Vince Guaraldi Trio - My Little Drum

[1965]

Classy Christmas classic.

Cocteau Twins - Frosty The Snowman

[1993]

Suitably Cocteau-y and also pretty faithful.

Merry Christmas.

Orange Appled [1986]

They had a bunch of tunes with bells in. So Cocteau time is always Christmas time.

Those Eyes, That Mouth [1986]

Hard to go past this tune from the same ep. I mean this is absolute peak Cocteau Twins right here. All out bliss out!

Al Jourgensen - It's Always Christmas Time

[2009]

Ministry do a Christmas song and I like a very lot! 

Like Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie guesting with Ministry to cover Flock Of Seagulls' Space Age Love Song but with new Christmas lyrics.

Merry Christmas.

It's Always Christmas!

Sorrow - The Final Solstice

[1999]

Rose McDowall again. I don't know if this is a Christmas song but it sounds like one so... Happy Christmas.

It's pretty crazy that this recording was originally just put on a cdr which was given away at a gig because actually this is a pretty incredible far-out ambient folk trance with atmospheric pipes, strings and bells all twinkly and covered in snow. Then Rose's vocals are multi-tracked to the hilt becoming an overwhelming dreamy choir like a snowflake kaleidoscope in sound. 

Coil - Christmas Is Now Drawing Near

[1999]

Immigration policy that then decides to include the enemies of previous immigrant groups is a fucking dumb idea. We all knew this in the 20th century but somehow in my lifetime politicians and bureaucrats have allowed it to happen in the name of globalisation so we can all (pretend to) be one man. So here we are with a fucking imported holy war on our shores because we can't have discrimination. We can't even discriminate against people who want to kill us! That would be Hitlerian! This retarded suicidal empathy will be our demise and it's upon us... 

There's some pretty fishy stuff surrounding this entire horrific event. Why the fuck is Australia being used for this foreign conflict... 

Expand government powers in Australia in ...3...2...1.... Less freedom for all!

Goodbye civil liberties, Hello more restrictions, censorship and surveillance for you! It's for your own safety man.

Happy Christmas everybody.

Oh the song... this is Rose McDowall guesting with Coil, singing a ye olde British Christmas carol in a haunting folk style. 

Spellbinding.

Children Once Were You · Arthur

[1968]

One of these lost guys from the 60s who slipped through the cracks before he got to be known. Introspective folk pop at its finest. 

I'm feeling this song today... a lot.

Arranged and conducted by the legendary Don Randi and produced by Lee Hazlewood all in a tastefully understated manner. 

Lovely.

Children once were you
Children dressed in blue
With hat and gloves, and mother's love
Children once were you, once were you

A little boy plays with his toys
A tiny lass, her doll in joy
But that's all changed, and rearranged
But children once were you, once were you

The years slip quickly past
This day here may be your last
I'm looking in, your child again
And children once were you, once were you

MOON WIRING CLUB ~ GRUESOME SHREWD

[2025]

Entropic memory wave-forms smudged to infinity.

This week the new epic three hour Moon Wiring Club possible masterpiece Gruesome Shrewd/Grisly Exaggerated arrived. It's a double cd & cassette combo pack. Like a further extension of their already pretty unmoored 2023 LP Sepia Cat City, this is Moon Wiring Club at their most sprawling and stretched out. The off kilter samples and loops are deformed to new and unprecedented relentlessly elongated extremes here. Amongst the disorientating psychotropic eeriness sometimes there are even fizzy ecstatic bursts. 

To paraphrase Mr Hodgson (the man behind MWC) himself this three hour magnum opus is a "corroded sludge-adelic ambient slurry"

It's all so psychedelic and insane... all backwards and forwards, chopped and slopped, and woozy and wonky... a sensory dislocation. 

The signature haunted and hallucinatory disembodied voices are malformed and contorted to unforeseen levels...

Anti-logical prolonged loops of random vhs textured electro-acoustic dub experiments....  smeared-out tunes freed from the constraints of time so discombobulating and busted... you start to wonder are they still music at all?

Hop aboard the mind melting altered state of Gruesome Shrewd/Grisly Exaggerated the only sonic trip worth taking in 2025. 

Slowdive 1991

Slowdive - Spanish Air [1991]

Many didn't but I loved Just For A Day in 91 and it stills sounds great today with the added extra of crushing bittersweet nostalgia. 

Spanish Air is supreme goth-wave dream-gaze. You forget that Slowdive influenced Low but it's all here in this Simon and Garfunkel go goth epic. 

