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Show notes for the 361st Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Mind’s Eye Dub – Amandla Awethu Mandela Dub
I considered playing Manwel T’s Umtha Welanga – The Vuvuzelas Mix featuring Mind’s Eye Dub, to mark the passing of Nelson Mandela, but I’ve already played that on a previous edition of the MMI podcast. So I’ve picked this one instead. I don’t have much to say about Mandela except that his death has made me realize, yet again, how selective amnesia works for some people, especially those who wield some kind of power.

Clandestines – Serbian Dog
After a couple of years of frantic activity, this teenage band from Malta has finally released its debut album. They had a launch gig at the Beach Haven in Xemxija yesterday (Friday 5 December 2013), and invited Dolls and Idols to play at the party too. I’m sure that this release will go down well with their growing legion of fans.

The Areola Treat – Blood Red Thing
Their previous single from their second album Walk Into Nothing is nominated in the Top Video category of the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll. This new song doesn’t come with its own music video, but that has probably made me observe a strange fact: singer Lisa Micallef Grimaud has similar lower tones in her voice to the lovely Judith Durham, or even Carmen Tanti, of course. Not sure whether this will mean much to anyone under the age of 40. I’d actually be interested in seeing what people who know all these singer think.

Husko feat. Charlotte Haining – Real
Another one of the tracks that could have made it to this year’s MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll but didn’t simply because it reached me after the cut-off date. I particularly like the Nirvana sample. I understand it’s also managed to acquire some airtime on certain Maltese radio stations. Good on you, Husko!

Chapter Zero – Against the Grain
I saw Digby (or was it Chapter Zero? they’re one and the same, anyway) perform live as an opening act at the No Bling Show concert I attended in September at the Old Corradino Prison in Malta. It was a good support act for what is undoubtedly Malta’s better known hip-hop group. Not sure why he prefers to stick to rapping in English, but I’m glad to see that his sensibilities resonate better with Maltese culture than they did a while back. The music video for this track, produced by Keith Falzon, is both honest and raw, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sjvb_S1-dw

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 360th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Jean Claude Vancell – When the City Lights Turn Blue
I’ve followed Jean Claude Vancell for a number of years now so I was very amused when he posted about how thrilled he was to (finally?) hear his music played on Radio Malta 2. It’s the second single from his upcoming EP Constellation, which is set to be released on 1 March 2014. You can already pre-order it on Bandcamp, where you’ll also find the previous single Superman, which is nominated in the Top Video category of the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll, which opens for voting in the coming days.

Caravana Sun – Gaia
Although this song shares a name with the young Maltese singer selected to perform at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev this evening, the similarity stop there. Luke Caruana has appeared on the MMI podcast several time, and in recent years he has done that with this band, based in Sydney, Australia. They have just released an album called Aya. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a music video to promote the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZC7HY2SPt4

Walrus and the Carpenter – Stairway to the Moon
Staying in New South Wales, my attention was recently drawn to this new folk trio based in Mullumbimby. Matthew Engerer, who is also the singer in this band, is Maltese. They have a cool selection of songs, which you can hear most easily through their Soundcloud page. I like them so much that I think they should at the very least also be nominated in the Top Overseas Releases category of the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll.

A Lily – The Sparrow in the Lemon Tree
James Vella is A Lily. No, that’s not a taunt. He’s a Maltese musician who has the distinction of being the first one of his kind to be featured on the Rolling Stone website; albeit the Italian edition. I only discovered A Lily and the Lupa EP, from which this song is taken, when I recently went to view another Rolling Stone website appearance from nosnow/noalps a couple of weeks ago; as featured in a previous MMI podcast. The video and the EP are now both nominated on the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll, of course.

Daniel Muscat – I Already Know
During a casual exchange of views about the preliminary selections for the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2014, I met a young singer called Daniel Muscat. Although he has been trying to break into the pop scene for a while, I had never heard of him before. I then discovered that the song that I’ve picked to close this week’s podcast was also one of the discarded entries for the Malta Eurovision Song Contest a couple of years ago. An Italian version of this song, called Tu Lo Sai, took part in last year’s Microfono D’Oro Festival. The song is written by Rita Pace and while it’s nothing to write home about really, it certainly is not the sort of thing that should be completely discarded either.

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: 20:04 — 18.5MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 359th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

I don’t really have much more to add about the songs I’ve selected for this week’s podcast other than what I’ve already said during the podcast itself. Below you’ll find M3P links for all the musicians and singers, along with videos for all but one of the tracks you can hear on this edition of the MMI podcast.

Plan Zero – Shooting Star

Kurt Calleja – Love On Mars

Cyberia – Maskri

Tenishia feat. Ivan Grech – Ghost of Love
There’s no video for this single lifted off last year’s album by Tenishia In any case, it is nominated along with all the tracks played during this week’s podcast for the MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll, which opens up for voting via Facebook very soon.

Dario Genovese & Rebecca Mifsud – Away From You

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: 19:55 — 18.3MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 358th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Cryptic Street – Retrospect
I really enjoyed Indecisive when it came out a little while ago. I’m am therefore glad that the band have produced a worthy follow-up. The music video directed by Mauro D’Amato will go a long way to attract attention for this cool new track from what is fast becoming one of Malta’s better known new bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QumZQaCrhv4

nosnow/noalps – N.E.W.
It’s not everyday that Rolling Stone picks a Maltese band to include on their website, even if it is the Italian edition. Well, that’s exactly where most people will be watching the video for this new release nosnow/noalps. The band has gone through some interesting and exciting changes over the past year or so, but it remains fairly clear that Nick Morales is the leading light for this band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfeSnECIUbE

TroffaHamra y los Mechones – I Hate You For That
Ruth Abela always has a place on the MMI podcast. I’ve included her band from Barcelona at least one other time (if not twice) and I was delighted to discover that there’s even a video for this song. As you would expect I’m also nominating ToffaHamra Y Los Mechones for the MMI 2013 Listener’s Picks Poll in the overseas category.

Hunters Palace – Saturated Arab
I have a feeling that I may have missed note somewhere telling me that Hunters Palace have recorded some new tracks this year. I’m not even sure how I found out about these 2013 tracks just now to include them on this edition of the MMI podcast. In any case, I’m really pleased to be able to nominate this stuff for the MMI 2013 Listener’s Picks Poll top online releases category.

Luke Azzopardi – Seeds
I find that there some sort of similarity in my mind’s ear between the music of Luke Azzopardi and the output of Hunters Palace. It therefore comes as an easy segue to include his music on this week’s podcast immediately after that of Hunters Palace. In truth, there’s probably no real relationship between the two, and he has a more varied style because his experimentation is mainly with genre rather than tone, noise, form, and so on.

Monroe – Go Home
I been waiting for a music video to go with this song all year. I now see that there’s a new song from Monroe called We Will Rise. So, while I could be wrong, I think they’ve moved on. I’m rather disappointed by this but I still like the song enough to include it on the MMI podcasts and nominating it for the MMI 2013 Listener’s Picks Poll.

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: 20:39 — 19.0MB) | Embed

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