N&G Secret Santa 2023

Would you be interested in participating in Secret Santa this year?

  • Yes, absolutely

    Votes: 18 41.9%

  • Hell yeah, brother

    Votes: 14 32.6%

  • Is the Pope Catholic?

    Votes: 7 16.3%

  • No, I am the Grinch

    Votes: 4 9.3%
  • Total voters
    43
  • Poll closed .
wokeupnew said:
Who knew that on @TenderLovingKiller®’s birthday you’d be the one receiving a gift!

Custom painted artwork 😱

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also a beanie hat from Hi-Voltage that I realized I didn’t photo because I was busy wearing it when I opened these!

Some toffee candy 🍬 delicious!View attachment 190261
Very neatly wrapped
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And 3 records that I wasn’t expecting. One I’m familiar with but two others I’ve never heard before. Very excited to give them a spin. Thank you and happy birthday @TenderLovingKiller®

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Sweet! It got there a day early!

The candy is Almond Rocha. It’s a nominally renowned toffee made right here in Tacoma (it usually comes in a barrel but that wouldn’t fit in the box so I improvised). As you can probably guess everything else was purchased from my local record store, Hi-Voltage Records.

Regarding the albums, I noticed you had a good chunk of Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis discography in your collection already but you didn’t pick up Rilo Kiley’s final album, Under The Blacklight on Black Friday; I kept refreshing your collection throughout the week to make sure it didn’t show up (my heart skipped a beat for a moment when your collection updated recently with the Kate Bush and Mountain Goats additions). I figured that album was a safe bet as something you probably already enjoyed and thus would be a quality addition to your collection. The other two, The Deathray Davies - The Kick & The Snare and Acetone - Acetone were a couple albums that I love and knowing that we both share an affinity for guitar based indie rock, thought you would appreciate as well. The Deathray Davies album was from 2005, it’s hooky guitar rock at its finest. It wouldn’t be out of place on playlist alongside Guided By Voices (speaking of which, had I known you were diving deep down the GBV rabbit hole, I probably woulda included one of their albums) and Pavement. The Acetone album was their third album originally released in 1997 and was recently reissued along with their other 3 LPs by New West. In fact, it was the recent reissue project that was my introduction to the group and I have been super obsessed since. I feel like their self titled third LP is probably best overall but they are all quite excellent and worth checking out if you end up getting a kick out of this one. Hope you dig the new albums and would love to hear your thoughts on the albums when you get a chance.

Beyond that, I just wanted to say I really appreciate your contributions to this goofy community we have here. You are one of the reasons I spend so much time hanging out on this forum.

We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cheers!
 
avecigrec said:
Ho ho ho, Happy Listening! 🎅

Apologies for the lack of personal touch of a note or any non-record goodies. By nature of ordering from where I did (which is where I had to order my own copies, as nobody around here had them!) I didn't really have the luxury - it would have been too time-consuming and expensive to ship them here and repackage them to ship back to the UK. Rest assured, however, the selections were very much personalized from me to you!

I knew you were very well-steeped in British and American Jazz, but didn't notice any Polish Jazz in your collection, so figured I'd get you started over there - I'm still a bit of a neophyte myself but Sneaky Jesus has definitely been one of my favourites so far! I agree with @Poly-Rythmo that For Joseph Riddle is an even better album than this one, but a little trickier to find in the places I was looking for in this endeavor. That said, this new one is also a fantastic outing.

