Website © 2003 by Tyler Carey
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Winter Wishes
Silber Records, 2004
by Dr. Christian Carey Tired of Christmas carols and holiday songs being kidnapped by corporate America and blasted at you nonstop for four months out of the year? I was fed up with it before the holiday season officially began - when I saw the first ad for Christmas goods in July, I knew that I might seriously consider hermitage by Thanksgiving. Thankfully, Silber Records provides an antidote to holiday pap with this sampler of indie and experimental cheer, available free for download from their website.
What better way to freshen up holiday classics than to unleash creative artists outside the mainstream on them? Rollerball's version of "Carol of the Bells" is luminescent, while If Thousands and Haley Bonar create a wintry slowcore version of "Silent Night" that seems to waft in on an arctic blast. Rivulets' a cappella version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a bit wayward, but delicate nevertheless, filled with sentiment without being overly sentimental. Prince's "Another Lonely Christmas" is covered lo-fi style by The Massive Snowflake, whose lead vocalist adopts a crooning, Bowie-esque persona. Beethoven's Ode to Joy, from the Ninth Symphony, is recast in ambient mode by Attrition in "dream number nine (recurring)."
New music is also featured, including several electronica soundscapes. Small Life Form's "Gift" is a clangorous noise piece, while Aidan Baker presents a more delicate construction in "Icicle Bells." Remora's "Only Friends can Keep You Warm" is a slowly evolving minimal construction of minor third oscillations, while a bit of holiday trip hop is offered in Peter Aldrich's "Christmas Dub against Master." Rollerball closes out the festivities with an appropriately quirky and buoyant rendition of the 1954 Sun Ra composition, "Happy New Year to You." Right back at ya', Silber Records.
-December 23, 2004