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Silber
Sounds of Christmas
Merry Christmas, may all your holidays be bright. Our last Christmas compilation was back in 2004. A lot has changed around over the past couple years, but we're pleased to have some of our old friends returning & a ton of new friends around as well for 28 tracks & over a hundred minutes of music. You can download the music for free or buy a physical copy from us. Thank you all for your love & interest. download
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Physical copy (2xCD-R) $12 ($15 international) |
Track Listing:
Origami Tacet - Remembrance (video edit) immune - the gleams remained after the blast Rachel Goldstar - christmas day Siberia - Hibernation (Coda) living in photographs - Barabbas Small Life Form - bells & envelopes Electric Bird Noise - Christmas with Reilly The Zanzibar Snails - In the Land of Nod Plumerai - Crucifixed Remora - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Sailor Winters - What Child Is This? Shiny Around the Edges - The Christmas Song Peter Aldrich - Finger Pick Prince of Peace Wrong Brothers - Slay Bells Bokor - Secrets 230 divisadero - Storm in December Moral Crayfish - He was disturbed, and all of Jerusalem with him South West Airline - Sweet Sweet recorded home - no sound around Remora - What Can I Give Him? Duane Pitre/Pilotram - Piano Impovisation for Mr. Cage Mars Field - Jesus Christ Goddakk vs JM - A Winter Rhythm In You (featuring Sue Zen) Blessed Child Opera - Broken Breeze My Ambient Nature Girl - Handel's Messiah Part 4 The Wades - The Snow The Torch Marauder featuring Matt Westlake - At Blitzen's Funeral The Upsidedown Stars - Hark, the Herald Angel Sings |
As a starting point to this
review and I don’t know if it really matters, but I personally really dislike
Christmas. My family stopped celebrating Christmas a few years ago, so
there’s no pretty packages waiting under a tree for me come Christmas morning,
and besides that I’m not religious in the slightest and most importantly
I really, really hate the Christmas music I have to hear at work all night.
Good thing this isn’t a typical Christmas music compilation.
With that unpleasantness
put aside let me get right to the point and say that this compilation offers
up a lot of music (one hour and forty three minutes) with the cool price
tag of being absolutely free. Download this monster right here.
There are some bands doing
a few straightforward covers of classic Christmas songs like Shiny Around
the Edges performing ‘The Christmas Song’ & Mars Field with ‘Jesus
Christ.’ None of these are really my thing and that’s mostly because they
sound close to the originals and as I’ve already said I’m not one for Christmas
music. There are also a bunch of classic Christmas songs that have received
the good ‘ol rearranged and reinterpreted format such as The Upsidedown
Stars with ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,’ Sailor Winters with ‘What Child
Is This?’ & Remora with ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ & ‘What Can
I Give Him?’ The rest of the compilation is mostly newer compositions from
old and new Silber artists/friends performing songs that have references
to Christmas and winter, but are surely not typical Christmas music.
The styles present are as
you can probably imagine rather diverse; neo classical, guitar drones,
alternative pop/rock, ambient, experimental sounds, electronic, rock, noise,
and acoustic. Quite a bit to take in, but it all gels rather nicely together.
As already mentioned this compilation is absolutely free so head on over
to Silber and check out this enjoyable compilation and play it while opening
all your gifts Christmas morning. I also accept free gifts if anyone wants
to send me anything. :)
~ Joe Mlodik, Lunar Hypnosis
A wonderful collection (27
artists) that for all its unusual material still sounds to me about as
sentimental as music gets. This 2006 installment in Silber’s series of
Christmas comps invokes the religious/wintery aspects of the season, and,
not surprisingly, given the label, an ambient/drone aesthetic looms over
the collection. The tracks have a cold, somewhat bleak feel, whether they’re
ambient, noise, fast or slow pop, solo improv, or, well, Christmas Music.
Brian John Mitchell checks in with his always-intriguing Small Life Form
and Remora projects, and I’m glad excellent guitarist Peter Aldrich is
still in the fold; however many of my other favorite Silber artists from
years gone by are absent this time out. Not to worry, though, as there
is plenty of good material from a newer crop of Silberfriends such as Immune,
Electric Bird Noise, Plumerai, Bokor, Mars Field, Blessed Child Opera,
The Wades, and many more. Too many good tracks to name, but standouts for
me include the tweaked a cappella of ‘The Christmas Song’ by Shiny Around
The Edges, the blurry rocker by South West Airline, the lovely solo piano
piece by Duane Pitre, and the seriously noise-corrupted versions of ‘What
Child is This?’ and ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing’. Happy Holidays, musical
explorers!
