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Show notes for the 334th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Ħolma Qattusa feat. Kukkanja – L-Għabex u l-Għaliex
Ħolma Qattusa feat. Yews – Raqda Twila
It’s not usual that I play two tracks in a row by the same act. This is one exception when I certainly don’t mind doing just that. I’m equally intrigued by Martha Vassallo and Yews, and I’m really glad Kukkanja has collaborated with Antoine Vella. If this is really generation hope I want to get as much of it as possible. Thank you.

Jon Lukas Woodenman – Bad News
The legend is back. Not that he ever really went away, at least not in the last twenty odd years or so. A few days ago, my friend Lito did a radio special featuring this veteran Maltese performer and invited me, Mike Bugeja and Noel D’Anastas to write little notes of appreciation. And we did. How can you not appreciate a man who writes and sings a song like this after all he’s been through. It’s rare that bad news is good news, but this is one of those exceptions.

Ira Losco feat. David Leguesse – The Person I Am
Ira Losco’s new album is called Fire. What I’d Give was the first single off it. The video for that was quite good. This second song is better than the video for it, even if this video has some good moments too. The best thing about this song is undoubtedly Dizzy David Leguesse, who gives it the edge that makes it stand out as the sort of thing that could be played on any radio station around the world featuring all the latest chart hits.

Charles Babyface Curmi – Il-Bajja tal-Mellieħa
During my visit to Australia earlier this year, one person I failed to meet with was Charles Babyface Curmi. He was quite unwell, and although it would have been good to meet him, his work is exceptionally well documented as he was one of the prime organizers of shows by popular Maltese artists in Australia over the past three or four decades. He was also a well-loved entertainer in his own right among the die hard Maltese communities down under and will undoubtedly be greatly missed now that he has passed away. An MMI salute to this giant of Maltese pop culture in Australia comes in the form of his version of the classic New Courey song, along with his brother George il-Puse on violin and Yuri on accordion, about five years ago.

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 enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

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Show notes for the 333rd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

For Strings Inn – Revolution
They’re back with a new song. Here’s the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK9IGnAxK4g

Cable 35 – Rental Sunshine
New EP coming out soon, followed by an impressive international tour. Here’s the video for this song:

Lauren Aquilina – Wanderlust
Comic Relief 2013 release. Pay what you will download (donations for Comic Relief, actually) available. Here’s the video for this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WefROG2BGUo

Ġenio l-Majċa – It-Tmiem Wasal
One of two tracks in Maltese on this week’s podcast. Did you really think I’d pass up an opportunity to play some decent hip hop in Maltese. Il-Majċa is getting better all the time.

Divine Sinners – Jekk Tfakkarni Ismek
They’ve finally released a new song in Maltese. I like it and hope they give up more songs in Maltese over the coming months and 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 or on MySpace. 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: 19:24 — 17.9MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 332th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Melbourne Ska Orchestra – Lygone Street Meldown
During my recent visit to Australia I met Nicky Bomba’s family but not the man himself as he was away while I was there. Keeping himself busy as ever he has now released an album with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra featuring several classic-style ska numbers, both old and new. This is one of the new ones while the video below shows one of the standard reworkings.

Thomas Hedley – Almost a Miricle
Yet another catchy single from Thomas Hedley who continues to delight pop fans everywhere, even though he has never really thrown himself into any serious limelight. This should receive some decent airplay in Malta and judging by the local PRS charts it looks like it’s already doing a fair bit of that.

FellowFish – Happiness
The long awaited debut album from FellowFish (wait, I could have sworn they’ve already released another one!) is available to download from the Bandcamp site for a modest price. This track is being billed as the third single from the album and will possibly even have a video in the coming days. If it appears you can rest assured that I’ll include it here.

Skimmed – Isobel
Ronnie (see video below) is the official single from Skimmed’s album Summer Lovers, which was released just a few days ago in Valletta. As I’ve already played that track on a previous edition of the MMI podcast, I thought it would be appropriate to include another track from the album. So I’ve picked this one. As alternative rock from Malta sung in English goes these days, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

The Creepers – Woman
One more track and one more band from the 2013 Hard Rock Rising offerings hoping to be the local offering for the Global Battle of the Bands. This band has a very crisp classic blues revival sound reminiscent of some early Clapton work or even Fleetwood Mac from the Peter Green era. By nature, new blues songs are not very original but this one still sounds quite good.

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 enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:30 — 19.8MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 331st Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Sensitive Skin – Sweet Sister
Don’t really know much about this duo because their Facebook page and Reverbnation profile have very little information on them other than some photos of the band and details about some gigs and this debut release. The video for it looks rather good so they don’t seem to be a flash in the pan. Let’s hope they release a follow-up soon, along with some details about the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV_JG8dAaCw

Mojo – Shut Within
Another new band I’ve been wanting to feature on my podcast for a while. They’ve released this song for the 2013 Hard Rock Rising contest, hoping to be the entry from Malta for the Global Battle of the Bands this summer. I think they stand a good fighting chance, and even if they don’t this song is well worth listening to, as will be anything else they’ll release in the coming months and years.

Emanuel Anthony – Change
Emanuel Anthony Camilleri released this song several weeks ago. I actually think it was late in 2012 when this release came to my attention. By any rate, it’s been a while that I’ve wanted to include it on one of my podcasts and finally here it is. It’s quite a good song, and is especially delicious for any one who like this style of soft rock.

The Counterbalance Project – Inception
This is another new band that contacted me to tell me about their debut release. I really appreciate performers who do this, as it give me access to things I may otherwise not notice on YouTube, Facebook or some other online channel among all the clutter and junk that’s out there. This is a self-proclaimed experimental project from Aaron Dimech & Conrad Dimech, who are not related, even though they share a family name.  As you can see from the video, they’ve enlisted Danielle Ciantar as a singer on this track and Jean-Luc Camilleri from the band Sugar Rush plays drums. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from them this year.

Ascendor – In the Hand of the Enemy
I’ve pick one more band from the 2013 Hard Rock Rising Contest to close this week’s podcast. This is a new metal band from Gozo who contacted me about this debut release before I knew they were taking part in the local contest for the Global Battle of the Bands. For a first outing they have some really interesting things going on in this song. The recording could do with better production values but I’m sure that this will come around sooner or later, if they stay together long enough.

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 enjoy listening to the podcast on the player right below this text.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:18 — 18.7MB) | Embed

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