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Show notes for the 335th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

The Crowns – Home
Victorio Gauci provides the voice for this Maltese band that keeps getting better which every new release. I’m not particularly impressed by the music as much as I am by the way they present themselves, as you can hopefully see for yourself in the promotional video they’ve produced for this new song.

Planet Seed – Want You To Know
Klinsmann Coleiro has certainly found a new identity through this band, but I’m also fairly sure that there’s more to this band than his attempt to reinvent himself after years of just being a pretty boy who tries annually to go to the Eurovision Song Contest for Malta. I’m looking forward to hearing more from this band, and I have a feeling they’re just as fun to watch live.

No Bling Show Marija s-Sabiħa
Well, they’ve done it again! In some ways, this is even better than Luċija u Samwel from the NBS debut album. Taken from their second album Ċar Kristall and featuring rising star Claude Agius Il-Lapes along with band founder Jon Mallia, this song samples a recording of this classic folk song recorded by Manuel Cilia in the 1930s, revived through Andrew Alamango’s Lost Voices project. I’ve only played a part of the full saga on my podcast, but just watch this video and listen to the album (available here as a free download) to get the full effect. As far as Maltese music goes, it really doesn’t get any better than this.

Soul ‘n Sole – Same Old Song
Jez Zerafa has been active on the local music scene since the 1980s but he is virtually unknown outside certain spheres of the scene itself. He has recently been collaborating with singer Lara Dimech, and together they have recorded this song, with some collaboration on the lyrics from Rita Pace. I really like the sound of this song and Lara’s voice is quite striking. You can rest assured that their next song will also be featured on the MMI podcast.

Banda Briganti – Is-Sindromu tal-Kelb tal-But
I’m very pleased to see Sylvan Borg team up with lyricist Keith Muscat to produce songs in Maltese. This is one of the first two available from this grouping. The other will feature in the upcoming Għanja tal-Poplu Festival, sung by Justin Galea. I sincerely hope that Banda Briganti is set to develop more songs in this vein as I think that this will also make Sylvan Borg achieve the potential I saw in him years before anyone else (other than people who know him personally) cared to listen to his songs more than once.

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 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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:48 — 18.2MB) | Embed

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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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