~ Max Level, KFJC
So this is Christmas, and
what have you done? Well John, if you could drop that accusatory tone for
just a second you’d discover that various chums of Silber Records have
recorded a compilation that’s as fat as a spoiled child’s stocking. Or
even as fat as a spoiled child. It’s generously available as a free download,
so if you want to add some thrilling, web-based interactivity to this review,
you can head over there and concurrently listen to any tracks which tweak
your interest. Please be aware that any written-word-to-actual-sound discrepancies
you may experience during this process are most likely down to some kind
of inner-ear imbalance.
Like the aforementioned
stocking, the contents of this comp are a little hotchpotch. Though some
offerings will feel like receiving a fantastic toy or delicious chocolates,
other parts will be more akin to pulling out an indefinable plastic makeweight.
With so many different artists across a substantial amount of tracks (28,
fact fans) this is somewhat inevitable, as a variety of styles are explored
within a broad spectrum. Loosely speaking though, Silber are the bus terminal
in which bands defining themselves as ambient and darkwave meet up and
take a ride to drone central, only to discover that the seats are made
out of weird electronic sounds, scratchy violins, and other assorted oddities
of noise.
As it’s a seasonal affair,
a fair few of these tracks are covers of Christmas favorites—although they
generally bear about as much resemblance to the originals as the curious
womble-alien half-breed on the record cover does to jolly old Saint Nick.
Remora’s take on “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” for example, would probably
sound more at home accompanying a panoramic sweep of an alien craft, cruising
ominously around the universe. Familiar notes are audible somewhere in
the mix, but the foreboding echo of recurring delay-washes crush all resistance.
It’s an intriguing approach, but slightly undermined by a track-listing
that places a cover of “What Child Is This?” (which adopts an identical
tactic) immediately following. This time, the recognizable melody seems
to be struggling against a vicious horde of bees that have descended upon
the pianist at an unhelpful moment. Our plucky hero is eventually saved
by some enthusiastic hoovering, which fortuitously removes the bees but
doesn’t contribute much to the listening experience.
Some of the real treats
can be found outside the Christmas stable entirely. “The Gleams Remained
After the Blast” could just as easily be soundtracking an irradiated dystopian
world, or what happens inside your fridge when the door is closed and the
milk pixies appear. Whichever interpretation you choose to lay on this
understated piece of floating, pulsing ambience, it will still soothe and
beguile. The same holds true for “In the Land of Nod” by the Zanzibar Snails,
which is closer to replicating the flittering sound of vibrant insect life
and distant thunder than sleigh bells and roasting chestnuts. Others, like
Origami Tacet, hint at aspects of the traditional narrative—their heavy-stringed
“Remembrance” motions enigmatically at expansive deserts and the Eastern
mysticism of the three wise men.
Back in the covers corner,
a shining star appears in the form of My Ambient Nature Girl’s retelling
of “Handel’s Messiah (Part 4).” Supplemented by the merest suggestion of
a choir, harmoniously complementing the cascading sparkles of sound, the
song seems to encapsulate the finer moments of this Silber selection. Different,
without having to force the difference. Beautiful, without being pretentiously
so.
~ Peter Parrish, Stylus
Say you work in the service
industry-- maybe in a coffee shop, record store or café-- for a
company that's cool enough to let its employees select the in-house music
during their shifts, but lame enough to require the dispensation of Christmas-themed
music around the holidays. Say also that you like chaotic, convulsive music,
and that the joy of tormenting your customers with harsh noise is surpassed
only by the sorrow of listening to corporately-mandated compilations of
Yuletide favorites each winter. You, my glum friend, have found a loophole
in the Silber Sounds of Christmas compilation. Sailor Winters' version
of "What Child is This?" isn't the best thing on the album, but it's the
most amenable to extracting sonic vengeance on the voracious petit-bourgeoisie.
The song's sprightly piano melody sounds lonesome, submerged in billowing
static; it gives up entirely as the amorphous noise begins to cascade,
saturating the speakers in a dark, grainy haze. Things get seriously spooky
when a pendulum-like roar starts swooshing through the mix. What child
is this, anyway? Echoing drums describe the approach of massive footsteps,
evoking some terrible and countryside-scourging giant. Jesus is coming--
run!
~ Bryan Howe, Pitchfork
28 More Things to Love About
Silber Records
1 Origami Tacet - “Remembrance”
(video edit)
2 Immune - “The Gleams Remained
After the Blast”
3 Rachel Goldstar - “Christmas
Day”
4 Siberia - “Hibernation
(Coda)” 5 Living in Photographs - “Barabbas”
6 Small Life Form - “Bells
& Envelopes”
7 Electric Bird Noise -
“Christmas with Reilly”
8 The Zanzibar Snails -
“In the Land of Nod”
9 Plumerai - “Crucifixed”
10 Remora - “O Come, O come,
Emmanuel”
11 Sailor Winters - “What
Child Is This?”