I figured Sun Ra in Brasil would probably give me away as your Santa but since most of our earliest conversations were about Sun Ra, I definitely wanted to get you a little something from the Omniverse! This second (so far) of the Red Hot + Ra compilations featured almost entirely artists who were unfamiliar to me but made for a fun and exciting journey through the sounds of Brazil and Sun Ra coming together! It's pretty accessible Ra for the uninitiated too, so you should be able to play it in mixed company. ;)

There ought to be another little something something headed your way (another exciting stop on the international journey for your ears!) but I'm not sure if it's shipped already without notification, or simply not shipped yet - so it may be a surprise to both of us when you get it! :LOL:

In the meanwhile, happiest of holidays to you and yours! 💜
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I've been on a huge Polish jazz binge recently after visiting loads of great shops in Warszawa and Krakow. Here are a few extra recommendations from me:

Modern bands
EABS are the big ones for me. Their first record was a homage to Komeda (see below) and even better was the live version of it. Since then, they've done a tribute to Sun Ra, and next up they're doing another homage to one of the best ever Polish jazz albums, Tomasz Stanko's Purple Sun. Their spin-off Bloto is worth checking out too - @avecigrec just messaged me about their smoking new single. Sneaky Jesus and Immortal Onion are the two others I know most about - well worth checking out - both albums by Sneaky Jesus, and Ocelot of Salvation by Immortal Onion. I also like Wojtek Mazolewski (Polka and When Angels Fall especially) and Piotr Damasiewicz (Polska and Into the Roots - Spiwle are the two I know best).

Older stuff
King of Polish jazz is Krzysztof Komeda and his album Astigmatic. Next up is Tomasz Stanko, who played trumpet on that - I love his Music For K, the recent reissue of Wooden Music I , and Music 81. Then there's Zbigniew Namysłowski, who played sax on Astigmatic and was my gift to my secret Santee - he has a lot of great albums including Kujaviak Goes Funky, Winobranie, and his Quartet album. Others I like - Zbigniew Seifert plays violin on Stanko's Wooden Music and Purple Sun - his own Man of the Light and Kilimanjaro albums are great. Pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski has great Quintet and Sextet records. I also like violinist Michal Urbaniak's live recordings, Czesław Bartkowski's Drums Dream, Laboratorium's Quasimodo, and more.

It really repays digging. There's something about the melancholy aspect of Polish jazz that I love, its fairly far-out there nature, and even the violin (not the most obvious jazz instrument) that's on a lot of the older stuff eg Stanko/Seifert/Urbaniak.
 
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
Sweet! It got there a day early!

The candy is Almond Rocha. It’s a nominally renowned toffee made right here in Tacoma (it usually comes in a barrel but that wouldn’t fit in the box so I improvised). As you can probably guess everything else was purchased from my local record store, Hi-Voltage Records.

Regarding the albums, I noticed you had a good chunk of Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis discography in your collection already but you didn’t pick up Rilo Kiley’s final album, Under The Blacklight on Black Friday; I kept refreshing your collection throughout the week to make sure it didn’t show up (my heart skipped a beat for a moment when your collection updated recently with the Kate Bush and Mountain Goats additions). I figured that album was a safe bet as something you probably already enjoyed and thus would be a quality addition to your collection. The other two, The Deathray Davies - The Kick & The Snare and Acetone - Acetone were a couple albums that I love and knowing that we both share an affinity for guitar based indie rock, thought you would appreciate as well. The Deathray Davies album was from 2005, it’s hooky guitar rock at its finest. It wouldn’t be out of place on playlist alongside Guided By Voices (speaking of which, had I known you were diving deep down the GBV rabbit hole, I probably woulda included one of their albums) and Pavement. The Acetone album was their third album originally released in 1997 and was recently reissued along with their other 3 LPs by New West. In fact, it was the recent reissue project that was my introduction to the group and I have been super obsessed since. I feel like their self titled third LP is probably best overall but they are all quite excellent and worth checking out if you end up getting a kick out of this one. Hope you dig the new albums and would love to hear your thoughts on the albums when you get a chance.

Beyond that, I just wanted to say I really appreciate your contributions to this goofy community we have here. You are one of the reasons I spend so much time hanging out on this forum.

We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cheers!
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My partner and I ate about 7 of those so far, she loves Toffee so those are going to be dangerous! :eek:

I don't think I've been out for a RSD since 2018 so you're safe there lol. Anything I want I normally wait to see if it'll come online somewhere after, and there really hasn't been an item I really, really wanted enough to go out to a RSD since then.

