{Published in The Times of Malta, 27/10/2010, p.22}
Given To Fly
Tattingers nightclub was rammed to the rafters with fans who turned up for Airport Impressions’ launch of their debut album Minutes Of A Lifetime last Friday. Starting from humble origins as an acoustic duo formed by Errol Sammut and Johann Schembri in 2005, this local band eventually evolved into its current four–piece line-up that includes Steve Farrugia and Chris Curmi. They have won 5 local music awards whilst also gaining quite the fanbase thanks to their well crafted tunes and engaging gigs.
The band came out on stage to a Riverdance styled instrumental and started with Minutes Of A Lifetime opener David Played Guitar, following swiftly with their current single Freedom. The four musicians’ accumulated excitement seemed to get the better of them during these first few numbers, as they all appeared slightly too eager to force a performance out of themselves.
When they had exerted their excess adrenaline, they began to really hit their stride. Fear For Life was particularly stunning; Errol’s wavering falsetto whirled around the venue over Farrugia’s thumping drumming during the song’s middle section.
The setlist also included a couple of songs from the band’s 2009 EP Seeing With Eyes Closed. Wake Up featured violinist Kathleen Cardona who enhanced the song’s Irish qualities, and mid-way through an understated performance of The Air We Breathe, Malta’s pop-rock princess and fellow Jagged House label-mate Ira Losco walked out on stage to join Errol on vocal duties to the delight of the crowd. Ira’s smoothly cool vocals complemented Errol’s mercurial timbre surprisingly well, and this in turn compensated for what would have otherwise been a completely cheesy tactic.
Barely giving anyone a chance to – ahem - breathe, guitarist Johann Schembri teased the audience with the opening riff notes of the band’s soul-searching stomper Walk With Me, which since its radio release earlier this year has become one of their most instantly recognizable singles. The whole club erupted into a hubbub of epicene shrieks and roars that couldn’t even be drowned out when the full band dived into the song. Errol sang the middle-8 line - “When you got a soul then you feel alright” - like his life depended on it, resultantly forcing everyone to chant the lyric back to him word for word, hands striking the air. Red streamers were then shot out, and floated serenely above the pulsating crowd for the remainder of the song.
“He is in seventh heaven tonight,” Errol remarked whilst pointing to his left at Johann. Soaking up the passionate response, the guitarist certainly had a boyish beam glued to his face, and to be fair all four of them were practically levitating with delight.
They followed with back-to-back performances of two of the new album’s highlights, Elusive and Long Way Gone. Both beautifully crafted songs with soaring melodies that just keep growing and growing until they reach ethereal proportions.
These songs will doubtlessly become another two of the band’s near-future live favorites, so this night offered the crowd an opportunity to stay quiet and simply lose themselves in the band’s live performance while the songs are still only vaguely familiar.
Errol, in particular, was captivating to watch during these numbers. He sang with a heart-wrenching intensity and a faraway look in his eyes, which seemed to suggest that while he was physically present in the room, his mind was completely submerged in the narrative of the songs; engaged in channeling every last drop of emotion inside himself to his audience. Given this sort of evidence it is impossible not to realise that Sammut is slowly but surely becoming an unparalleled frontman on the local music scene.
Airport Impressions finished off the night with an encore of their eerily epic Borderline. In front of the stage, some of the crowd’s more slender members were lifted onto their friends’ shoulders. Session guitarist Wayne Camilleri delivered the euphoric guitar solo, setting up the song’s irresistible vocal hook-line of "Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohh,” which turned the crowd into a collective chorus, singing the line over and over and then some. The veins on Errol’s neck alarmingly protruded as he drained the last of his stored energy on this final number. The band took their bows to ear-pounding cheers and applause from a crowd drunk on two hours of pure musical emotion.
