Low – Christmas

Low – Christmas

One of the few bands where the tonal quality is perfectly foreshadowed by their working title, Low’s Christmas album is an indie-lovers holiday dream come true. Featuring their glacially paced song-crafting, their covers of “Blue Christmas” and “Silent Night” accentuate the lyrical melancholy and tenderness, respectively. Their self-penned opening track, “Just Like Christmas”, is sonically rich with a trotting drum beat, sleigh bells, and layered backing harmonies that recall Phil Spector’s own yuletide recordings (which are currently, tragically out of print). Granted, this album isn’t new. Supposedly, their version of “Little Drummer Boy” was once featured in a Gap ad. But listening to its ethereal angelically-voiced chorus and a snare that’s avalanched with so much distortion, you’d swear the drummer was “rata-tat-tating” sheets of aluminum foil, you’ll acknowledge its cinematic appeal instantly. Housed in a paper slipcase illustrated with snowflakes drifting down on a wide open field, Low’s “Christmas” is a welcome moment of solitude.

Various Artists – Where Will You Be Christmas Day?

Various Artists – Where Will You Be Christmas Day?

As if the Ghost Of Christmas Past is suddenly haunting your speakers, Where Will You Be Christmas Day saves twenty-four dusty and ancient devotional hymns from the inescapable coffin of oblivion. Time traveling between the periods 1917 to 1959, musical genres hopscotch from the Alabama Sacred Harp sung hymnals “Sherburne” (1957), the New Orleans hot jazz swing of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers version of “Gee, Ain’t I Good To You?”(1929), to prison chain gang acappella harmonization on “Holy Babe” (1939). Curated by musicologist and programmer of the Obsolete Music Hour on Washington D.C. radio station WAMU, selections range from the secular wishing for Santa Claus to the religious praising of Jesus Christ. The commercial rush of modern Christmas can often bury the holiday cheer under mounds of commerce-related receipts. Hearing this, you step back into a simpler world where jam, butter and fresh baked bread are acknowledged as esteemed gifts.

Jonathan Kane - The Little Drummer Boy

Jonathan Kane - The Little Drummer Boy

If any Christmas song allows for a percussive-lengthened exploration, the marching beat of “Little Drummer Boy” certainly would be the first to stand at attention. Former Swans drummer and downtown New York avant-garde musical player, Jonathan Kane, handles all the duties on his 15-minute version of this single holiday standard. Recorded for the ultra-experimental (or pretentiously high brow, depending on your artistic discern) recording label, Table Of The Elements, you’d expect a thunderous, unapologetic cutting edge performance. Instead, he slow-burns out a Mississippi electric blues instrumental scorcher. Outfitted with a Civil War marching drum cadence, a thick, reverberating bass line, and squalling guitar riffs, you may wonder what Southern juke joint this was recorded in. Intensity starts to build at the eight minute mark, with the muscling of the drums and a few wilder slashes on the electric axe, but everything is reigned in by its 12-bar finish.

Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra - A Very Ping Pong Christmas: Funky Treats From Santa's Bag

Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra - A Very Ping Pong Christmas: Funky Treats From Santa's Bag

As a musician who builds his compositions by using his MPC sampler as opposed to a conductor’s wand, Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra mimics the “sound libraries” that television producers hunted through, desperate to find the perfect funky getaway theme for their Starskey & Hutch chase scenes. Varying stylistically from Bollywood soundtracks, druggy psychedelic rock, and finger-popping, high-strutting funk, Shawn Lee takes advantage of the open space behind the memorable melodies of Christmas classics. Caroler’s dreariest selection, “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” gets updated with a James Brown beat, a chicken scratching guitar rhythm, and an acid-drenched lead guitar. “O Come All Ye Faithful” opens with a drum break that seems stolen from Otis Redding's classic "Tramp", while the Memphis-sounding horns blare out the tune “Do You Hear What I Hear” that has to be from a lost Al Green B-side. Look out! Grandpa’s got a brand new hip.

