Amelia’s Magazine | Favourite Christmas Indie Tunes for 2012: listen to the best here!

christmas olive grove by bex bourne
Christmas Olive Grove by Bex Bourne, based on As A Child I Awoke by Jo Mango.

A hugely successful Christmas tune is the holy grail for many musicians: just think how many times Fairytale of New York has been played. With royalties like that you’d never need to work again, not that this is the only motivating factor for the majority of musicians. It would just be nice, wouldn’t it, to have a song played every year… welcomed back like a much missed friend and enjoyed once more as if it were new. All of which is great because it means that every time the Christmas season swings around there is a host of brilliant new themed tunes to add to the mix, each hoping for a slice of immortality.


One release that is raising money for charity is the Olive Grove Records EP which features three original recordings and a cover of that famous Muppets song One More Sleep ’til Christmas.

For Folk's Sake it's Christmas 2012
For Folk’s Sake it’s Christmas 2012 cover illustrated by Sarah Oxley.

For Folk’s Sake It’s Christmas returns with another album featuring an absolutely stellar mix of tunes by the likes of Goodnight Lenin, Boat to Row and many others I don’t know but probably should. If you buy one thing this season make it this: the hard copy album has long since sold out but you can get the digital version for a piddling £7 and all profits go to the Evelina Children’s Hospital. It’s also worth downloading previous versions too.

Zombie Christmas by Lorna Scobie
Zombie Christmas by Lorna Scobie.

YouTube Preview Image
Other returnees are Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great, who have created a new video to celebrate their Zombie Christmas, just one track from last year’s fab Christmas album. Armed only with an assortment of decorations they must defend themselves from their foes, mid gig.

Kate Nash adopts that most seasonal of instruments, the sleigh bell, for Faith, her lo fi paen to the end of a tough year. It’s a taster of her new grungey sound, with a bass driven melody that segues into some pretty retro style harmonies.

Holiday Joy by Jacqueline Valencia
Holiday Joy by Jacqueline Valencia.

One of my favourite new tracks this season is a cover of Mary Margaret O’Hara’s Evermore by Cold Specks, a gloriously cosy song that makes me want to curl up next to a roaring log fire.

Tracey Thorn has released a collection of Christmas songs entitled Tinsel & Lights which comes accompanied with an innovative bit of marketing: open the doors on this virtual advent calendar to find a series of links leading to exclusive material. I like Joy… which is a self-penned tale of defiant seasonal celebration and In the Cold Cold Night is suitably frosty.

In the Cold Cold Night by-Christine-Charnock
In the Cold Cold Night by Christine Charnock. Tracey Thorn’s ‘In the Cold, Cold Night’ has dark and mysterious undertones to it which I wanted to reflect in my illustration response. The song creates an atmosphere of longing and loneliness, and a determination to find companionship in whatever way possible.

You can always bank on Darren Hayman for something a bit different: this year’s seasonal ditty concerns Oliver Cromwell‘s efforts to ban the festive occasion. He failed, luckily.

YouTube Preview Image
A really sweet video accompanies Dog is Dead‘s cover of Paul McCartney‘s classic Wonderful Christmastime.

Dog is Dead - Wonderful Christmastime Music Illustration by Sharon Farrow
Dog is Dead – Wonderful Christmastime by Sharon Farrow. I tried to take elements of the song and I wanted to include several Christmassy things: reindeer, snow, the tree, crackers, along with the humorous elements of the video. Hence the Christmas jumpers and the veneration of the humble (but essential Christmas delight!) brussel sprout. Where would be without them this time of year? The Christmas jumpers are also a nod to the Save the Children Christmas jumper campaign.

Tender Trap‘s Christmas tune Leaving Christmas Day tells the tale of a girl who discovers that her boyfriend is a Creationist Christian.

YouTube Preview Image
Rock band The Hype Theory cover Winter Wonderland with silky female vocals

YouTube Preview Image
The Other Guys is an A Cappella choir from St Andrews University and their Christmas Gets Worse Every Year is a beautifully sung reminder that sometimes nothing beats a classic bit of choral singing at Christmas time.

Christmas Gets Worse Every Year by Suky Goodfellow
Christmas Gets Worse Every Year by Suky Goodfellow.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme have released seasonal melody Quinzhee (Building Us A House Out Of Snow) with a grainy film of wintery figures building an igloo.

Katy Edelsten illustrates The Voluntary Butler Scheme
Katy Edelsten illustrates The Voluntary Butler Scheme – House out of Snow. I wanted to create something that mixed the breezy tone of the song with the simple lyrics, I settled on the castle made of snow because i thought it captured both the the air of the song and the dreamy-Beach Boys-esque haze of the lyrics. The colours and naive style were also executed for this reason. 

YouTube Preview Image
Dan Croll gets into the spirit with his cover of Low‘s Just Like Christmas, accompanied by a kitsch video in which he smears his face in chocolate and luxuriates in a bubble bath whilst wearing a woolly jumper and smoking a pipe. Go on, watch it. It’s Christmas time everyone! Enjoy x

Katy Edelsten illustrates Dan Croll - 'Just Like Christmas'
Katy Edelsten illustrates Dan Croll – Just Like Christmas. I was inspired by the artist himself- as the video is pretty captivating! I wanted something quite whimsical, with no line breaks, as the lyrics repeat and continue. I used a continuous line, in conjunction with pale colours, to depict the artist as Father Christmas. Inspired by the song (and Movember perhaps) I incorporated the song title into Dan Croll’s beard.