It was a truly impressive gig, even more so considering the added pressures of it being the band’s album launch where most in the audience were only really familiar with a handful of songs in the set. With Minutes Of A Lifetime now released to the public, the future looks decisively bright for Airport Impressions.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Voices: Listen to the Music ~ MCC, Valletta, 08/10/2010
A shot of vocal adrenaline
Voices is back, and this year it is celebrating its 20th birthday. Twenty years of producing increasingly popular choir shows, all of which have been organized and performed entirely by volunteers, is already an achievement to be extremely proud of, but Voices also has the added satisfaction of knowing that since its conception it has helped raise well over a million Euros for local and international charitable causes.
Once everyone had leisurely found their allocated seat in the MCC’s Republic Hall, the choir filed out on stage to a flurry of cheers. A number of choir members were greeted with called-out encouragements from friends and family who were present in the audience.
The two comperes Joseph Bonello and Ronnie Briffa, introduced the theme of this year’s Voices shows, Listen to the Music, with the help of a short video, urging the audience to really listen out for those around us in our daily lives who are in need. The two hosts made for a really entertaining double act; their comical sparring and bantering was laugh-out-loud funny throughout.
With everyone set, the Voices band laid down the breezy music to opening number Now We Are Free, signature piece from the soundtrack of the film Gladiator. The choir gently merged with the instrumental music, gradually building in volume, sounding heavenly.
This grand opening was followed with the jazzy pop of Sting’s We’ll Be Together, which was sung as a duet between Justin Galea and Sandrina Degabriele. The two singers sang with gusto and set the standard for the rest of the soloists of the night.
Because the Voices choir is made up of mostly amateur singers, it is always interesting to see the different category of solo performers that take the stage. Singers such as Vanessa Gatt and Louisa Wirth, who sung Beautiful and Hallelujah respectively, blew the audience away with the great technical vocal ability they possess.
Other performers’ chief merits lay in different qualities such as charisma and showmanship. In this vein was Anne Marie Mayo who sang an infectiously delightful version of the Doobie Brother’s Listen to the Music. With a smile that lit up the room, Ms Mayo wiggled and jiggled her way through one of the show’s most enjoyable numbers.
A few songs into the second half, choir director Martina Caruana explained the cogs and wheels of the choir to the audience. Each of the choir’s vocal sections began to sing their designated parts after a sequential introduction, collectively uniting for a charming a cappella medley of traditional Maltese songs. Sounding confident and perfectly harmonious, the choir proved that while it may be amateur, it still has abundant skill and talent.
After this Gianluca Bezzina took the stage, delivering a stellar performance of Viva La Vida. The young singer really worked the crowd and fully embodied the spirit of the Coldplay anthem.
If each audience member was allowed to cast a vote to select the performance of the night, there surely could have only been one sure fire winner. One did not need to be an expert in classical music and all of its complexities to realise that Edward Camilleri gave a world-class performance of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. There were spontaneous bursts of applause seconds after Mr Camilleri’s elegant tenor vocals began to soar across the auditorium. Half the audience was already on its feet during the climactic “Vincerò!” segment, with the other half swiftly following suit as the aria drew to a close. Mr Camilleri – who was also celebrating his birthday on the night – appeared to be genuinely moved by the affectionate response he was given.
After a double dose of disco classics I Will Survive and Voulez-Vous, and an electrifying final encore of Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa), which got most of the audience out of their seats happily clapping and singing along, the Voices choir and musicians left the stage to go home and get some well-deserved rest.
Having to perform ten demanding shows on top of the countless rehearsal sessions must be quite a daunting undertaking. So how does Voices manage to keep veteran and virgin volunteers so readily willing to give up their own precious free time and take part?
Choir member Ruth Grima, who is taking part in her fifth consecutive edition of Voices this year, describes the experience so; “Since Voices concerts are held every two years, going back is like one big family reunion. Although it is hard work, we always have the time of our lives performing and it feels so rewarding to know we are helping good causes. We only hope that the attending audiences experience the same sense of fun and joy we feel.”
