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Show notes for the 312th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Red Electrick – Make Up Your Mind
Red Electrick have done an excellent job with their Unplugged Sessions film. It’s stylish, moody and quite sophisticated. Just look at the video and make up your own mind, but even if you hear the recording featured on this week’s MMI podcast you’ll see that it sounds quite good. However, I’m always amused by unplugged sessions that featured plugged guitars, like the one featured from the skillful Peter Borg in the extended 70s-style solo at the end of this song. Well, Dorothy Bezzina’s backing vocals more than make up for that.

Yews – Traveller
I’m not sure that Yasmin Kuymizakis is intentionally enigmatic, but she certainly comes across unclearly – but in a good way. The video for this song was made by four students from the MCAST Institute of Art and Design: Nadine Falzon, Jorje Bosios, Giovan Baldacchino, Francesca Mercieca. I’ve featured her on a previous edition of the MMI podcast and have been waiting for another opportunity to do so. Well, here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=083xOJHRn_8

Hadrian Mansueto – Illusion
One of Malta’s electronica veterans now, has been featured on the MMI podcast since the first 50 editions. I’ve always enjoyed his cool acid jazz infused tracks. Here he even enlists the guitar sounds from another Maltese electronica veteran: Melchior Sultana. The combination is very pleasant to the ear, possibly even for people who are not particularly fond of this type of music. Well, at least I seem to think so.

Midnight Train – Drummer Boy
Alex Cutajar was one of the mainstays in Malta’s 1980s rock scene. He was always an alternative sort and many people have probably sadly forgotten him by now. His Korg MS20 synthesizer was one of the very first to be played with a band on the islands. His first band was one of the Tigne Rokarja creations called Shaktonix. He eventually join his brother Chalky playing for about five years with the Subverts, where he graduated to a Roland Juno 60. His musical days seemed behind him by the early 1990s, but he has now returned with a number of home made track available on his Reverbnation page. Well, I’m sure some people will be as pleased as I am to hear this stuff.

Nicholas Aquilina – Life
From time to time I like to feature oddities on my podcast. This one, along with the video for it, certainly falls in that category. I’m not sure what to make of it, but it reminds me of some of the earlier stuff released by Pink Pube, which reminds me to make sure I get back to that netlabel’s catalog in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, enjoy Nicholas Aquilina’s track, which I think works better if you watch the video rather than just hear it on the podcast. Well, this edition of the podcast has to end and this as good a place as any to end 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 311th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Lauren Aquilina – Lilo
The beautiful haunting voice of this British singer of Maltese descent is one of the greatest discoveries that my friend Kenneth J. Vella has sent my way this year. Don’t let the unassuming YouTube video (and others like it on her channel) fool you. This is a star in the making. And you’ll probably have heard her here first, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu2eKnz0TQ0

Ms Leads – September
While not particularly outstanding, this new band has improved by leaps and bounds since their debut just a few months ago. In time they will possibly join the legion of other alternative pop rock bands that dominate the young Maltese rock scene these days. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to include their stuff on the MMI podcast and I look forward to seeing them progress in their musical journey over the coming years.

Clayton & the Alter Egos – This Fire
No idea where this came from and whether it’s actually a gigging band. The video seems to indicate it’s some young people with quite a bit of free time on their hand and a little talent, which with today’s technology can clearly go a longer way then it used to in ages past. The song is pleasant enough and the video makes it rather worthy of inclusion on this week’s edition of the MMI podcast. Let’s see what happens next now, shall we?

Joe Demicoli – Kien Żball Tiegħek
Very much in the spirit of the Malta Music Memory Project, though not quite associated with it in any way (yet!) Joe Demicoli has been doing some really interesting work in organizing reunion meetings for musicians from Malta beat group (as they used to be called) scene. One such event took place on the 22 of March at the Tal-Ajka Band Club in Luqa. This song was originally released by the Followers in the 1970s and here features Charles Sacco on guitar, Sario Azzopardi on keyboards), Toni Borg on drums, John Falzon on bass, with Joe Demicoli as lead singer.

