It’s the day after Thanksgiving here in America, a day which is commonly known as Black Friday, and therefore the holiday season is officially in full swing as capitalism

It’s the day after Thanksgiving here in America, a day which is commonly known as Black Friday, and therefore the holiday season is officially in full swing as capitalism begins to try and rein you in with deals, steals, and promises of happiness through monetary purchases. Perhaps you were unable to ignore this siren’s call and woke up at some ungodly hour to fight back your fellow citizens for such trivial items, or maybe you’re just now waking up and are currently hungover from too much eating, drinking, and avoiding your family altogether.

Either way you’re going to need some kind of music to tune out the world, but still get into the “spirit of the season,” and that junk on terrestrial radio just ain’t doing it anymore. I mean, look, I love Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as much as the next person, but I need something that’ll really make me forget this dumpster fire of a year. Well, Baby, It’s KILLd Outside so stay inside and avoid the lines at the store, or just people in general, with a holiday compilation album from your favorite musical anti-label: Kill All Music.

Twas the night before KILLmas,
& after a fifth of brandy,
you played our new album
and deafened your whole family.

Now, you might be wondering, what sets this holiday compilation apart from so many others that you’ve probably listened to before? Well, for one thing, you’re not going to have to endure hearing yet another painful rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” instead you’ll be getting some choice cuts in regards to covers and originals alike from a variety of genres and artists. For example, FacexHugger brings to the table his patented synthesized sound with “Home Alone,” a track that’ll be perfect to play in the background while you’re protecting your home from intruders. Other luminaries of the synthwave genre follow suit including Syntax with their wonderful new track “Koizumi,” The Warhorse‘s surprisingly beautiful rendition of the theme song to “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and Astrophel‘s equally uplifting cover of “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”

However perhaps the most surprisingly fun track of them all is the one by Occam’s Laser, who is often known for some hard hitting dark synth, entitled “Holiday Jam” which is quite the silly little synthrapped present:

The music continues with more haunting ambiance thanks to Adult Karate and their track “Trees,” followed by BIRTHDAY GRL and their lovely piano work on “雪,” but leave it to Matthew Bauer to end the electronic music block of the album with the only way they know how: with a depressingly accurate depiction of “Black Friday.”

As hinted at before, the last four songs on the album are less electronic in origin and more straight up on the guitars and drums although there is a little bit more of those bars to be unwrapped as well. Candy Cigarettes starts things off with the rather touching “Manger Scene,” although those sentiments are quickly dashed by the comedy troupe Hotel for Dads and their insincere acoustic track “Merry Christmas, Babe,” although perhaps the ones that really bring the heavy heat is Grand Lord High Master with “It’s Fuckin’ Christmas Time;” which is certainly the heaviest track on the album and will surely scare your grandmother. The album then comes to a close with Thoz Meddlin Kidz with a holiday triple threat rap gauntlet of “Big Wristmas / Sleighride Freestyle / Carol of the Goons” and it is something which has to be heard to be believed; words cannot accurately describe the lyrically random chaos that ensues. Which is really a good way to describe the compilation as a whole.

Baby, It’s KILLd Outside is pure unadulterated random chaos from start to finish, featuring some of the best across a variety of genres, and Kill All Music should be proud for having put together this compilation. If you’re seriously tired of the usual holiday music fare, you can’t go wrong with mixing it up every once and awhile.

But the best part about this album? All proceeds will be donated to My Friend’s Place, a charity that has been providing homeless youth in Los Angeles a respite from the streets with daytime shelter, meals, clothing and showers for over 25 years. They serve more than 1,000 young people a year and offer services such as arts and creative workshops, life skills and job search programs, GED and homework tutoring, voter registration, substance abuse education and violence prevention training. Find out more at: myfriendsplace.org/

Baby, It’s KILLd Outside is digitally available now via Kill All Music.

Nikolai T. Nelson

Published 6 years ago