The Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club - Edition 2018

It is still more than a week before the singles are officially out, but as all the pre-orders are send, and two of the bands have their release party this Saturday in London, it seems like a good moment to write about this year's singles of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club - because Snowflakes is not only a blog, but also a label! I will make it easy for myself, and use the press releases here. Because, after all, I wrote these myself.
This year, the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club brought you Christmas singles by London bands Oh! Gunquit and Green Seagull and Bristol-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Rachael Dadd.

Oh! Gunquit: Holiday Jeer From Oh! Gunquit
(Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, Snowflake 18, The Netherlands, 45 rpm, small hole, snow white vinyl)

Recorded on the hottest day of an extremely hot London Summer, Oh! Gunquit deliver two Christmas party anthems on this 45, blending surf guitars, rumble drums and a wailing sax with lyrics about, well, what else than partying at Christmas – a bottle of wine, some good music and nice company is enough to get 'High On Xmas'. On the flipside, the fivesome breathe new life into The Sonics' garage rock classic 'Don't Believe In Christmas' – out goes the organ, in come guitar, sax and trumpet, with singer Tina's cool vocals finishing it off.

Oh! Gunquit came together when vocalist/trumpetist Tina and guitarist/vocalist Simon became neighbours and frequented the same sweaty cellar dance nights around town. The two formed the band with the idea to create a vibrant blend of new-wave vicious psych-surf, garage-punk, exotica & rock ‘n roll. The unusual name of the band was inspired by Maine harbour town Ogunquit (which means 'beautiful place by the sea' in the indigenous Abenaki language), known for its late 19th Century artists colony, and by the idea of all guns quitting. Based in London, Oh! Gunquit, known for their high energy and spectacular live shows, is as cosmopolitan as their city is, with members from Italy, USA, Colombia, Spain and the UK.

You can Listen to the single on Soundcloud.



Green Seagull: First Snow Of Winter / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
(Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, Snowflake 19, The Netherlands, 45 rpm, small hole, snow white vinyl)

Green Seagull’s Christmas single feels like a journey – a journey back in time, to the late 1960s, and a journey to the inner depths of your mind, as it brings you in a dreamy state, where illusion and reality form a completely new experience. The single, that as all Snowflakes singles comes on snow white vinyl, is as much inspired by winter as by Christmas. Green Seagull's original, 'First Snow Of Winter' is a baroque pop song about that element of winter that directly brings a feeling of comfort and joy, a feeling of Christmas, in your heart: snow. The lyrics take you on another journey, a journey from the early beginnings of winter to the last snow, when spring is announcing itself and the first flowers start popping up. For the B-side, the band recorded a song that is already part of their live set for some time: an uptempo organ-drenched psychedelic version of the Christmas traditional 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'.

Green Seagull, part of London's burgeoning neo-psych scene, started in 2016, when Paul Nelson (New Electric Ride) and Paul Milne (Hidden Masters, Magnetic Mind), who both share a love for late-60s baroque psychedelia and 12-string jangling guitars, started to write songs together. Soon joined by Sarah Gonputh on keyboards and Elian Dalmasso on drums, the four started rehearsing, taking their name from a mis-heard Rolling Stones lyric. After recording a 4-track demo, the band signed a deal with Mega Dodo Records, and after two well-received singles for the label, Green Seagull released their debut album 'Scarlet Fever' earlier this year. The band is currently working on their second album.

You can Listen to the single on Soundcloud.



Rachael Dadd: Spark Illuminate / The Holly And The Ivy
(Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, Snowflake 19, The Netherlands, 45 rpm, small hole, snow white vinyl)

British folk singer Rachael Dadd takes the holly and ivy as the central theme of her Christmas single. In pre-Christian times, the holly and the ivy were symbols of the male and female sex. When christianity arrived, the holly and ivy were given a new meaning, the holly symbolizing Jesus and the ivy Mary. The holly and ivy, that keep their colours in the winter, became a Christmas decoration, and are the reason why green and red are seen as the colours of Christmas. Rachael covers the 19th Century English carol ‘The Holly And The Ivy’ on the B-side of her single and uses that carol as an inspiration for her original on the A-side, the poetic ‘Spark Illuminate’. With just her beautiful voice and a prepared piano (a piano that has its sounds altered by placing objects on or between the strings), Rachael creates an atmopshere of stillness and intimacy, to warm your heart during those cold days of Christmas.

Rachael Dadd is a contemporary folk singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Bristol, England and on the Japanese island of Mukaishima. She is married to Japanese experimental musician ICHI, with whom she also regularly performs, live and on record. Rachael debuted in 2004 with the album ‘Summer/Autumn Recordings’. The album was followed by a string of releases on labels like Broken Sound, Talitres, and Japanese labels Angel’s Egg and Sweetdreams Press. Over the years, Rachael has played festivals like Glastonbury, End of The Road, Green Man, Wilderness and No Direction Home and toured the UK, Europe and Japan several times, alone or with acts like This Is The Kit, Rozi Plain and Alessi’s Ark. Besides as a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Dadd, who is a graduate from art school, is also a practicing and exhibiting artist.

You can Listen to the single on Soundcloud.



These three singles, and also most of the singles of the previous edition of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club can be bought from the Snowflakes Big Cartel page and, from December 1st on, from the Snowflakes Bandcamp page.