ARTIST...: VA
TITLE....: X-mas Card From Outer Space (Oscar's X-mas Carols 1984-1987)
YEAR.....: 2017
LABEL....: Domestica
CAT.NO...: DOM34-L
GENRE....: Electronic
TIME.....: 48:37
SIZE.....: 111,52 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/44,1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2017/12/11
WEBSITE..: https://play.google.com
TRACKLIST
01) (01:25) Grandmaster O░-░Santa Cut
02) (03:53) Ende Shneafliet░-░X-mas Card From Outer Space
03) (03:21) Mark Lane░-░When The Candle Burns Tonight
04) (02:51) Atom Cristal░-░Cristalissages
05) (02:27) Pt⌠se░-░What Will You Bring (To Me)
06) (05:30) Atrox & Francesco Paladino & The Doubling Riders░-░The Little Match Girl
07) (01:48) Bene Gesserit░-░Joyeux Poeme !!
08) (03:04) Geluidshouwerij░-░Snow Blow
09) (01:26) The Legendary Pink Dots░-░Governement Health Warning
10) (03:33) Jacques van Erven░-░Longfellow's Christmas Bells
11) (02:19) Pascal Comelade░-░Creche Musicale Et Plastique
12) (04:47) Doxa Sinistra░-░Sade Claus Is Coming To Town (Chapter I - VII)
13) (03:57) Van Kaye & Ignit░-░Happy Holiday
14) (02:20) Edward Ka-Spel░-░Jesus Wept
15) (05:56) Genetic Factor░-░Vigila Di Natale
A young Oscar Smit (DJ and music journalist) falls in love with the torrential music
of the Christmas recording by Phil Spector, ôA Christmas Gift For Youö; and since
then, he has been obsessed with all the versions, albums and songs which have
something to do with Christmas time.
On the other hand, he is also a true fan of dark and experimental music, and knows
largely the underground scene which arose in the 80ies; an international movement
with a working philosophy totally ôDIYö, which used to distribute most of their
publications by post and cassette format. So he tries to follow the possible common
points between both passions, but soon realizes that they are basically nonexistent.
Far from getting discouraged, he starts up an unusual project: to ask these bands,
just known by a few and which he loves so much, to record their own Christmas tracks.
This is how in 1984 ôOscarÆs X-Mas Carolsö is born; the first cassette compilated by
Oscar SmitÆs imprint Noel Tapes in Holland, which would be followed by two more;
ôSanta Claus Comesö (1985) and ôIs That You Santa Clausö (1987). X-mas Card From
Outer Space (Oscar X-Mas Carols 1984-1987)ö is a selection of the best tracks of
these three cassettes.
The story behind ôX-mas Card From Outer Spaceö by Oscar Smit himself:
"I've had a thing for Christmas music ever since I heard Phil Spector's Christmas
Album in the late 1970s. Through the years I've become a massive collector of every
genre of Christmas songs. Each year, I canÆt wait for December, when I can play
Christmas music again.
In the 1980s I worked for Vinyl, a Dutch monthly magazine. A lot of music at that
time was released on cassettes. A significant number of cassettes were sent to Vinyl,
from both the Netherlands and abroad, so many in fact that I began writing a separate
column, Dolby, to discuss them. For some years, my Dolby page was a meeting place for
fans of cassette music. In addition to Christmas music, I was also a big fan of
experimental sounds, and I soon noticed that very little electronic Christmas music
was being produced. That's when I got the idea of creating a cassette myself,
featuring adventurous and original Christmas numbers. I was in contact with a lot of
musicians because of my work at Vinyl, and I invited a large number of them to record
a holiday number especially for my Christmas cassette. The production and
distribution were in the hands of Ed and Ignit from the Ding Dong label. The first
edition of Oscar's X-Mas Carols was released shortly before Christmas 1984, on my own
Noel label. I never received any payment or sales figures from Ding Dong, so I have
no idea how many copies of that first edition were sold. That's one of the reasons
why in 1985 I decided to take on the distribution myself. Plus, I'd just gotten hold
of a rubber stamp that was suitable for stamping serial numbers. That gave me the
idea of producing a limited-edition, numbered cassette. IÆd package the cassette
attached to a picture frame containing a beautiful black-and-white photo of my
sister's hand, holding some of my parent's Christmas ornaments. My friend Theo
Kamphuis not only took the picture, he also had to develop it 350 times, because that
was the edition's print run. We spent two evenings assembling the 350 packages, each
containing a framed photograph plus a cassette. The artistic-looking result disguised
the fact that the project was a financial catastrophe. I barely recouped half of the
4000 guilders in production costs. I had well and truly learned my lesson and decided
to stop producing cassettes. However, in 1987 I started to get the itch again, so I
invited a large group of international and Dutch artists to send me numbers for my
third Christmas cassette. This time, to cut costs, I did everything except the cover
design on my own. The cover was mimeographed, and I reproduced the cassettes myself.
And so, Is That You Santa Claus was created, in a limited and numbered edition of
100, made for approximately one-tenth of the production costs of its forerunner.
In 1988 I got a full-time job and had little time for my Christmas label.
Subsequently, cassettes lost more and more ground to the encroaching CD format. A
fourth cassette would therefore never materialize! It wasn't until 2010 that OscarÆs
X-mas Carols volume 4 would be released, in the form of a CD entitled Christmas Cover
Up. The songs on that CD were covers of not-so-well-known Christmas numbers,
performed by such artists as Hunter Complex, Jaap Boots, Eddy de Clercq, and Kaat
Hellings. The music, however, was much less experimental than on the cassettes.
Now, in 2017, thereÆs a vinyl version of Oscar's X-mas Carols. For this albumÆs
tracklist, its compilers Jordi Serrano and Oscar Smit made a personal selection from
the three previous cassettes. In this, they were unfortunately hindered by the
limited playing time available on a long-playing record. Of the fifteen tracks on
this LP, seven come from the Netherlands. I've remained in contact with many of the
original artists and was able to track down the rest on Facebook. Welcome to the
digital era. I wish you much listening pleasure with these tracks from the previous,
analog century!"
Merry X-Mas
Oscar Smit (Music journalist / DJ)
Mastered from the original tapes by Ruud Lekx.
Compiled by Oscar Smit and Jordi Serrano.
Cover painting by Max Kisman.
Release date: November 23, 2017.
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