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Show notes for the 357th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Mistura – Kollox L-Istess
The shorter version of the 9-minute epic song by duo Mistura opens this week’s podcast. I’d have loved to play the full version, but since my podcasts are normally about 20 minutes long, that would have meant that I wouldn’t have included two of the other tracks I’ve selected for this edition. In any case, it’s the full version that’s nominated for the upcoming MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll.

Winter Moods – Days of My Life
Malta’s most popular pop rock bank is preparing to release their sixth album in early 2014. This is the first track off that upcoming release. It’s also featured on the soundtrack of Mark Doneo’s recently released Maltese film Silhouette. I think it’s a fitting tribute to a band for which Doneo was once the lead singer.

Julie Zahra – Take Me Away
Julie Zahra has come a along way since she represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest. She is now poised to release an EP (although since it contains 7 tracks it’s really closer to an album) featuring song written and produced by Owen Caruana. The EP is called No Loving, and as you’d expect it too is nominated for the upcoming MMI 2013 Listeners’ Picks Poll.

Mama Kin – The River As She Runs
Danielle Caruana, better known as Mama Kin, is perhaps not as known to Maltese listeners as her brothers Michael and Nicky, and certainly nowhere near a household name as her cousins Ivan Grech, Josette Grech Hamilton, and Peppi Azzopardi. She has appeared on previous editions of the MMI podcast, particularly when she released her debut album The Magician’s Daughter a little while ago. Earlier this year she was reported to be working on a new album and this song is from the material she has written for that album. This performance was recorded live in Perth, Australia on 30 January 2013.

The Manuel Pulis Project – Green n’ Yellow
I was very pleased to find recordings from this new Maltese jazz combo on Soundcloud recently. This tune is apparently their second fully mixed recording. It’s written by bassist Alan Portelli and mixed By Daniel Buttigieg. In case you’re wondering, Manuel Pulis is a student at Siena jazz university and drummer/percussionist with a number of popular bands in Malta, including Brikkuni, Kantilena, Yew, Stalko, nosnow/noalps.

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 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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