Endless the hunt may be for new Christmas music; few are breaking the mould. Whether it is some flaky cover of a festive classic or a dense, albeit fresh, undertaking of the most wonderful time of the year, the heart and creative spirit is no longer easy to find. Fumble your way through the excesses of the holiday season with those classics then. But spare a thought for those few who are out there, crafting solid Christmas music at a time when the holiday’s commercialisation is overtaking the season’s music, film and goodwill. Sons of Ken, off the back of their exceptional album released earlier this year, presents another host of interesting electronic mixes on Another Christmas Gift for You. And what a Christmas gift it is.
Adapting non-festive songs into the slight grooves of reggae is neat. Slight changes to Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and Word Up makes for a decent mix on opener Word 2 The DJ. A nice bit of storytelling for the Sons of Ken, with Mike Burridge and Michael Moran planting themselves in this virtual dancefloor, overseeing the tunes of their time. Mixing those sounds fun enough to work here and provides a safe opener. Two songs that work together well, boisterous fun and yet Another Christmas Gift for You feels more like a compilation present than anything particularly festive. Good. The implication of festivities is enough. Enjoy some relaxed and funk-laden mixtures from a band whose consistent release cycle means there is little break in their momentum. Another Christmas Gift for You is an exercise in musical influences.
Where the changes are more in the fuzz and distortion brought onto recognisable moments from Ian Dury and The Blockheads and Laid Back on Reason 2 Ride, they are strong instrumental flickers. The sort of mix you get from an unexpectedly adept DJ booth stalwart at a tucked-away pub. Depeche Mode finds itself pulled apart on Bejesus, and while these identifiable moments are a delight for fans of those bands and influences, there is little to add to them. A few dubs and structural changes to Personal Jesus feel more like a mixtape playground where dubs match the original work’s tempo, rather than taking the nostalgia and production to a new level. Another Christmas Gift for You is filled with that desire to blur two tracks together but there is a limitation on how much can be done.
Still, a light bit of Christmas extras from Sons of Ken is a neat way to wrap up the year. Swifty marks an interesting album closer – a song which stands out above all as the most original overdub of the bunch. Adding a reggae riff to Shake it Off is a layer which should not work, and yet here it does. Neat percussion and a few electrified additions make all the difference. The Sons of Ken do not play up the tempo shifts and usual drops of the tracks they cover – that is the key. While keen to follow the momentum carried already by these established tracks, there is a sense of wanting to add experimental layers to collectively well-known works. Much of it works well, and it makes some of the more questionable songs dubbed on Another Christmas Gift for You that much more palatable.
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