Various Artists – Best Of Christmas Cocktails

Various Artists – Best Of Christmas Cocktails

For some, the holidays are the welcome arrival of a whole new slew of alcoholic drinks. Mulled wine, stiffly prepared eggnog, and coffee heated with various blended concoctions of spirits and liqueurs. For those types of gatherings, why look past the honored background music that have been swinging bachelor pads since the Rat Pack? The Best Of Christmas Cocktails combines into one album, the best of a three volume series that focused on 1950’s popular vocalist and bandleaders. For guests who consider these songs too kitschy to be entertaining, show those squares the door. From Dean Martin’s warm croon “Winter Wonderland” to the cute bubblegum pop of Ray Anthony’s “Christmas Kisses”, everything seems brightened with blasting brass ensembles or prettied with soaring string arrangements. And when the exotic slack key guitar on Bob Atcher “Christmas Island” has you dreaming of the Maui break, you’ll want to dust out your Tiki glasses for a round of toasts and shots

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas

Can Christmas really exist without the memories of Charlie Brown and his wilting baby pine tree, and the remarkable orchestrated soundtrack Vince Guaraldi crafted for it? As a kid, Christmas television so often repeated the same holiday classics, that getting tikes to fall asleep seemed its crooked purpose. But the Peanut’s score rendered perfectly the humorous, tender and innocent nature of the animated special, keeping you focused the whole time. Vince Guaraldi envisions the delightful sprinkling of snowfall on “Skating” with an ostinato run along the piano’s upper register. And memories of a hind-leg stepping Snoopy are permenantly stamped to “Linus and Lucy”’s toe-tapping riff. Admittedly, I’m tempted to bump pass the pubescent voices that creak on “Hark, The Hearald Angels Sing”, but they dissipate after a single refrain and the upbeat snap of “Christmas Is Coming” arrives before you can lift yourself from your futon. This is the timeless essential.

John Fahey – The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Solo Christmas Album

John Fahey – The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Solo Christmas Album

As a wizard of technique, John Fahey transcended what was originally thought impossible to accomplish on an acoustic guitar. His recordings could summon up the deepest of Mississippi blues, jump across the globe to investigate the meditative possibilities of Indian ragas or unnerve his audience with pure avant-garde dissonance. Incredibly, it was his Christmas albums that captured the lion’s share of the attention from his immense catalog. With straightforward appeal, Fahey plucks out resounding versions of holiday classics, rich in acoustics and sounding perfectly conceived for snow-covered cottages warmed with wood-burning stoves. Giving each tune just over two minutes of time, he sparks the melodies to life with inspired soloing that highlights rather than steals the spotlight. As a bonus, this re-issue is coupled with a second album “Christmas With John Fahey Vol II,” which adds the accompaniment of guitarist Richard Ruskin for splendid, lengthier arrangements. A true classic.

Pylon - Gyrate

Pylon – Gyrate

Arriving, surprisingly, out of the Athens, Georgia college scene that fostered the careers of R.E.M. and B-52’s, Pylon coupled their dub bass lines to the motorik-drumming techniques of krautrock, all colored with ripping, angular shards of lead guitar and a mouthful of direct, punchy lyrics vocalized by front woman and registered nurse Vanessa Briscoe Hay. With a sound that could imitate the dance-punk bop of Gang Of Four to a more controlled version of female avant-punk of LiLiPut, the arrival of this long-undiscovered gem re-asserts the Pylon’s influence into a region that has rarely been connected with the associated “art-cool” of post-punk. Though all sixteen tracks can eventually wear thin when consumed in one sitting, the passionate and of-kilter arrangement of their songs (the Talking Heads subtle rhythm on “Gravity” and percolating guitar tones on “Cool”) fashion this as the perfect companion for bopping in your art studio. "In my top 100 of all time, this record falls very near the top", says R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. You can believe him, right?

LCD Soundsystem - 45:33

LCD Soundsystem – 45:33

Commissioned by Nike as part of their Original Run series, James Murphey’s LCD Soundsystem has the baton smacked in their palm after previous outings by Aesop Rock and Crystal Method. The rules are easy: build a continuous cycle of music paced to an tailored arc for running or exercising – a stretching, slow intro, a hyper-kinetic center, and a relaxed ending. LCD Soundsystem delivers in spades a mix branded with their own space-disco, electroclash sound. The workout begins with a simple synth riff (Headband, check. Laces tighten) that flutters into a soulful disco bounce (Warm-up walk started). The momentum increases gradually; a funky tech-house track merges straight into the electro-disco shimmering (Jogging with long strides) that’s often favored by the nightlife remixes James Murphey produces under his DFA-label moniker. By its peak (Heartbeat pounding) and eventual warm down (Gatorade please), the headspace you’ve cursed in, is a welcome relief from the usual metronome of deep breathing and a bursting heart.

