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Show notes for the 263rd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Risis – Some Day
I first heard Jodi Heckenlaible sing when she was still young teenager. I was struck by her strong voice and hoped she would get the appropriate opportunities to develop it. Several years have passed since then and I’m quite glad that she didn’t go down the obvious pop route like so many of her contemporaries. She contacted me a few months ago to say she was looking for a band. I encouraged her to post a message on one of the pertinent Facebook groups. And now we have Risis. The fact that bassist James “Jelly” Attard is also in this band fills me with hope that something really good make come about from this young singer in the coming months and years.

Danjeli – Ġurnata Famuża
It’s no secret that I’m a great fan of Danjeli. He is one of the foremost new composers from Malta. I’m thrilled to bits whenever he releases, well anything. He regaled us a electro punk pop ditty that rivals his earlier masterpiece Iż-Żufjett, which first appeared in his album Kakofonija and was later revisited by Brikkuni in their album Kuntrabanda. I seriously doubt that this new song will see any airplay on any of the local radio stations.

Id-Delli – Id-Drinu L-Għasfur
Another Brikkuni member whose songs get no radio airplay is guitarist Steve “Id-Delli” Delia. He teamed up with Justin Galea for last month’s M3P gig at V-Gen under the guise of Duo Kukkanja. I’ve never really featured him on the MMI series, so I think it’s more than appropriate to include one of his delightful songs on this week’s podcast. He actually played a live version of this song at the V-Gen gig a few weeks ago, and I’m pleased to say that we’ve captured that on video, which will be released through the M3P website in the coming weeks.

Dry Connections – Walking Alone
This band only came to my attention a few weeks ago but apparently they’ve been at it for a while. They have a nice raw sound but they sound a little to wet behind the ears to be taken too seriously by anyone outside their immediate circle of support. However, I honestly believe they have the potential to make their sound attractive to a larger appreciative audience in the near future, particularly because they seem to be quite determined and even prolific.

Adie – Reaction
Like many of the singers and musician who attended the inaugural M3P conference at St James Cavalier last month, Adie gave me copies of her CDs to take home with me. I’m glad she did because I’m thus able to close this week’s podcast with her new single. There’s also a very decently produced video for this song, which I think deserves more attention that it has received so far, particularly by fans of her particular genre of music and associated styles.

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 262nd Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

TwoTimeShooter – Heather’s Rope
I’m not sure whether this is the recording that this band were expected to record in Ibiza after their success at the Rookies’ Battle of the bands last September. Regardless of this, they’ve also managed to produce an accompanying music video that’s really appropriate for this song. Still, I’m not sure I understand what the song is about but I’m quite pleased that this band has pushed on with their plans to leave their mark on the local music scene.

In The Name Of – Murderabilia
One of Malta’s foremost new black metal bands is delighting their fans with a well-crafted music video for a track from their debut album Deafen the Blind. The video is produced by Dirty Iris who also gave us other eye-catching clips for Lyndsay’s Going Under and Club Murder’s Order from Chaos among others. Incidentally, In The Name Of will be appearing with Club Murder, Indigo, Loathe and Norm Rejection at the Farsons Great Beer Festival on Monday 25 July 2011.

Insurgence – Unable To Heal
For those who like hardcore metal, today’s podcast offers a good selection of the genre (and its related styles) from relatively new acts. Insurgence is the more established of the bands featured in this edition of the MMI podcast. This recording comes from a live show the band did on the 19th of March 2011 at Remedy. If you want to catch them live, they will be appearing at Xtreme Metal Assault 2011 summer festival along with several other metal bands in mid-August. I’ll be featuring that festival again in an upcoming edition my podcast, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

ShadowBorne – The Beginning
The new styles of metal work really well to my ear when they are mixed with melodic elements. Newcomers ShadowBorne handle this really well by having two vocalists. Their debut release is appropriately titled and I came across it as a demo on SoundCloud. With a start like this, the band can only really get better. When they produce more recordings I’m pretty sure I’ll be featuring them again on 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 261st Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

Lyndsay – Love Sick
Going from strength to strength Lyndsay is proving herself to be a solid pop rock singer from Malta. I feel she’s seriously underrated whenever I see that she appears on a run of the mill Maltese TV show, but then again I suppose that’s the way singers like her can (still) get noticed in Malta.

Dimal – Hell Yeah
This Crimean rapper has most certainly made Malta his home and his presence on the Maltese hip hop scene gives it even more colour than it already has. His output is solid and I’m sure he will be around for many years to come. I’m surprised that he doesn’t have a stronger video presence than we’ve seen so far. Perhaps this is the next thing he will be focusing on in the coming months.

Stefanos – Fooling Yourself
Following on from his debut CD album, which was released last year, this Maltese rock guitarist returns with another CD album This new one is called Least Said, Soonest Mended. It again features collaborations with fellow rock guitarist Demis Fenech, but this time the collection contains two songs fronted by established Maltese rock singers: Eve Ransom’s Brandon Jackoson and Jordan Cutajar from Frenzy Mono and Nomad Son. The track I’ve picked is quite different from the rest and I must admit that it’s a style I prefer when it comes to the rock stylings of this guitarist.

Hunters Palace –  L-Oħxon u L-Irqiq
This band has taken on to experimenting not only with their musical arrangements in recent years, but also with lyrics in Maltese. This one is quintessentially Maltese not only because of the choice of language but also because of the turns of phrase you can hear in the sparse lyrics. It first came to my attention a couple of weeks ago when band member Alex Vella Gera mentioned it on his Facebook profile.  It’s actually a demo track from February 2011 sessions in London and it’s currently available as a free download from SoundCloud for a limited period.

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: 19:15 — 13.2MB) | Embed

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Show notes for the 260th Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast featuring music by performers from or in Malta:

I don’t really have much to say about this week’s selection other than the fact that most of these songs will receive (or are receiving) decent airplay on a number of radio stations in Malta right now. The notable exception is Marty Rivers song, which is an excellent specimen of country music by a Maltese performer. What follows is a list of the tracks as they appear on the podcast with links to the respective M3P page for each singer; in some cases there’s very little or nothing at all on the M3P so feel free to add whatever you know or can as needed.