Light the Night by Roshni Annia
Inspired by Light the Night to accompany the new film The Snowman and The Snowdog by Roshni Annia.

Categories ,2012, ,A Cappella, ,As A Child I Awoke, ,Bex Bourne, ,Boat to Row, ,Choir, ,Choral, ,Christine Charnock, ,Christmas, ,Christmas Gets Worse Every Year, ,Cold Specks, ,Dan Croll, ,Darren Hayman, ,Dog is Dead, ,Evelina Children’s Hospital, ,Evermore, ,Fairytale of New York, ,Faith, ,folk, ,For Folk’s Sake It’s Christmas, ,Goodnight Lenin, ,In the Cold Cold Night, ,Indie, ,Jacqueline Valencia, ,Jo Mango, ,Joy, ,Just Like Christmas, ,Kate Nash, ,Katy Edelsten, ,Leaving Christmas Day, ,Light the Night, ,Lorna Scobie, ,low, ,Mary Margaret O’Hara, ,Muppets, ,Olive Grove Records EP, ,Oliver Cromwell, ,One More Sleep ’til Christmas, ,Paul McCartney, ,Quinzhee (Building Us A House Out Of Snow), ,Roshni Annia, ,Sarah Oxley, ,Save The Children, ,Sharon Farrow, ,St Andrews University, ,Suky Goodfellow, ,Tender Trap, ,The Hype Theory, ,The Other Guys, ,The Snowman and The Snowdog, ,The Voluntary Butler Scheme, ,Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great, ,Tinsel & Lights, ,Tracey Thorn, ,Tunes, ,Winter Wonderland, ,Wonderful Christmastime, ,Zombie Christmas

Similar Posts:






Amelia’s Magazine | Album Review and Interview: Transformuration by Jo Mango

Jo Mango by Marina Esmeraldo
Jo Mango by Marina Esmeraldo.

The genre defying musician Jo Mango released her new remix album Transformuration last month, enlisting the help of international artists to reimagine all 10 tracks from her 2012 sophomore release, Murmuration. It’s an absolutely stunning selection that encompasses the many influences of this highly acclaimed artist. Highlights include the insistent lilt of Evermore (The Cormorant Remix), the beautiful beats of The Black Sun (Machines In Heaven Remix) and off-kilter folktronica of Cordelia (Adem Remix). Jo was kind enough to write a piece about the making of her album, which you can read below:

Transformuration features all ten tracks of our 2012 album Murmuration beautifully and strangely remixed by 9 fine fellows who I have come across on my travels. There is Adem, who produced the original album, but does fabulous remix work and other electronic side-projects (like Silver Columns with Johnny Lynch of Fence/Lost Map), so I knew I could trust my favourite – and most delicate track from the album – Cordelia, into his hands. My wonderful friends at Team Love Records recommended The Cycad as a remixer – he did their remixes of Tilly and the Wall, and I’m really glad they did. He had a really different take on the remixing process (and now we’re plotting the possibility of a remix/covers version of Parallelograms by Linda Perhacs, which is very exciting!). Then there are my fellow Olive Grove record label mates The Cormorant and Akira, who are both members of the band Randolph’s Leap, and Fraction Man (Gordon Skene), who plays with The Moth and the Mirror; and numerous other Glasgow-based Scottish artists who I admire, such as James from Conquering Animal Sound (CARBS) Machines in Heaven and Joyful Lungs (Tim Kwant and The Great Albatross’s Wesley Chung). Finally, there’s my bestie Ben T-D, who I used to play in bands with and generally hang out with, when he lived here in Glasgow. He’s now in Australia, but I really wanted him to be involved in this album. I chose these people because of their specific music sensibilities I suppose. I wanted an album that was coherent as a whole, rather than just 10 very different takes on songs – that could have gone in ANY direction. And something sensitive to the fragile nature of the original. And I’m super pleased with the result. I think the songs stand together really well. And I’ve changed the track order, to reflect the fact that this is a new journey through the songs.

Jo Mango
The reason we decided to do a remix album was firstly, because it takes me an absolute age to write an album, but I didn’t want to leave fans without anything new to hear for too long. I did that with my last album, and I didn’t want to do that again. And I’ve decided lately that I need to be more adventurous and freed with my musical output – to let go of it a little bit and allow it to live. So trusting the music into the hands of all these people was a way of stretching myself and allowing that to happen. The themes of the album, I would say, are largely the same as for Murmuration: It dwells on freedom, and death and the nature of language mostly. I think all these themes have been stretched and explored in different ways within the remixes. A lot of the tracks take the darkness of the subject matter and place that more upfront in terms of arrangement (Crossties and Black Sun are great examples of that), others have run with the feeling of freedom, and done that really well (translating that into a wish to dance or to move, which is something largely missing in the original). So I think that the remixes complement the original album very well. I can’t wait for people to hear it!!’

Transformuration by Jo Mango
Transformuration by Jo Mango is out now on Olive Grove Records. Go buy it now! Highly recommended.

Categories ,Adem, ,Akira, ,Ben T-D, ,Black Sun, ,Cordelia (Adem Remix), ,Crossties, ,Evermore (The Cormorant Remix), ,Jo Mango, ,Marina Esmeraldo, ,Murmuration, ,Olive Grove Records, ,Team Love Records, ,The Black Sun (Machines In Heaven Remix), ,The Cormorant, ,The Cycad, ,Transformuration

Similar Posts: