Sleevenotes:Things open with a sample from
The Wire (
an HBO TV series), and there are several more throughout the mix. The fifth and final series was broadcast in 2008.
The
Elvis loop is employed as is S.O.P., this time with some delay and stereo-phasing effects.
There is then an excerpt from a 1967 Christmas record by the lyrical geniuses that brought you
Why Don't We Do It In The Road? and
Octopus's Garden. More on this record can be found at
beatlesbible.com.
John Baker was a BBC Radiophonic Workshop musician with a background in jazz, his track Commercial Christmas features a cash register playing
O, Come All Ye Faithful, and I would hazard a guess that it was done by splicing bits of tape together. In 2008
Trunk Records released a 2CD compilation
The John Baker Tapes, although this track isn't on it.
Little is known about folk violinist
Blind Alfred Reed.
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live is one of his most famous songs, dating from 1929, and appears on the compilation Harry Smith's
Anthology of American Folk Music Volume 4 (Folkways), and also the unimaginatively named
Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, which title gets top marks for accuracy though. An early protest song, Blind Alfred Reed was clearly no fan of preachers, doctors, police or shopping.
A quick sample, then
Christmas Time in Harlem -
Louis Armstrong & The All Stars (1955)
The first of the Sounds of Space appears here:
Earth - Proton Whistlers, in order to link the end of Satchmo with Q-Burns Abstract Message Remix of Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers'
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. This track and the two remixes later in the mix are all taken from
Merry Mixmas.
Second Sound of Space - storms on Saturn
, very much the party planet of the bunch
. Merry Christmas, Baby - Otis Redding. Another extract from The Beatles Christmas Record 1967 (official version).
Dean Martin does a marvellous
To His Coy Mistress turn to an unnamed beauty - plying her with drink and cigarettes and visions of her untimely demise as a consequence of venturing out into the weather rather than letting him... you know -
Baby, It's Cold Outside - remixed by Mark Rae and Rhys Adams as an ARP production.
The 'Music from 2008' section opens with Adam Buxton's alternative
Quantum of Solace themetune, which has some lovely gags I won't spoil here. The Raconteurs
The Switch & The Spur links to that (from
Consolers of the Lonely on
XL Recordings), and there is always something very festive about trumpets, even if they have a
mariachi feel to them.
Such bravado must be followed by a cautionary tale, and so after a quick sample from
The Wire when they were doing their unsubtle drugs-war-as-metaphor-for-Iraq thing, Bonnie Prince Billy & Harem Scarem & Alex Neilsen do the traditional Irish ballad
Molly Bawn. This was recorded in 2006 but only saw release this year, and is reviewed by yrstrly
here.
Micah P. Hinson & The Red Empire Orchestra released an album of the same name on
Full Time Hobby. I included the track
When We Embraced as it has some amusing statements about attitudes towards the future.
A Jovian Chorus, by Jupiter!
I saw Tom Waits again this year, but instead of foisting another of his tunes on you, here instead is Scarlett Johannson covering
Fanning Street, with backing vocals from one D. Bowie. This spans the two mp3s.
Razor Sadness & The Crumbling Beauties -
Last Snowstorm of the Year. In the post-production I ended up stripping it back quite a lot, so believe it or not this is the minimalist version. More info
here.
Half Man Half Biscuit -
Petty Sessions from
CSI:Ambleside. Really only on for the Dial-A-Pizza joke.
Music from the opening credits to Season Four of
The Wire, another Tom Waits cover, as it happens, but I preferred Season Four's opening music to Five's, and marking the (kind-of) end of the 2008 bit.
'Uncle' Dave Macon -
Wreck Of The Tennessee Gravy Train. Another selection from the Harry Smith compilation. "Uncle Dave Macon (October 7, 1870 - March 22, 1952)—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"— was an American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian known for his chin whiskers, plug hat, gold teeth, and gates-ajar collar." (Wikipedia)
Nancy Wilson -
The Christmas Waltz (awayTEAM Remix). I like the fact that they've kept in the lyrics about "this song of mine/in three-quarter time" whilst turning it into a four-four house frug.
Now, if an idea is worth doing once, it's worth doing twice. More proton whistlers bridge Nancy to
Eels - Christmas is Going to the Dogs - not the only Christmas song to be sung by Mr. E, and collected on the festive-sounding
Useless Trinkets compilation.
Spiritualized -
Sweet Talk, a partial return to form, the last two Spiritualized albums being stinkers.
Songs in A&E is a good album, although Jason Pierce's voice is still too high in the mix, as a general rule.
I'm astonished I haven't used Ray Charles' version of
Little Drummer Boy before. One of the most ridiculous of all modern Christmas tunes, a made-up story bolted on to the traditional Nativity scene (the accuracy or otherwise of which will not be commented on here), fleshed out with all manner of weirdness ("The ox and lamb kept time" anyone?). And then Ray sexes up the coda, layering all sorts of meaning onto the simple playing of a drum.
There then follows a lengthy and self-indulgent section of David Foster Wallace reading from
this book. I've been a member of the wallace-l for several years, and DFW wrote some of the best essays, short stories and novels I have ever read. He died this year aged 46.
To lift the tone, or perhaps lower it, Frank Sidebottom -
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, then a final extract from The Beatles' Christmas Record 1967.