12 Shiny Around the Edges
- “The Christmas Song”
13 Peter Aldrich - “Finger
Pick Prince of Peace”
14 Wrong Brothers - “Slay
Bells”
15 Bokor - “Secrets”
16 230 Divisadero - “Storm
in December”
17 Moral Crayfish - “He
Was Disturbed, and All of Jerusalem With Him”
18 South West Airline -
“Sweet Sweet”
19 Recorded Home - “No Sound
Around”
20 Remora - “What Can I
Give Him?”
21 Duane Pitre/Pilotram
- “Piano Improvisation for Mr. Cage”
22 Mars Field - “Jesus Christ”
23 Goddack vs JM - “A Winter
Rhythm in You” (featuring Sue Zen)
24 Blessed Child Opera -
“Broken Breeze”
25 My Ambient Nature Girl
- “Handel’s Messiah Part 4”
26 The Wades - “The Snow”
27 The Torch Marauder featuring
Matt Westlake - “At Blitzen’s Funeral”
28 The Upsidedown Stars
- “Hark, the Herald Angel Sings”
No, we haven’t suffered
a stroke. What the above list shows is the track number, artist name, and
song title, respectively, of the brand spankin’ new Silber Sounds of Christmas
compilation from Silber Records. The physical 2xCD-R version is available
to order now, but in the true spirit of giving, the whole shebang is downloadable
here for FREE! Bless you, sweet baby Silber Jebus!
Most keeners will remember
Silber as the label that issued the solo album of guitar workouts by Alan
Sparhawk (Low) earlier this year, named, curiously enough, Solo Guitar,
but to keener-ers, the North Carolina record company has been a formidable
provider of minimal, neo-classical, noisepop, drone, etc. since the mid-1990s.
Although most of the acts on this third yuletide volume eat up Christmas
spirit and spit it out like Gramps does with the errant stems in Mom’s
homemade cranberry sauce, it is obvious they all carry the essential elements
of the holy season inside their artistic hearts. Silber Sounds includes
renditions of x-mas classics like Rachel Goldstar’s “Christmas Day” and
Shiny Around the Edges’ “The Christmas Song,” seasonal tribute gifts such
as “Piano Improvisation for John Cage” by Duane Pitre/Pilotram, the political
incorrectness (but only if you take it out of its biblical context) of
Moral Crayfish’s “He Was Disturbed, and All of Jerusalem With Him,” and
possibly an ode to everybody’s favorite gifts, pre-op tranny hookers, in
South West Airline’s “Sweet Sweet.” Drop in paeans to tinsel- and tonsil-hockey
and you will almost be able to hear the sleighbells on the roof!
~ David Nadelle, Tiny Mix
Tapes
Allow me to be frank: I fucking
hate Christmas.
Not to be a Scrooge about
the whole holiday season but about the only thing I appreciate at this
time of year is getting extra pay for working on Christmas Eve and since
I won't be getting even this small titbit of noel merriment, my hatred
of all things jolly in this season is fuelled considerably well.
If nothing else, I hate
the onslaught of Christmas carols and songs, relentlessly played over and
over and over again in shopping malls, doctors' surgeries, dentists' waiting
rooms, on the radio, Hell they'd even play them in funeral parlours if
they could get away with it. And what's with starting the damn things so
early in December?
I'm sure I'm not alone with
my animosity, and if this assumption is correct I have a wonderful Christmas
surprise for you. For if you reach into Silber Records' long latex stocking
this Christmas you may just find their second Christmas compilation. That's
right folks, Silber Media, the people who bring you such groups as Kobi,
Remora and Lycia have accumulated a plethora of musicians to strip bare,
experiment and make anew all of the old Christmas time classics!
Ok so perhaps the compilation
doesn't really do that much in the way of cover versions (though there
are some gems dotted about) but fans of the label will appreciate that
Silber's Sounds of Christmas II has a majority Drone theme to it, with
‘Remembrance', the opening track from Origami Tacet using violins to full
brooding effect. This is followed by Immune's 'The Gleams Remained after
the Blast', sounding like a lost track from Basil Kirchin's Worlds within
Worlds projects.
It's not all doom and gloom
however (it is Christmas after all) as Rachel Goldstar provides a more
mellow, shoegazer sound with 'Christmas Day', a sound synonymous with the
post punk/ grunge scene that the mainstream would have you believe had
its last Christmas a long time ago.
Living in Photographs, as
well as having a cool name, also provide a departure from Silber's usual
Drone based sounds by adding an ambient electronica influence to their
track 'Barabbas' and while still fitting to the ambient atmosphere of the
compilation supply just enough variety to keep it all from going a little
stale.