Beirut - The Flying Club Cup

Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

After dining and digesting on a folk feast throughout Eastern Europe, 19 year-old Zach Condon released his debut album, Gulag Orkestar, under the name Beirut. Filled with rousing majestic brass and lush tones of accordion and strings, it instantly brought a softer, wistful acknowledgement of increasingly inspiring sound of Balkan folk as opposed to the gypsy punk exuberance of Eugene Hutz’s band, Gogol Bordello. Now on his sophomore album, Condon soaks up the French cities and countryside, producing an album that relishes waltzes and French chanson with the dynamics of a large ensemble. Gaining access to the rich treasure of instruments of Arcade Fire’s church studio as well as the expertise of former Neutral Milk Hotel member Jeremy Barnes, Condon unleashes an orchestrated eruption more sophisticated, yet equally as charming as his debut. His deep croon still pins an antique mood to the lyrics, but tracks like “In The Mausoluem” will have you stunned at their intricate arrangements.

Orlando Julius - Super Afro Soul

Orlando Julius – Super Afro Soul

Before the invention of Nigeria’s Afrobeat (courtesy of Fela Kuti), it was the sound of Western African high life that filled the local clubs and juke joints with its infectious bright, bubbly sound. As outside influences began to roll into the British liberated colony, it was saxophonist Orlando Julius who merged the sound of 1960’s American soul – Motown, Stax and Atlantic – with his native high life and his obsession with jazz legends Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Released in 1966, Super Afro Soul captured a new amalgamation of styles. A cover of the Temptations “My Girl” is now embedded with the African percussive additions of high treble wood clacks and the rapid thumps of the conga. “Ijo Soul” comes across as an Africanized version “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”. The period from 1969-1972 is compiled on the second disc, as Orlando stretches out his Afro-pop into Afrobeat: a deeper and funkier fusion of funk, high life and psychedelic rock. A terrific re-issue from revivalist label Vampi Soul.

DJ Shadow - Funky Skunk

DJ Shadow – Funky Skunk

Though many of his earlier albums featured a flawless blending of instrumental breakbeats from numerous sources of inspiration – rock, funk, hip-hop – into one fantastic journey, Shadow’s last album, Outsider, left a few people cold as his focus seemed bent away from the experimental sound palette and more toward a straight forward commercial beat-making production. On Funky Skunk, a pure mix-tape, fans can have the best of both worlds. Filled with the Bay Area sounds of Hyphy, his catacomb deep selection of funk and rare grooves, numerous bits of odd ball novelty recordings, and various styles of regional hip-hop (grime, crunk, Miami bass, gangsta), DJ Shadow offers up a CD that is the equivalent of diplomat hip-hop fashion, taking variant gems and constructing them into a brilliant new ostentatious piece of bling. The album never lets up, and since it’s recorded as one long track, you can feel exhausted by its 66 minute length. But you’ll definitely get your moneys worth.

Little Wings - Soft Pow'r

Little Wings – Soft Pow’r

Though very much a collaborative effort, its Kyle Field’s tender lo-fi strumming, sentimental wailing and dreamy, poetic musings that captures the magic of the Pacific Northwest as well as wonder of the Malibu and Big Sur coastline that continual stamp Little Wings with its unique warm glow. With his first recording for his new label RAD, the sound still holds much of the meandering, hypnotic song structure of his earlier K Records releases. From the first track, a mood flashes through immediately. With the changing of the seasons, the early arrival of sunset, Soft Pow’r reflects the waning of summer and hints at a continual longing for a departed friend. “Gone Again” yearns for the memories of a summer beach and missing mate, as “Saturday” seems to murmur a day of the week into longing (sadder day). Kyle, I’m missing the hard sun of summer too.

I'm Not There - OST

I’m Not There – Original Soundtrack

With his self-penned biography, and a PBS-aired Martin Scorsese documentary, Bob Dylan is experiencing the attention rarely given to a icon whose heart is still beating. Now, with the arrival of Todd Haynes’ loosely based biopic movie, I’m Not There, Dylan chameleon persona gets conceptualized with a multitude of voices, and six separate faces. To accompany the film, Haynes has gathered over three-dozen musicians, stretched over two CD’s - from indie acts like Yo La Tengo, The Black Keys, Sufjan Stevens to more recognizable names like Richie Haven, Los Lobos and Jack Johnson - to twist their own version of Dylan classics and lesser known works. For the most part it works wonderfully. Hearing My Morning Jacket’s Jim James crooning “Goin’ To Acapulco” instantly recalls the Band’s assistance on the Basement Tapes, while Los Lobos take on “Billy 1” adds the Tex Mex flavor, perfectly suited for this Pat Garret & Billy The Kid selection. Fans, and non-fans who’ve traditionally been turned-off by Dylan’s warbled voice, both have something to celebrate.