With a great selection of songs and enough energy to compete with a Zumba dance group, one can’t help but feel the joy and good spirit at a Voices show … even if they tried.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Wirdien - Il-Masġar, Mtarfa 02/10/2010
Plato’s Dream Machine were the first to take the stage. The band finally seem to be fulfilling their collective musical potential, and sounded daring and convincing on the night. Robert Farrugia Flores’ gravelly vocals juxtaposed with the shouts and harmonies of other band members were spot on, and on songs such as Recession Street and Sugar in Your Poison they began to resemble some sort of bizarre didactic street rabble one might see in a village festa; the theme of their ravings being social unrest however and not saintly patronage.
The Maltese penned songs in PDM’s set, Fabbrika fuq l-Għolja and two new songs not featured on their debut EP, were where the band really came into their own. Flores emoted and enunciated better when singing in his native tongue, consequently allowing the lyrics to come across with endearing passionate credibility and authenticity.
While Brikkuni and PDM evoke an air of defiance and an ‘us-against-the-world’ disposition, second band of the night Stalko come across as the more charming, romantic brethren, and the least cockroach-like, of this nu-folk, movement. They opened with Flotsam and followed with Il-Mara ta’ fuq il-Bejt.
Apart from the piano, acoustic guitar, violin and bass that form the core of Stalko’s instrumentation, the four piece also made use of a number of other instruments during their set, including a xylophone, harmonica, accordion, ukulele and even a melodica, each adding delicate brushstrokes of colour to the band’s minimalist canvas.
Stalko could have been tighter as a unit in places and their harmonies need some fine-tuning, but with the help of their ambitiously crafted songs and the friendly banter of lead vocalist and pianist Tim Ellis, they received a very warm response and are beginning to garner quite the loyal following.
It would be fair to say that the majority of the people who attended Wirdien specifically went to see the live ensemble jamboree that is Brikkuni. The crowd greeted the band on stage as heroes of sorts. They wasted no time warming into their set, jumping straight into favourite Kollox Suġġettiv, which in its own way sums up why Brikkuni are so popular.
First of all there is its music, a sound that despite its various noticeable strings of international DNA is still somehow unmistakably Maltese. Kollox Suġġettiv’s opening guitar strumming and drawn out vocal melody hint at traditional Maltese għana, and its chorus has the sort of melody and drive that could be easily translated into a festive march for a local banda, which gets the crowd at Wirdien bouncing along accordingly.
Secondly there are Kollox Suġġettiv’s lyrics, a commentary tale on stars-in-their-eyes Malta. Mario Vella’s vocals drenched in sarcasm during lines such as “għax kulħadd inpestat bit-talenti,” one second theatrically comical, next vehemently truthful. Listening to the crowd at Wirdien sing along word for word, you realize how well this song unapologetically voices what previously most people only dared to think.
Unfortunately Brikkuni’s set was cut severely short by the police, due to complaints from nearby residents over the loud noise. Vella, who made it distinctly clear what he thought of the situation and the attendant policeman (several times in fact), urged the crowd to sing as loud as they possibly could and give the band a memorable last number on Gadazz Ġiljan.
After this the plug was pulled on the front-of-house sound, but still the band persisted on stage. With just their onstage amplifiers and monitors they managed to deliver a seventh and final song Kontra Kollox u Kulħadd - an apt title given the circumstances – relying on the boisterous crowd to keep the noise levels booming. In truth, the turn of events will do no harm to Brikkuni’s anti-establishment notoriety, even if they probably would have preferred to play their full planned set for their paying devotees.
Maybe it is because of a growing disillusionment with how all that is hi-tech and corporate has drastically taken over music during the last decade, or maybe it is just another one of those cyclical trends, but folk music has had a renaissance of sorts in the international music scene. The UK has critically acclaimed Mumford & Sons and Bellowhead. The US has Fleet Foxes. Arguably Malta has Brikkuni, who have not only revived folk music on the island but also made Maltese penned songs relevant and current. PDM and Stalko are as yet in their infancy as bands, but a few years down the line might prove that they too will leave their own respective marks on local music.
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