The Chill Out Tent newsletter: Christmas edition
Tunes of the year! Presents! Weird shit! Christmas! Christmas!! Christmas!!!
Welcome to The Chill Out Tent newsletter, a monthly transmission that will bring a carefully curated selection of music and other nice things into your life.
Sorry, we’ve been away so long. Autumn, life and ch-ch-changes forced a brief retreat from the front line. But we’re back in time for Christmas! So, here is the Xmas edition of The Chill Out Tent newsletter - good tidings to you all!
Albums of the month: We have not one but two new Christmas albums – both destined to be December classics for years to come.
Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom sound kinda like what late-period Velvet Underground might have released if they’d done a Christmas album produced by… er… Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3. The gentle tone of these covers is beautifully warming as it builds to a climax with a definitive take on Bing & Bowie’s Little Drummer Boy and John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over).
While Dean & Britta & Sonic stir up a cosmic stew of VU, John Barry and moogtronica, the Unthanks gives us a bewitching English folk tour de force on In Winter. The presence of carols such as O Come All Ye Faithful and the Holly & the Ivy have never sounded better. Don’t let their presence fool you that this is a novelty album - this is a deep, elegant, warm embrace of a record. The Unthanks are lighter than the likes of doomy Lankum but there are drones and darkness here among the church bells, choirs and other signifiers of winter.
In the mix: Bestival husband and wife team Rob and Josie da Bank invited our very own Strictly Poolside and Chris Coco to contribute mixes to their new Chill Out Sauna mix series.
Steve launched the series with a sublime dub mix of Moby’s Go – not a bad way to go when the invitation was to imagine sitting on a wonderfully warm sauna bench gently falling into relaxation with some of your favourite music playing in your ears. To follow it with the Papua New Guinea dub is like a hazy nostalgic daydream.
https://www.mixcloud.com/SlomoWellness/strictly-poolside-slomo-mix/
Chris takes a more organic approach with a blissful droney ambient folky selection featuring Bridget St John, David Cane-Hardy, Angelina Morrison and the maestro John Martyn. The third DJ in the series is Pete Herbert, which suggests this is is a series everyone should follow.
https://www.mixcloud.com/SlomoWellness/the-chill-out-sauna-chris-coco/
In reading corner: Those Disco Pogo folks have put together another tribute to one of their heroes, following a similar compendium of interviews and writings on Andrew Weatherall a couple of years back. This time round the subject is Aphex Twin – it’s out this week… just in time for Christmas!
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In da club: Speaking of books, keep an eye on the Balearic Book Club — a new monthly cultural happening on the island of Ibiza. Read the book and meet the author for an evening of chat. Recent authors to grace the club include Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Last Night a DJ Saved My Life), Steven Vass (Let the Music Play: How R&B Fell in Love with 80s Synths), and Matt Anniss (Join the Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music). Upcoming events include Jem Panufnik talking about his psychedelic graphic novel, The Legend of Kaptain Karnival, and Elijah on Close The App, Make The Ting : Transformative Prompts For The Modern Artist. And there’s a few more present ideas for Balearically-minded bookworms.
Speaking of Christmas pressies: We just re-upped our Chill Out Tent shop. You’ll find all our CDs there and some right natty caps in a variety of colours. T-shirts and more to come next year. Meanwhile, art lovers, disco lovers, and, er, lovers should check out Wildblood & Queenie’s shop for a wonderful selection of Queen Josephine’s art. We rather like Queenie’s Lesbians (pictured) but you can even commission the talented disco artiste to create your very own pet portrait or sketch you a new profile pic, flyer, team or family portrait.
On the radio: We know how much our readers love a bit of forest bathing – well now you can do it at home thanks to the joys of tree.fm. Tune into a random forest – from Wales to Slovenia to Brazil. You can even send in a recording of your own.
Music of the Year 2024: In media world, it’s not just the season of necking too much brandy and snogging the colleague you didn’t realise you fancy – it’s also the season of lists. At Chill Out Tent HQ we’re skipping the brandy and snogs (only because we’re spread across the continent, you understand) but we’ve got a stack of lists, as a selection of our favourite DJs pick their fave music of the year. Find out what they’ve been listening to here.
New Year’s Eve: Chill Out Tent regular Steve KIW is playing Do It! with Hannah Sherlock at Brighton’s West Hill Tavern. The last few tickets are available for Fever105’s Midnight Funk with Dimitri from Paris, Bill Brewster, and Cosmo in King’s Cross. Or you could Enjoy some live afrobeat with the Dele Sosimi Orchestra at the Jazz Cafe.
Meanwhile, For Mankind will be largeing it on New Year’s Day with Nancy Noise at The Gipsy Queen in Kentish Town.
One more tune: Somebody told me this week that Christmas pop is all terrible. I begged to differ. Jacob Miller’s Natty Christmas LP is cheesier than the albums above but it really is the all-time Christmas classic that every home should own. So, merry Christmas all! Drink carefully or carelessly, as is your wont. We’ll see you in the new year with more news of Chill Out Tent shenanigans, including hopefully an update on summertime countryside manoeuvres.
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