THE OLYMPIC CYCLONE BAND: Season’s Greetings (2012)

It’s December, it’s just about acceptable to mention Christmas (forget the fact that supermarkets have been ramming it down your throat since the the end of Halloween, or even before – stand up Lidl) – ’tis the silly season for music. Step forward The Olympic Cyclone Band who, according to their PR, are “one of London’s most in-demand lounge bands” – though on the evidence of this, their talent for comedy surely equals their musical skills. Basically, Season’s Greetings is what happens when you leave a funk band alone in a bar for too long sans instruments and force them to listen to piped Christmas standards – the devil makes work for idle hands of course. It starts with the drummer tapping along and before you know it, the rest of his pissed-up musician mates have joined in and some bright spark says, “You know what? We should do these properly and record them – I reckon people’ll buy it.” And they just might.

We not talking covers of James Brown’s Santa’s Got A Brand New Bag or the like either. Oh no. We’re talking actual Christmas carols. Everything from God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen to Good King Wenceslas – I shit you not. Away In A Manger becomes a lazy psychedelic west coast organfest, Hark The Herald Angels Sing is delivered early eighties funk style and A Child Is Born becomes a late night torch song. For the best cuts head for the chilled fatback drums of Joy Part III, the call and response version of Twelve Days Of Christmas or single Little Drummer Boy. Which now features a drum break to facilitate djs ability to sleigh the Yuletide dance floor. Snow joke. Sorry. I don’t know why I’m apologising. I’m not the one who’s just covered Jingle Bells in the style of JTQ. Seriously, though – pick up a copy and do your elf a favour. Thank you, I’m here all week!

Soundcloud taster mix below, ridiculous retro video below that.
(Out now on Jalapeno Records)

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