Home For The Holidays CD

People who put together Christmas albums need to understand one basic fact: what makes a Christmas album effective is not the lyrics, but the melodies. You can sing all you want about babies in mangers and freaked-out shepherds and peace on Earth, good will toward men, but if the tunes themselves don't bring back childhood memories, it's not going to feel like Christmas music to listeners. On the flip side, you can take those melodies and place them in funk, reggae, Klezmer, or jazz settings and they will still sound like Christmas music. The Om label has taken a middle road with this very fun album of Christmas electronica, offering a mixture of tunes new and old as interpreted by such A-list artists as Kaskade, J Boogie, and King Kooba. The prize for Best Original Song that Doesn't Necessarily Really Say "Christmas" goes to Kaskade, whose "Peace on Earth" is both beautiful and bracingly funky. On the other hand, Kaskade also gets the prize for Best Arrangement of a Christmas Hymn for a spectacular setting of "Still Still Still" that manages to layer house beats onto the original song without undermining any of its sweet, ethereal loveliness. Then there is Colossus, using musical samples from the Charlie Brown Christmas special as the basis for some impressive turntablism, and the Pleasant Grove Minstrels, who use "What Child Is This" as the basis for some impressive soul vocalizing. This is very nice. ~ Rick Anderson

Beautiful music for the holiday season and beyond from Kaskade, Rithma, Late Night Alumni, Afro-Mystic, Colossus, J Boogie, The Pleasant Grove Minstrels Michael Tello featuring Alicia Esqueda, Members Only & People Under The Stairs. Digipak. Om Records. 2003.

Arrangers: Finn Bjarson; Members Only ; Ryan Raddon.

Personnel: Joslyn, Becky Williams, Casey Nefcy (vocals); Etienne Stehelin, Roadtripper (guitar, keyboards); Rich Dixon (guitar).

Audio Mixer: DJ Fluid.