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Show notes for the 288th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Duo Blank – Even
Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia return with their first radio release for 2012 featuring the vocal stylings of Errol Sammut. Duo Blank is one of the more mature electronic pop offerings from Malta, so they manage to do retro sounds without irony. Anyone who likes this sort of music will certainly think this is a great offering.

Stimulus Timbre – Garden of Rest
Keith Farrugia has been recording as Stimulus Timbre for a while but now we finally get a full album, entitled Euphoria. It was released by Complex Sound Sagacity on Bandcamp on 18 February 2012, following a release gig at Coach & Horses on Valley Road last night. I happen to like this type of music and I’m sure that others like me will appreciate the variety of influences handled with a distinctive twist on this album.

Simon Sammut – Bassic Attitude
About 30 years ago I used to remember a band called Hangover at the Tigne rock village. Soon after that, some of its members formed Rough Trade. Simon Sammut was the bass player for both those bands, but it would be very short sighted to think that he hasn’t progressed since then. In fact, he has gravitated towards playing jazz fusion on a six string bass and last year released an album called Bassic Attitude. It somehow escape,d my attention when it first came out, so I wanted to bring you a track from it now and make sure that information about Simon is entered on the M3P database as soon as possible.

Falcon’s Flying Circus – Sitting Bull (live)
From time to time I like to include live recordings on my weekly podcast. This one comes from a gig at Rookies in Bugibba by this psychadelic band on 24 September 2011. They’re playing there again on the 3rd of March. So, if you like what you hear here make sure you catch them at this next gig. I have a feeling that they sound even better live than this recording has managed to capture.

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 287th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Brikkuni – L-Uffiċju
The much awaited second album from the darlings of Malta’s alternative folk/rock scene was released today (Saturday 11 February 2011) with a live concert at the City Theatre in Valletta. Among all the new tracks, Trabokk features a reworking of this song, with which they won the 2009 edition of L-Għanja tal-Poplu festival. To top it all, they’ve also produced a promotional music video for it, shot entirely at the Belt is-Sebħ Public Library and starring the enfant terrible of Maltese pop literature Ġużé Stagno. This will undoubtedly achieve cult status in years to come.

Fastidju – Il-Faħam Qisu Tafal
Nigel Baldacchino’s Sajda is an art exhibition which opened at St. James Cavalier in Valletta on Friday 20 January and remains open until Sunday 26 February 2012. Fastidju is an associated sound/music project in which Baldacchino collaborates with Istishhad Hheva and Mario Sammut (Cygna) to produce a number of unusual a/tonal poems (or at least that’s what I’d call them) such as the one you can hear here. I don’t know much else about this project but I believe the exhibition is worth visiting, even though I’m unable to be in Valletta during the weeks that it’s open.

South Central – Dance of The Skeletons
The Maltese hooded duo from Brighton released an EP entitled Pitfalls and Corridors a few weeks ago and I’ve been wanting to feature a track from it on my podcast ever since. Well, here it is. I’m sure their fans will be delighted with this, particularly because this track features their signature buildup towards a veritable mosh pit frenzy the likes of which I’ve had the pleasure to witness in person more than once.

Mathematikal – That Kind of Girl
Currently enjoying great popularity on some of the commercial radio stations in Malta, Jon & Jay have certainly produced a hit with great potential. The music video they’ve produced to go with it really captures what I see as the spirit of their live acts. I managed to catch them live about 4 or 5 years ago at Poxx Bar (remember that place?) and they rocked the house. This is just an even better version of that.

Frans il-Ħamallu – Online Frans
This guy is arguably the king of the Maltese hip hop scene…well if not that, he’s certainly the undisputed court jester. ACTA is something he released an awareness clip about a couple of weeks ago, in relation the protest that was held today in Valletta. But this week we get a fantastic song, built on the famous White Stripes riff for Seven Nation Army. To my mind, it really doesn’t get much better than this. Fifty years from now, this stuff will be considered the best of the best that’s being produced now. Thankfully, some of us are able to appreciated it like a fresh ġbejna, which is what Frans would have us believe it is.

Mikiel – Diska Vili
Since we’re onto political satire, I think it’s very fitting to end this week’s podcast with a delightful little ditty from Michael Camilleri Haber, who beautifully captured the political climate in Malta during the first few weeks. It’s not really the sort of thing I would normally include in my podcast but it’s quite appropriate to follow MC Frans with this, even though Mikiel doesn’t really hold a candle up to François B.B.

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 286th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Natalie Gauci – Ha Ha Ha
Former Australia Pop Idol Natalie Gauci has toured Europe last summer and has now relocated to Cologne, Germany where she has been recording, writing and producing new tunes set for release 2012. This is the first of those tracks for the album that’s going to be called U. I really like the new direction she has taken, and I’m a great sucker for anything with a tuba.

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

Kantilena – X’Ubidù?!
Several months ago I heard snippets from this new band on one of their social media pages (probably Reverbnation) and I really wanted to wrap my ears around full tracks and finally here we are with their debut release, which was launched on their Facebook page 31 January 2012. They are not only remarkable because their songs are in Maltese but they also have a refreshing approach to folk music, which I’d really like to hear more of in the coming months and years.

Jesper Ejrup – Holding On To You
This Danish singer-songwriter is slowly but surely becoming a permanent feature of the local music scene. The video for his new song was not only produced by Maltese production company No Sweat Productions with HeartBeat Productions, but it is also shot in Malta and features some very uniquely Maltese elements. I also like this song particularly because, to my mind, it echoes some of the traditional guitar licks at the heart of Maltese għana, without overdoing it.

Ħolma Qattusa – Eyalura
Martha Vassallo is a new performer to me, but somehow I feel like I’m already familiar with her work; it’s an eerie feeling. I’m delighted that she is now collaborating with Antoine Vella (of Particle Blue fame) on this new project, which has already yielded several tracks available on YouTube and Soundcloud. I’m sure I’ll be playing another track from them in an upcoming edition of the MMI podcast, especially if they keep producing new tracks too.

Stefanos – Rescue Me
Guitarist Stefanos is working on another album, called Still Waters Run Deep, which he plans to release around September 2012. It’s likely that he will release at least one other track from it between now and the official launch. I prefer his acoustic tracks, but I must say that this one is among the best electric tunes that he has ever produced.

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: 20:22 — 14.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More