Prayer of the Dying – God’s Failed Creation
Martin Ciappara has reappeared with this POTD track that is an apt way to end this week’s podcast. I’m always impressed by the sheer energy that one man can create on these songs. The video doesn’t really do justice to the music, in my humble opinion. Then again, the video brings some rather deserved attention to POTD and this type of music, which would otherwise not sit too well with many regular listeners of this podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzWjogD7EDs

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: 20:45 — 19.1MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 310th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Tenishia – As It Should
Following last year’s success with the album Frozen Roads, Malta’s foremost electronic dance music duo return with a new album entitled Memory of a Dream. This particular track features the voice of Jan Johnstone and comes with a video that makes life in Malta look much more glamorous than it really is for most people. Perhaps this is indeed as it should be.

Toby feat. Marilyn Mifsud – Mitluf
It’s admirable that Toby Farrugia is acknowledging his Maltese heritage on his new album with this track. The album is called Traveling Without Moving and will be released tomorrow, 2 September 2012, at the Lovesexy event taking place at Ta’ Qali. Perhaps one day Toby will get even more adventurous and stop playing the tourist among the glorious wonders of his land of birth. Meanwhile this new offering will surely delight his many fans.

Duo Blank – Stars on Mars
After this song was released as a single last year, I was delighted to see it not only return as a track (with a variation) on Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia’s Propeller album earlier this year, but now also as a rather unusual video featuring the ever-delightful Undine LaVerve, directed by Ramon Mizzi, who is no stranger to the local music scene. Well, at least the release of the video has given me the opportunity to play this song again on this edition of the MMI podcast. Perhaps in time we’ll come to see this as one of the classic tracks on the local music scene. Why not?

Ethnamorte – Belt is-Seħer (Tissabbat m’Alla mix)
This is another song I’ve feature on a previous edition of the MMI podcast. However, this remix is simply to outrageous to pass up, so I’ve gladly included it on today’s show, even though I actually prefer the original by far. Perhaps it will serve to introduce this rather eclectic band to a new audience looking for something rather different from the usual sights and sounds.

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. Perhaps you’ll like it!

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

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Show notes for the 309th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Maria Lewis – Caccini’s Ave Maria
Maria Lewis is no ordinary Maltese singer. Aside from the fact that she is half-Welsh, she has always operated on the fringes of the Maltese music scene, even though she may be known to die-hard pop audiences through her various appearances with her sister Stephanie as the duo Starbrights. I remember them well in children’s song contests and making their first national debut at the 1991 Malta Song for Europe. More recently (about 4 years ago) they were also featured on the MMI podcast with their folksie pop. Finally Maria seems to have found her true calling in music. This is a veritable showcase for her lovely voice and I hope she keeps going in this new direction in the coming years.

The Sylvan Aaron Massacre – Tear
Sylvan Borg and Aaron Sammut return with another offering following the songs they released previously, which were featured on the MMI podcast. This song is made even more interesting by the video they’ve produced for it. I honestly doubt it would attract half the attention it’s going to get over the coming weeks were it not for this video, so I think the duo have done well to invest their time and efforts on making sure that the video is released along with the song rather than later.

Criminal Kiss – Freedom Call
There’s been some anticipation for this debut from this new Maltese band. It’s not a bad debut but I expect their best work to be ahead of them. The song has a pleasant bridge and the band have great potential in their vocal harmonies. I hope their next song plays up these strengths.

Hunters Palace – Hats Off (to Mintoff)
I couldn’t pass up playing this track (and the next) on this week’s podcast to mark the death of Dom Mintoff. The event is not only historical by phenomenal in ways that most people under 25 will find hard to understand. Comparisons are odious but Mintoff was undoubtedly one of the most significant people to ever lead the Malta. It’s remarkable that Hunters Palace had the hutzpa to namecheck him in this piece of music from 2001/2002 just a couple of years after he had been vilified by those who had previously proclaimed him as Malta’s saviour.

Tony Gauci – Ma Tagħmlu Xejn mal-Perit Mintoff
Of all the Maltese political songs, this is possibly the one that will still be around a hundred years from now. This version by seventies pop sensation Tony Gauci made the rounds on thousands of cassette tapes in the run-up to the 1981 General Elections. The paradoxical lyrics are simply delicious for any ethnomusicolist, particularly anyone willing to contrast them with the bile that’s customary in much of the Maltese hip-hop that’s been recorded over the past decade or so. Apologies for the sound quality on this song, but I suspect that it’s simply pulled raw from a cassette tape that spent one too many days in a scorching hot car stereo. I wonder where the original master tapes for this (and many other recordings of note) have ended.

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: 20:09 — 18.6MB) | Embed

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