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!
