For the month of November, all I’ve listened to is Christmas music, Wading through some 4,000 plus songs, I’ve been trying to find non-traditional Christmas songs, or non-traditional interpretations of the classics, preferably in a dark or electronic style and hopefully somehow related to robots, being lyrically or through the use of vocoders. Why am I doing this? In preparation of Do Androids Dream of a White Noise Christmas? Volume 3, the next in my ongoing series of holiday music playlists.
The idea that grew into Do Androids Dream of a White Noise Christmas? was born in 1995 when I got my hands on Projekt Records’ Excelsis – A Dark Noël CD. Gothic, darkwave, dream pop, neo-medieval, shoegaze, and industrial ambient interpretations of traditional Christmas carols, Excelsis was a holiday album unlike anything I’d ever imagined. Having worked at a record store through many holiday seasons, I’d heard thousands of the same old mundane and boring standards that I’d grown to loathe. Listening to Excelsis was a paradigm shift for me. Christmas carols could be enjoyable again.
Fast forward to 2006, when Evil Robot Radio (my now defunct internet radio station) was in full swing. Christmas fell on a Monday that year, and with two days off of work and no other plans, I focused my attention on the station. For the holiday, I wanted to play the songs from Excelsis and the few other holiday albums I had, but the loudcity terms and conditions I was under prevented me from doing that. I would need more music, from more artists and more albums in order to not violate the t’s & c’s. With Google, Amazon, eMusic and CDBaby as my guides, I spent the entirety of Christmas Eve scouring the internet for Industrial Christmas Songs, Electro Xmas Songs, Gothic Holiday Songs and as many variations as I could think of.
Between those search results and my own CD collection, I managed to come up with about 5 hours of usable songs. Not nearly as much industrial as I hoped I would find, but some excellent 8-bit, breakcore, glitch and mash-ups and many interesting remixes, drum and bass and otherwise dancey versions of traditional carols. Most importantly, enough music that I could program the station to shuffle them in a way that wouldn’t get me in trouble with the loudcity. With all the pieces in place, as Christmas Eve turned to Christmas, I set the holiday broadcast in motion.
Listener feedback was favorable, so I decided this would become an annual tradition, and I’d put more effort into preparation and marketing in the following years. Unfortunately, two broadcasts was all I got as I shut down Evil Robot Radio in 2008.
Fast forward again to September, 2012, when I started working on the oh so creatively titled “Holiday Mix 2012” for my friend Laurie. I had so much fun putting that together and was so happy with the results, I wanted to repeat the experience with a Christmas Mix. This time I came up with a more interesting title, Do Androids Dream of a White Noise Christmas?.
You can download the complete album HERE.
01 – Distorted Disco Records – Christmas Club Banger! (Daft Punk vs. Shark Attack vs. The Carpenters)
02 – EROS (Vocal Eric McGauley) – Little Drummer Boy
03 – Chris Beckstrom – Jingle Bell Rock
04 – The Schematics – Deck The Halls
05 – Motiv8 – We Wish You A Merry Christmas
06 – Shuree – O Come O Come Emmanuel (Tall Animals Remix)
07 – Siddal – In The Bleak Midwinter
08 – Solarno – God Rest Ye Merry Robotmen
09 – Paul Slocum – Up on the Housetop
10 – Sounda – Seasons Greetings From NASA and Sounda
11 – Spiral-Shaped Mind – Santa Conquers The Martians!
12 – Daveyboyz – Dubstep Santa – Filthy [Dark Mix]
13 – Cyberfuk – Walking In The Air (CYBRFK DUBSTEP REMIX)
14 – No-L – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
15 – Love Spirals Downwards – Welcome Christmas
16 – BR1GHT PR1MATE – Linux & Lucy
17 – John Anealio – The Millennium Falcon For Christmas
18 – Rudimentary Paste – Spirit of Getting [ERR Edit]
19 – Robot Zombie Attack – The Man Who Ate Christmas
20 – Lucky Wander Boy – Who’s Cyborg Is This (Greensleeves)
21 – Corporal Blossom – Little Drummer Boy
22 – MystiQuintet – Carol Of The Bells
23 – The Cathedral Brass – Joy To The World (Mocean Worker Remix)
24 – DJ Scotty Marz – O Tannenbaum
25 – Love Colony; Six – Christmas Is A Feeling In Your Heart
26 – Cocteau Twins – Frosty the Snowman
27 – Bit Shifter – Let it Snow
28 – Obliminal – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
29 – Tornado Twins – Christmas Dubstep
30 – Nude – Silent Night
31 – DKSTR – Have Yourself a Merry Funky Christmas
32 – Josh Cunningham – We 3 Kings
33 – Cyberfuk – ROBOT BELLS (CYBRFK [ROBOT-ARMY] RMX) [ERR Edit]
34 – PumpYouUp – First Noel Dub
35 – Psyborg Corp. – Angels We Have Heard On High (ProtonIced Version)
36 – Tyske Ludder – Weisse Weihnacht
Running Time: 02:09:36
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