Category: Mash Up

MASKARADE - FROSTY THE SNOWMAN IS COMING TO TOWN

8/27/2018

In this Christmas music biz, you gotta be prepared to dive down almost every rabbit hole because one thing will lead to another (not always, but often enough). Case in point: after posting Gang Clouds on Saturday, I just got an itch to click on "France" in the navigation to the right. Whereupon I was re-introduced to Maskarade, the French duo who delight in making fun little Mashups for the YouTube. We spotlighted two such holiday creations in 2016--one a sort of Folk Pop thing and the other a classic Doo Wop a capella. If you read what we wrote then, you'll note that they cite Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley as favorite artists and influences. Hmm. I wonder which one inspired this Mashup of "Frosty The Snowman" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

One thing we didn't do in our previous Maskarade write-up is identify the duo by their names, so let's take care of that right now. Maskarade is (are?) Yannh Yacine Gueddari (aka BG77) & Alain Kong aka (KongZylla). And while the guys are mostly just having fun, they recently won some kind of contest in France and they've been touring of late. And, while "Frosty The Snowman Is Coming To Town" might not be the best example, Maskarade have beautiful voices that blend well together. You don't have to take my word for it. Maskarade did a MashUp of "Hotline Bling" and "All of Me" and Drake's a fan (at least I think so; it was all in French, so who really knows).

Where their Christmas music is concerned, Maskarade's routine is to post a new number to YouTube just before the big day, making the free download available the following year. So, though I'm listing it as 2017, "Frosty" is technically from 2016. And you'll find it free to download via Soundcloud. "Holy Jingle" and "White Christmas" are also still available there.

Since they release their Christmas tracks to YouTube a year before the download gets dropped to Soundcloud, you might be asking what the guys did for 2017. Thank you for asking. Maskarade posted two short holiday videos last year, an a capella (and French) "Deck The Christmas Trees" and this sweet MashUp of "O Holy Night" and "O Christmas Tree". Y'all know how I love "O Holy Night" and Maskarade does not let me down.

1 Comment

FLEMING & JOHN - BACK IN RED

8/23/2018

1 Comment

Holy Happy Holidays, Batman! Do you hear what I hear? It's a bloody miracle! Presents under the tree from the exquisite and exquisitely talented Fleming and John? No offense to the (possibly evil) NOW empire, but THIS is what I call Christmas. Yes, they're back. And they're "Back In Red".

Got a note from one of our loyal readers this morning. "I'm sure you already know about this...." You know, I get that a lot and it simply isn't true. I miss a lot. I mean a lot. And I pretty much missed everything last year. Nor did I see these particular gifties mentioned by any in our circle of Festive Friends (though I could easily have missed that as well). Anyway, our reader pointed us to the Facebook page of Fleming & John.

Fleming & John are a husband and wife team based in Nashville. John Mark Painter plays more instruments than you knew existed and his genius mind has a conception of sound that far exceeds that of mortal men (or women). Fleming McWilliams has a voice from the gods and she knows how to use it. She whispers, she purrs, she growls, and she screams...and that's just on one note. Really, she has one of the best and most versatile singing voices I've ever heard. And these talents have not gone unnoticed. The pair are highly in demand for session work with others, they run the International House of Fleming studios and the DWEEB record label. And they do their own thing, when they can, as Fleming & John (it's actually a full band with other members, but Fleming and John are the heart of it).

Back when the Internet was young...well, younger at any rate...Fleming & John created one of the best Christmas song mashups ever. I don't know the actual original release date. Some time in the aughts, I suspect (2004, perhaps). "Winter Wonderland/Misty Mountain Hop" (that's "Winter Wonderland" done to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop") became an annual favorite of Christmas music obsessives, it's popularity peaking out between 2010 and 2012. And then I sorta lost track of them and it seemed like other Christmas collectors did as well.

So it was a true joy to have a Stubby's fan alert me to the duo's most recent holiday wonders. "Back In Red" dates back to at least 2016 (there's a reference on their Facebook page to a new Christmas song in 2013, but no follow up post to that one). It's a delightful holiday reworking of AC/DC's "Back In Black" which truly rises above typical novelty fare thanks to inspired lyrics and Fleming's amazing vocal talents.

But, for me, the better holiday treat turned out to be the pair's recording of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" from 2017. No Metal Mashup, that one, but a true sonic wonderland. John, here, does some extraordinary things with the sound. And Fleming's vocals are truly transcendent. The track would work just as well in hard rock and soft rock formats. It's just a beautiful thing to behold and instantly became my favorite version ever of the song.

You know, when you're doing a mix that friends and family are going to listen to, you have to consider a lot of factors. The Mashups are always popular. But I think, musically, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" is the better selection. I've been going back and forth all day. Ah, the hell with it; just use them both. They're that good. While they remain available, both songs (as well as "Winter Wonderland/Misty Mountain Hop"--still a top notch performance, if you haven't already got it) are free to download via Dropbox, Yuletide presents from Fleming & John. Yeah, they're very special people like that. Pay them a visit at Facebook.

Back In Red
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Winter Wonderland/Misty Mountain Hop

1 Comment

MASKARADE - OH! JINGLE & BONNE ANNEE GRAND-MERE

12/18/2016

0 Comments

One stop, no fuss. Love the video, which dropped Christmas Eve a year ago, but the audio and free download wasn't posted until, like, May or something. So, while a lot of people have seen the video, very few have had the chance to grab the free download of "Oh! Jingle & Bonne Annee Grand-Mere" (also known as "The Holy Jingle") which is a folksy Indie MashUp of "Jingle Bells", "O Holy Night" and their French counterparts.

Maskarade are a French duo. They love Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley, and MashUps. They appear to enjoy the process of making their little Pop creations as much as anything. And you get a bit of the feeling of their creation enjoyment when you watch the videos. They also seem to be primarily YouTube artists at this point (worked for Beiber).

Did they do another Christmas song for 2016? Why, yes, thank you for asking. Also free to download via Soundcloud is "White Christmas" (yeah, you want this one, the least you can do is pay them a visit), which is pretty much straight a cappella doo wop (in the tried and true Ravens arrangement).

0 Comments

The FREE List

Here we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations.

MASKARADE - FROSTY THE SNOWMAN IS COMING TO TOWN

FLEMING & JOHN - BACK IN RED

MASKARADE - OH! JINGLE & BONNE ANNEE GRAND-MERE

The FREE List

Archives

Categories