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JEI SOUL - UNWRAPPED PRESENTS

12/26/2012

1. Intro
2. The Christmas Song
3. Charlie Brown Christmas feat. Rashaud Knight
4. Interlude 1
5. When I Fall in Love/ To the ghetto
6. Interlude 2
7. X-Mas Together feat. BZe
8. I'll be Home For Christmas
9. Silent Night
10. Merry Little Christmas

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Modern soul incorporates a lot of sounds--from Hip Hop and Rap to classic smooth Soul and Funk to Jazz and mixmasters. Frank Ocean, one of this year's breakout stars, is an artist making his way with these new hybrid sounds, and this one reminded me of him. This little set of "Unwrapped Presents" from Danny Fantom's equally new Self Conscious label out of Texas is a fine example of urban alternative. Credited to Jei Soul, "Unwrapped Presents" also features contributions from Rashaud Knight and BZe. Interspaced with clips of A Charlie Brown Christmas and other "interludes", Jei Soul shows off a marvelous set of pipes on music that's both fresh and familiar. One of the better examples of the modern style turns up on a medley (of sorts) of the beautiful "When I Fall In Love" and a gritty chorus of James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto". The new style is all about combining disperate elements into a cohesive and unique expression. It's all about making sense out of chaos. "I'll Be Home For Christmas", thanks to the acoustic backing, sounds a bit like a standard soul ballad combined with Country Blues a la Huddie Ledbetter. "Silent Night" is delivered a cappella, and with noticeable sadness and just a touch of irony. My personal favorite, though, is "X-Mas Together", which is a fairly straight forward Hip Hop/R&B track with a dope rhyme from BZe and some really nice Jazz undertones. Christmas is over, but this set can keep you warm all winter long, so grab it quick at Bandcamp or Dat Piff.

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THAT BAND FROM HOLLAND & LEFT HANDED ORCHESTRA - HOW TO MICROWAVE WHOLE TURKEY

12/1/2012

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1. Santa's back in town
2. Sledding
3. Torgs Interlude
4. Mountain
5. Christmas Cards
6. Pet Rock Pete
7. 6/4
8. Random things to do
9. Do I really have to wear this ugly sweater?
10. Christmas on the moon

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It's time for our annual holiday treat from That Band From Holland. This time they have Left Handed Orchestra in tow. As with previous Christmas efforts, "How To Microwave Whole Turkey" is fun and tasty. The group experiments with a lot of different sounds here--everything from Alt Country ("Sledding") to Alt Jazz ("6/4") and they do it all very well. My favorites, here, are the 60s Psych Rock/Power Pop "Pet Rock Pete", the more straight forward Alt Rock of "Mountain" (cool lyrics on that one) and the previously mentioned "6/4" (I'm a sucker for the weird time signature stuff). And I'm sure plenty folks will find "Do I Really Have To Wear This Ugly Sweater?" and "Christmas On The Moon" thoroughly enjoyable (not to mention great mixtape fodder). "How To Microwave Whole Turkey" is a "Name-Your-Price" download at Bandcamp, as are all the band's previous holiday efforts. Why not collect the whole set?

Just a postscript here. I went back and reviewed our entries on TBFH from 2010 and 2011 and, every time, I remark about the group's lyrics. Which, you know, I think is a good thing. Might want to start paying more attention to these guys between the holidays.

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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.

JEI SOUL - UNWRAPPED PRESENTS

THAT BAND FROM HOLLAND & LEFT HANDED ORCHESTRA - HOW TO MICROWAVE WHOLE TURKEY

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