity to share her voice with my podcast listeners once again.

Jane Doe – GoldRush
Another of those beautiful voices that have emerged from Malta in recent years belongs to Margherita Bonello. I said as much when I first heard this band for the first time a couple of years ago, and again when they released a follow-up track to their debut. Now they’re on the verge of releasing their debut album. This is the single issued just ahead of the album along with a promotional video.

Bark Bark Disco – Something We Can Laugh About
The third EP from Bark Bark Disco contains four tracks. I don’t really have much to say about this all except that I really like the simplicity of these new songs. They grow on you quickly and the lyrics go a long way to draw your attention to this material’s interesting quirky qualities.

The Suburbanite – A Mermaid’s Tale
Robert Pisani returns with a second EP following last year’s A Field Guide to The Suburbanite. This one has a really good title – H2 Oh No! – but I think I like the songs on the first one considerably more than I like the ones on this new one. It’s mostly a matter of personal preference. In any case, I’m really pleased that one of the songs from the first EP has also had a video made for it. I played Monsters on a previous edition of MMI and it’s really well worth repeat listening, especially now that we can also enjoy it while watching this video by Barbara Stramska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nksD4Y-JlJc

The Madhatters – My Remedy
A new band with a debut song closes this week’s podcast. It’s not a bad first outing and I’m fairly sure that this band will be moving away from the sound they’ve managed to capture at Lito’s Place for this premier release. I mean, this song is as good as it probably gets for them. I could be wrong, of course, and they could become great innovators – then again, that’s probably not what they set out to do anyway. Meanwhile, I should probably simply enjoy this song for what it is.

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. An archive of MMI podcast is also available on Mixcloud. If you have no idea what any of this means, just enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:20 — 17.8MB) | Embed

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