Those still waiting for
Plumerai's new album can get some musical morphine in the shape of their
one track contribution, 'Crucifixed', a track fused with a slightly more
Darkwave feel than their previous outings and a style that fits them and
the compilation comfortably.
'O Come, O Come Emmanuelle'
by Remora is a supremely strong track, powering through a superfluity of
weird noises that awakens you to a concept that Christmas is not always
a time of good tidings. This followed by Sailor Winter's white noise polluted
'What Child is this?' and the unkind atmosphere is well and truly accomplished.
Slap on the second CD and
you'll be welcomed by Bokor's ambient track, 'Secrets'. An interestingly
conceptual name for a track on a Christmas themed album. I have a tendency
to over examine things but with such a name on such an album and with the
tranquil sound of the sea ever-present in this brooding ambient piece it
is hard not to let such things rankle the psyche.
For a much more classical
sound look no further then Duane Pitre and Pilotram's 'Piano Improvisation
for Mr. Cage'. Exactly what it says in the title, this concise number by
all accounts should stand out of place with the rest of Silber's Christmas
content. On the contrary, it highlights just how diverse the label's talent
and interests can be, showing a warmer, benevolent side rarely seen on
Silber releases.
Mars Fields' following track
also shows a less highlighted sound provided by Silber Media, with 'Jesus
Christ' certainly belonging more to the American Neo Folk/ Country scene
than to Drone or Ambient Noise, its off kilter sound having more akin with
Black Happy Day (recently released on Silber) than some of the more established
artists on the label such as Small Life Form or Remora.
My Ambient Nature Girl's
track, however, brings the album straight back to Silber's roots, with
'Handel's Messiah Part 4' sounding like a cross between the melancholic
euphoria of Sigur Ros drowned out by the strange beats and sounds of The
Gasman on Planet Mu records, creating an altogether unique mixture of minimalist
beats and warped notes with a tender, for lack of a better word, backdrop
of sound.
And to top it off, my favourite
of the entire collection and one that I'll be making my family's ears bleed
to this Christmas; The Upside Down Stars version of 'Hark The Herald Angels
Sing' a Drone/ Doom ladled piece that with its mixture of low vocal howls
and repetitive distorted riffs should be played to maximum capacity on
that day, the most sacred of days. Alas if only they played this sort of
material in shopping malls.
It's hard to make a really
good Christmas album, and in their way Silber have cheated slightly by
including more than just reinventions of already existing Christmas material.
But then as it was obviously their intention not to buy into the Christmas
frivolity it's hardly a negative side. On the contrary this is perhaps
the perfect Christmas album as the two CD collection encompasses all moods
of the season and while some people wake up to nice presents and a loving
family some will wake up to terminal illness and bereavement. It's nice
to see an album cover those two extremes of moods via music. I envy those
who live in the great open spaces of Canada and the Pacific North West,
for if I did I would have the perfect album to drive to while viewing its
halcyon winter landscape.
~ Michael Byrne, Left Hip
Si avvicina Natale e come
tradizione comanda c’è sempre qualcuno che tira fuori l’idea, non
proprio originalissima, di una compilation a tema natalizio. In questo
caso è la Silber, piccola etichetta americana (in catalogo tra gli
altri il fantastico debutto in solitario di Alan Sparhawk) che mette a
disposizione sia in formato classico, sia (udite, udite!) in download gratuito
questo doppio cd veramente particolare.
Nessuna strenna né
campanellini sonanti; qui la materia è principalmente eterea e sognante,
impalpabile proprio come la neve che imbianca questo periodo dell’anno,
ma mai di maniera o scontata.
Si alternano quindi glitchismi
vari (Living In Photographs, Recorded At Home), lieve drone music, oscuri
omaggi a maestri come Cage, contributi acustici quasi cantautoriali (230
Divisadero), pop (di)storto e sognante à la Jesus & Mary Chain
(The Wades), cascate di feedback in cui annega una melodia di piano (Sailor
Winters), noise minaccioso e tetro (Wrong Brothers, plauso al nome).
Pochi nomi noti, a parte
Remora e i “nostri” Blessed Child Opera, ma la qualità media è
altamente soddisfacente a dimostrazione, se ce ne fosse bisogno, di quanto
sia stimolante il sottobosco americano, in cui i dischi, Natale o non Natale,
sono sempre operazioni piene di passione.
~ Stefano Pifferi,sentire
as coltare
Nos despedimos del invierno
con esta estimable colección de cuentos navideños que el
sello norteamericano Silber ha reunido en este bello "Silber Sounds of
Christmas". 28 tiernas y etéreas canciones de viejos y nuevos amigos
con las que nos hemos sacudido el frío de estas fiestas junto al
fuego de la chimenea.
~ Mikel Herrero, Decadence
Online