2009: Music
by Toni Sant
2009 marks the year that contemporary Maltese music saw lyrics in the indigenous language receive mainstream attention for the first time in three decades. Following on from the underground success of Xtruppaw and Brikkuni's Għanja tal-Poplu break-through in previous years, this year No Bling Show not only released an outstanding album of new Maltese-language songs under the title Stejjer mill-Bandli (tal-Mosta), but also produced a highly-acclaimed music video for one of the tracks from it. It was also the year that The Rifffs released their debut album entitled Moonstomp, which was one of the main reasons why they reunited a couple of years back, after a hiatus that lasted over 25 years. Those less adventurous in their popular musical tastes had to live with what may eventually amount to a decisive moment with the Eurovision Song Contest mega-disappointment that came with Chiara's third appearance in front of her erstwhile appreciative fans across Europe. All in all this year felt like the scales had began to tip towards a change in what the public wants and what musicians with new ideas are willing to produce.
We've now come to expect at least a couple dozen decent album releases from Malta every year. This year's crop was not disappointing and yielded close to three dozen ablums. Aside from the aforementioned offerings from No Bling Show and The Rifffs, the top sellers were Fire's Thrill Me, Salt's Less Noise More Love, Tribali's Elephants of Lanka. Other albums that stood out in 2009 include Paul Giordimaina's Letter to Bernie, Simon Vella's Unspoken: Sounds from Within, Pamela's Whispers, Sasha and Sam's The Space Within, NV's Envy, and Fr Karm Debattista's Min Hu Dan it-Tifel? Metal fans warmly received Foresaken's After the Fall, Abysmal Torment's Omnicide, Knockturn Alley's Medusa, and Twenty-Six Other-Worlds' Manipulated, while reggae lovers undoubtedly welcomed the arrival of the net label Dub Key Records, which released At The Temple of Dub by Mind's Eye Dub and Manwel T as well as Manwel T's own Virtual Dub, along with other free downloads in 2009. As an online label from Malta, it is only rivaled by the Pinkpube, which wisely has stuck to releasing underground electronica for the fourth year in a row.
In the parallel universe that is the Eurovision Song Contest, Malta's strategy for 2009 consisted of sending the hugely popular singer Chiara who had already placed 3rd in 1998 and 2nd in 2005 to attempt to clinch the elusive top place on the world's largest non-sport television event. She managed to return Malta to the final for the first time since 2006 but the subdued choice of staging and a less than stellar song delivered a major disappointment for the Maltese singer and her legion of fans. It has now become evident that for the country to reap any considerable benefits from participating in this pan-European song contest a serious rethink of what Malta's entry is all about is an absolute must. From early indications in the national selection process it would appear that no such undertaking is forthcoming for 2010.
Speaking of 2010, I'm grateful to Vodafone for making it possible for my Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast to continue towards the 200th edition and beyond in the coming months. The podcast is a great way to keep abreast of the Maltese music scene, even if my personal taste sometimes plays into the selection of what's featured on the series. I've only captured random hightlights from the year 2009 in Maltese music on this page. The podcast is a much better chronicle of all the highs and lows in any given year. Full details are always available on my blog at ToniSant.com.
