What We Listened To - December 2024
December had a non-compulsory Christmas theme that was reflected in some but by no means all of the records we played. We opened with a track I brought along - an excerpt from Tuluum Shimmering’s hour-long psyche jam based on Linus and Lucy from the classic Peanuts Christmas soundtrack.
Tom kicked off with the gothy Swedish synthpop of Troth’s Blood In My Hair (2022), before moving onto the exquisite Lift You from Moin’s You Never End (2024) - a glorious slice of math-rock-meets-spoken-word. He finished with the deep, heavy and seasonally appropriate techno of Coil’s The Snow from 1991.
Phil brought us another dispatch from the NZ industrial scene via Don’t Take Those, from This Kind of Punishment’s self-titled 1984 record. We then heard Beeside from Moonshake’s Beautiful Pigeon 7” from 1992 (another entry in our Leyton local history series) before finishing with William Shatner and Henry Rollins’ idiosyncratic take on Jingle Bells.
Geoff brought us a stunning 78 from 1954 featuring two unaccompanied vocal performances by folk singer A L Lloyd - Down in Yon Forest and The Bitter Withy. Then we enjoyed a seasonal release from The Qualities released on Sun Ra’s Saturn label in 1961 - It’s Christmas Time and Happy New Year, before finishing with another gem from Ra’s doo-wop era - The Cosmic Rays’ Daddy’s Gonna Tell You No Lie from 1955.
I played a couple of tracks from the Yen Records all-star We Wish You A Merry Christmas album from 1983 - Haruomi Hosono’s frosty ambient 25 Dec 1983 and Yukihiro Takahashi’s stately Door O Akereba.
Ben opened his selection with Dogbowl’s lo-fi The 1972 Christmas Bombing Of North Vietnam from Fantastic Carburetor Man from 2001, before unleashing the thrashy Kill Techno by Man Nebound And The Barbed Wire Hippopotamuses from Ugly Records’ Weird Sex compilation. We then moved into the industrial hip-hop zone with Pig’s Sick City 7” from 1989 then onto Way of the South by Headhunters (1989) before finishing with some classic hard techno via 1999’s Terminator by Digital Masters.
Harry played a couple of lovely psychey tracks from the only album by Pennsylvania commune group Farm (1971) - we heard Sunshine in my Window and Let That Boy Boogie. Then we heard a couple of great finds from Harry’s recent deep dive on the Fluid Ounce label - Nery Bauer’s Maharaja, a great funk/jungle hybrid from 2005, and BDI’s Ultra Living from The Science of Charity, a broken beat track from the same year.
A record was actually left for us behind the counter at Dreamhouse - we think it was from Tom M though do write in and correct me if I’m wrong! - but in any case we all enjoyed The Butthole Surfers’ rousing take on Good King Wenceslas.
We closed with a barnstorming set from Paul of festive treats from all over the map - starting with Joseph Spence’s Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town from 1980’s Living on the Hallelujah Side. We returned to James Chance’s oeuvre with his Christmas With Satan under his James White alias from Ze Records’ A Christmas Record (1982 edition), swiftly followed by Ray I’s Bruck Pocket Ismas from his 1978 Natty Christmas reggae record with Jacob Miller. From Stones Throw’s legendary 2007 Badd Santa comp we heard 69 Boyz & Quad City DJs with What I Want For Christmas before closing the whole night with Simply, a hellish Stock Hausen & Walkman deconstruction of Macca from V/Vm’s Turkey compilation (1998).