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Show notes for the 330th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Sophie Debattista – Up the Wall
Sophie Debattista has grown up. Seriously. This is not a song by a juvenile performer. The Junior Eurovision Song Contest jars in the context of this song. She still looks like a cute child but her voice her shows its grown up potential fully. It’s a pity that her promoter/s are still pushing saccharine-covered cover of such great classics as Sunny. Seriously, only Boney M could top the original. Instead I sincerely hope that this song, which was actually released without much fanfare about a year ago, is the shape (or should that be sound) of things to come for Sophie.

Funk Initiative – Architects
Now that singer Gianluca Bezzina is a household name across the Maltese islands, his band have done what they were planning to do anyway, or what any savvy act would do: they’ve released a new single with an accompanying video. This one, written by keyboardist Paul Torpiano, has clearly been a long time in the making. The video features the annual Architecture vs Law Student waterfight that takes place at the University of Malta. The song was officially release last Tuesday.

Caravana Sun – The Bottle
Luke Caruana was one the musicians I didn’t manage to meet during my recent visit to Australia. This song was released just before Christmas and now there’s also a video for it so I thought I’d include it. Truth be told I still need to process all the encounters and interesting experiences I had during my visit down under, and this is a good way to get me in a moos for that. If none of this means anything to you, I have a feeling you’ll still like the video.

Bletchley Park – Planets Move Faster
Released as a second single from last year’s album My Body Fighting, this is another typical song from Bletchley Park. I’d have thought there would be a video for it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one appeared on YouTube in the coming weeks. If it does you can be sure that I’ll add it here. Meanwhile you can expect that this new release, so to speak, will secure some much coveted radio airplay for the band. If you like English-language contemporary rock by Maltese bands, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Gozo Drum Tribe – Sansales
So called World Music has been gaining popularity in the Maltese islands over the past decade or so. It’s therefore not surprising that yet another band sporting a didgeridoo has hit the local music scene; they’ve actually been active for a couple of years. This is a genuine, bone fide percussion ensemble as you can see from this video. It is lead by Eugene Bajada, who is also known as the percussionist from the Divine Sinners, who’s Bipolar Overdrive was voted Top Online Release in last year’s MMI Listeners’ Picks Poll. You can catch the Gozo Drum Tribe live tonight (as I write this!) at the Captain’s Table in Xlendi.

Roderz – Peppered Spray
As promised, I’m rounding up this week’s podcast with yet another track competing in the Global Battle of the Bands: Hard Rock Rising 2013. Roderick Micallef records as Roderz and he has released a number of tracks through Reverbnation. Here’s the one he has entered for this contest and it’s quite a good piece of electronica. Sounds great with good bass enabled headphones. Try it!

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 329th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

No Bling Show – Il-Kotra
The very welcome second album from No Bling Show fills a huge void in the local music scene by offering a palatable engagement with everything that essentially makes us Maltese. Sporting a new line up and a remarkably more mature sounding batch of rhymes, this is bound to be one of 2013’s favourite albums for many looking for top quality new Maltese music. It’s also available as a free download through the Complex Sound Sagacity label, thanks to support from the Malta Arts Fund. I will certainly be playing further tracks from this collection in the coming months.

Purple Haze – No More
Maltese rock guitarist Stephen Borg passed away after a tough battle with cancer last Sunday 3 February 2013. He was 43 and will undoubtedly be missed not only by his family and close friends but also by the many other rock lover on the local scene who have come to know his gentle nature over the last three decades. He had been playing guitar with Purple Haze since he was just 16 years old, so its rather appropriate to say our official goodbye to him from this podcast by playing one of two known recordings released on CD in the 1990s. This one is from a Storm Records compilation called Illusion, which had them at the peak of their popularity, around the time they oped for Deep Purple at Ta’ Qali. Rest in peace, Steve! Condolences to the family.

The Lone Lab Rat – The Summers
Scream Daisy guitarist has ventured out with a solo project. His debut release is a duet with Alison Galea, best known from the many years she spent fronting alternative darlings Beangrowers. This is a slight departure from style for both of them, but shows two mature rock musicians collaborating in a way that only people with their experience really can. Hopefully this isn’t just a one-off and that more of this sort of thing is in the pipeline.

Pete Molinari – Hang My Head in Shame
The Maltese blood he inherited from his mother’s side makes this British singer-songwriter appear on the MMI podcast from time to time. He is a remarkable artist who has also appeared on the local scene. I believe that he is greatly underrated and I’m hoping that his new single and the accompanying video will contribute towards the necessary remedy for this. The song is officially being released on the 24th of February so hopefully you’ll start hearing it on the radio around that time too.

Donimo Effect – Ticking Away
The Global Battle of the Bands known as Hard Rock Rising returns for a 2013 edition. I’m planning to play a couple more tracks from this year’s entries, particularly since a number of the participants have already been featured in recent editions of the MMI podcast. I know absolutely nothing about the oddly named band I picked for this week. They don’t have a Facebook page (at the time I’m writing this) and their Reverbnation page simply contains a copy of the song you can hear at the end of this edition of the MMI podcast.

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 327th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Mind’s Eye Dub – Inherit Dub
David Magro always delights with his dubs. A whole new album entitled Uhuru has just been released as the 12th title on the Dubkey netlable, featuring 12 tracks wrapped up in a free download. Just head on to the Dubkey website and enjoy the bounty of delights you’ll find there.

Jane Doe – Goldrush
The EP Keeps Me Waiting is another new release available as a free download; through Bandcamp. There are four excellent songs in this collection, and I like this one best of all, which is why I picked it specifically for this week’s podcast. I expect there will be a music video for at least one of these tracks in the coming weeks.

Particle Blue – M’Għandix X’Nambik
I’m very pleased to say that Malta’s foremost defunct electro-pop duo have recorded a bunch of new tracks in Maltese, following their surprise reunion at the Lissen Festival a few months ago. I finally received these as an “official” release entitled Mill-Qalb but they were actually sneaked out on Soundcloud a couple of months ago. Anyway, I’ve been listening to the whole Mill-Qalb connection on a constant loop for a couple of days. I hope some of my listeners like this stuff as much as I do.

G-Force feat. Sempliciment tat-Triq – L-Arti tat-Triq
More Maltese-language delights come in the shape of a whole album from rapper G-Force, who teams up with a veritable who’s who of the local undergroup hip-hop scene for his album G-Forza 2012. This is the same collection where you’ll find last year’s video release Wasal Il-Ġimgħa, and from it I’ve picked the one featuring STT’s unique vocal stylings and crafty rhymes.

Rumbull – Da Journey
Keeping it hip-hop, I close this week’s podcast with a new track from British-born Maltese rapper Kevin Hayward. I particularly like the video for this one, which Rambull co-produced with Nick Morales. It shows that although this rapper doesn’t speak (much) Maltese on his releases, he is very much Maltese in the spirit of the the works that he produces. Being Maltese is certainly more than just use of the mother tongue. Bravo!

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: 19:09 — 17.6MB) | Embed

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