by Toni Sant
2009 marks the year that contemporary Maltese music saw lyrics in the indigenous language receive mainstream attention for the first time in three decades. Following on from the underground success of Xtruppaw and Brikkuni's Għanja tal-Poplu break-through in previous years, this year No Bling Show not only released an outstanding album of new Maltese-language songs under the title Stejjer mill-Bandli (tal-Mosta), but also produced a highly-acclaimed music video for one of the tracks from it. It was also the year that The Rifffs released their debut album entitled Moonstomp, which was one of the main reasons why they reunited a couple of years back, after a hiatus that lasted over 25 years. Those less adventurous in their popular musical tastes had to live with what may eventually amount to a decisive moment with the Eurovision Song Contest mega-disappointment that came with Chiara's third appearance in front of her erstwhile appreciative fans across Europe. All in all this year felt like the scales had began to tip towards a change in what the public wants and what musicians with new ideas are willing to produce.We've now come to expect at least a couple dozen decent album releases from Malta every year. This year's crop was not disappointing and yielded close to three dozen ablums. Aside from the aforementioned offerings from No Bling Show and The Rifffs, the top sellers were Fire's Thrill Me, Salt's Less Noise More Love, Tribali's Elephants of Lanka. Other albums that stood out in 2009 include Paul Giordimaina's Letter to Bernie, Simon Vella's Unspoken: Sounds from Within, Pamela's Whispers, Sasha and Sam's The Space Within, NV's Envy, and Fr Karm Debattista's Min Hu Dan it-Tifel? Metal fans warmly received Foresaken's After the Fall, Abysmal Torment's Omnicide, Knockturn Alley's Medusa, and Twenty-Six Other-Worlds' Manipulated, while reggae lovers undoubtedly welcomed the arrival of the net label Dub Key Records, which released At The Temple of Dub by Mind's Eye Dub and Manwel T as well as Manwel T's own Virtual Dub, along with other free downloads in 2009. As an online label from Malta, it is only rivaled by the Pinkpube, which wisely has stuck to releasing underground electronica for the fourth year in a row.EP releases weren't as abundant as the previous year in 2009. In spite of this there were a handful of significant EPs issued during the past year. These ranged from the melodic It's Complex by Carrie Haber and Running in Circles by Chasing Pandora to the punky Hygene by Cable 35 and Your Head Is Too Big For Your Crown by Skimmed, with things like 8 Ugly's Lady Let It Lie, Airport Impressions' Seeing With Eyes Closed, and For Strings Inn's With Strings Attached in between. MySpace and YouTube were augmented considerably by Facebook throughout 2009. While the other sites remain the preferred repositories from music and video respectively, it's quite evident that larger audiences can be reached on the new social networking site, which has attracted a general public looking for much more than music or video clips. A number of outstanding videos deserve to be mentioned along with No Bling Show's Lucija u Samwel, which overshadowed all others with its over-all production values. On any other year, Funky Frans by cartoon character MC Frans, Carrie Haber's Me Oh My, Miriam Christine's Alone Again, Claudia Faniello's Wild Flower, Ally's Do You Miss Me? or even Brian Vassallo's soundtrack for Ramon Mizzi's In The End would have received greater attention, because they deserve it anyway. Other than a joint concert at Tattingers by Xtruppaw and Brikkuni on 7 December, the standout event of the year has to be Porn: The Musical. This new comedy musical by Maltese scriptwriter Malcolm Galea and musicians Boris Cezek and Kris Spiteri premiered on 6 March 2009 at MITP in Valletta. It was then restaged for a weeklong run at Argotti Gardens in July 2009 and eventually headed off to the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it ran at the George 4 from 7 until 31 August. |  |
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In the parallel universe that is the Eurovision Song Contest, Malta's strategy for 2009 consisted of sending the hugely popular singer Chiara who had already placed 3rd in 1998 and 2nd in 2005 to attempt to clinch the elusive top place on the world's largest non-sport television event. She managed to return Malta to the final for the first time since 2006 but the subdued choice of staging and a less than stellar song delivered a major disappointment for the Maltese singer and her legion of fans. It has now become evident that for the country to reap any considerable benefits from participating in this pan-European song contest a serious rethink of what Malta's entry is all about is an absolute must. From early indications in the national selection process it would appear that no such undertaking is forthcoming for 2010.Speaking of 2010, I'm grateful to Vodafone for making it possible for my Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast to continue towards the 200th edition and beyond in the coming months. The podcast is a great way to keep abreast of the Maltese music scene, even if my personal taste sometimes plays into the selection of what's featured on the series. I've only captured random hightlights from the year 2009 in Maltese music on this page. The podcast is a much better chronicle of all the highs and lows in any given year. Full details are always available on my blog at ToniSant.com.