Christmas Without You

For the last podcast for 2006 in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series, I've selected to play the music of four young men who have different tastes in music. This is reflected in the music they make, of course, making what they do sound familiar. I don't mean that there's no originality in their work. What I mean is that you can place any of these 4 acts on playlists within their genre and they would blend in perfectly.

The opening track is a new song from Ozzylino. He has released two new songs via MySpace from what appears to be an upcoming album or EP called Gone Solo. These tracks are dated 2007, so clearly there's a sense of forward thinking here. The one I've picked is called Leave Me Be.

That forward thinking I just mentioned propels me to look for new Maltese talent wherever I can find it. The newness of my finds varies from acts that have only just appeared on the scene to others than may have been around for a while but had not come to my attention until now. From what I can gather Sylvan Borg is a new name on the scene. He has released a song called Cold through his MySpace page, and you can hear it on my podcast this week.

Jay Omaro is someone who has already acquired some popularity and relatively extensive airplay is Malta. Since I don't live in Malta and I radio in Malta is something I've left behind completely, I had no idea he even existed until we found each other on MySpace. Jay seems to be one of the stronger voices within the growing R&B scene in Malta. I'm very pleased to see that there's now a happy medium (if that's the right thing to call it) between heavy rock and pop drivel, which sounds like neither one or the other. Listen to What's It Gonna Be and see if you agree.

To close the final podcast for 2006 I've chosen a tune from the heavy rock scene. Demis Fenech is the guitarist in a band called Sidereal, which has been active for a few years now. He has also recorded a number of instrumental numbers as a soloist. Beware is one of them and it's a great way to bring the series to a pause for the Christmas holidays.

The next podcast in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series will be released during the first weekend in 2007. That podcast will include the titles at the top of the lists on the 2006 Listener's Picks. Voting for the music from 2006 is open until the end of the year, so if you still haven't voted you can go vote now...if it's not 2007 yet as you read this.

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