Slowdive - Celia's Dream [1991]

Like a slowed down slacker attempt of the Cocteau Twins aesthetic. The waves of dream waves get satisfyingly rapturous when they go into overdrive at 3.24.

Slowdive - Primal [1991]

Epic. 

Guitars, guitars, guitars!

...and cellos.

Sometimes Slowdive's early technique of having all the faders all the way up all the time worked.

A wild ride of atmospheres somewhere between brooding and blistering. 

Haunting yet heavenly.

A relentless incandescent swirling maelstrom surging to the stars (not their shoes).  

SLOWDIVE: Unknown Treasures & Curios

Slowdive - Hide Yer Eyes [1993]

These first three tunes are absolute classic Slowdive unknown treasures from the Souvlaki sessions that ridiculously never got released. I mean it's unbelievable that after being cut from Souvlaki these songs didn't end up on an EP or a single in their own right or at as least b-sides to other singles, mental.

Guitarist Christian Saville wanted Hide Yer Eyes on Souvlaki and the fact that one of these bootleg versions was mixed by Ed Buller means it was in contention for inclusion. Neil Halstead ixnayed the track though on the grounds of it being too poppy and the quota of poppy pop tunes for the album had already been filled...

This stands alongside Alison and Machine Gun as one of their best pop moments. 

Slowdive - I Saw The Sun [1993]

Another Ed Buller mix which means this was almost included on the final track-listing of Souvlaki but the band pulled it on the basis of it being too much like The Cocteau Twins which is funny because... well have you heard the records Slowdive made before Souvlaki? Anyway this is pure Slowdive to me. The group at their best.

Beautiful pastoral psychedelia that floats off in a hazy breeze. 

Dreamy.

Slowdive - Silver Screen [1992]

We live in a crazy world where one of the greatest songs of the 90s never saw the light of day, only getting leaked onto the internet in the 00s. Fucking absurd. 

Starts out with buoyant fluctuating guitars that morph into fantastic eternally swirling waves of elation combined with irresistible nostalgic vocal hooks. Pure bliss.

Slowdive - Joy [1992]

Ok these next three are definitely oddities probably only of interest for diehard fans. They are interesting though and display what music Slowdive were big fans of. 

  

Joy is post-punk with a drum machine somewhere between Chameleons and New Order. I mean its called Joy for fuck's sake. This is pretty surprising if you've never heard it before. After brutal press coverage and ruthless record company rejections Slowdive lost their nerve and went back to their roots and musical influences looking for a an inspirational way out of the crisis they perceived they were in.

Slowdive - Stars That Shine [1992?]

I always thought Mercury Rev's psychedelic space rock freak-outs were influenced by Slowdive's more overwhelming blissed guitar journeys but here you've gotta think Neil had probably given Yerself Is Steam a bit of a listen and liked what he heard. I probably would have dropped this one from Souvlaki for being too much of a homage as consummate as it may be.

Slowdive - Bleed [1991?]

They never hid the fact that they loved The Cure and this one is an incredible tribute to their musical heroes. Still it's unmistakably Slowdive but that bass line might have perhaps attracted some attention from litigation lawyers for being a bit too close to The Cure's Fascination Street. While it may have been too derivative to put on any type of official record it's a whole lotta fun.

Slowdive

[2014]

How is it that when Slowdive reformed back in 2014 they were better than ever? I was gonna go through all my old Slowdive favourites, doing some posts on the early studio recordings of the first three EPs and debut album but these live videos are hard to go past. 

[2014]

The Coda Slowdive add on to their cover of Syd's Golden Hair became epic and was the highlight of their set. The waves and waves of swirling guitars gets to unbearably ecstatic levels then there's a lull and little ebb and flow then it builds up to bursting euphoria all over again.

[2017]

This 2017 gig is the best I've found so far. The 2014 to 2017 shows seem to be the best perhaps peaking on the 2017 tour. Whoever is doing the sound on this is a genius. Many have stated that this show should be the basis for a live album... I guess it could be a double live LP really. 

Slowdive will capture and envelop you with their all encompassing vaguely orchestral cinematic sound. They are on fire during this set and it's all highlights. Here's some highlights of the highlights: Catch The Breeze has never sounded better here. God I even like the Pygmalion tracks. This version of She Calls is astounding sky-scraping dark psychedelia. The searing melancholia of Golden Hair is even more epic than the above two versions if that's possible. The magnificent new and improved rendition of Slowdive will surprise you... I mean all songs are like 25 to 50 percent better. It's unfathomable.