Listened to Rilo Kiley and Acetone yesterday already, both really nice! I had only vaguely heard of Acetone but never listened to them before. The hype sticker had praise from J. Spaceman so it has to be good. It reminded me of Yo La Tengo but more sadcore. It was completely not what I expected. I'll have to dig into their other albums as well. The Deathray Davies sounds right up my alley, I'll spin that one today. Thanks again!!
 
Ghost said:
@ModernCyrus Dude, you knocked it out of the park on this one. All three of these records are ones that I’ve been about to purchase many different times but for one reason or another I put it off for another time, even down to the Zelda Lo-Fi record. Thank you so much for going above and beyond here.

Cleaning Zelda now and starting the day with some chill vibes before ramping up towards Kendrick! Also you’ve officially completed my Kendrick discography :D. Love this time of year, thank you my friend ❤️

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Glad it got there safe!! That Nina record is one of my all time favorites and I hope the pressing sounds as clean as my copy. Happy holidays!
 
avecigrec said:
Ho ho ho, Happy Listening! 🎅

Apologies for the lack of personal touch of a note or any non-record goodies. By nature of ordering from where I did (which is where I had to order my own copies, as nobody around here had them!) I didn't really have the luxury - it would have been too time-consuming and expensive to ship them here and repackage them to ship back to the UK. Rest assured, however, the selections were very much personalized from me to you!

I knew you were very well-steeped in British and American Jazz, but didn't notice any Polish Jazz in your collection, so figured I'd get you started over there - I'm still a bit of a neophyte myself but Sneaky Jesus has definitely been one of my favourites so far! I agree with @Poly-Rythmo that For Joseph Riddle is an even better album than this one, but a little trickier to find in the places I was looking for in this endeavor. That said, this new one is also a fantastic outing.

I figured Sun Ra in Brasil would probably give me away as your Santa but since most of our earliest conversations were about Sun Ra, I definitely wanted to get you a little something from the Omniverse! This second (so far) of the Red Hot + Ra compilations featured almost entirely artists who were unfamiliar to me but made for a fun and exciting journey through the sounds of Brazil and Sun Ra coming together! It's pretty accessible Ra for the uninitiated too, so you should be able to play it in mixed company. ;)

There ought to be another little something something headed your way (another exciting stop on the international journey for your ears!) but I'm not sure if it's shipped already without notification, or simply not shipped yet - so it may be a surprise to both of us when you get it! :LOL:

In the meanwhile, happiest of holidays to you and yours! 💜
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AHHHH I thought it might have come from you @avecigrec!

Thank you so much, I actually listened to both of them today and they are knock-out choices, really great music and you honed in on my tastes perfectly. You were completely correct, Polish Jazz is something that I have yet to delve into but having now listened to the Sneaky Jesus, I might end up having to listen to some more!

Did you get your copy of the Sun Ra comp yet? It's fantastic, who would have thought that merging Brazilian music with Ra would work so wel!?

Seriously, thanks so much again, absolutely brilliant gifts! Hope you and the family have a great Holiday too!
 
Selaws said:
AHHHH I thought it might have come from you @avecigrec!

Thank you so much, I actually listened to both of them today and they are knock-out choices, really great music and you honed in on my tastes perfectly. You were completely correct, Polish Jazz is something that I have yet to delve into but having now listened to the Sneaky Jesus, I might end up having to listen to some more!

Did you get your copy of the Sun Ra comp yet? It's fantastic, who would have thought that merging Brazilian music with Ra would work so wel!?

Seriously, thanks so much again, absolutely brilliant gifts! Hope you and the family have a great Holiday too!
Click to expand...

So glad you like them! I did indeed get my Ra comp already - I'd pre-ordered it the moment it went up on their page, figuring I could just cancel if my semi-local was getting any but they didn't (I did get the *other* Red Hot + Ra release from them, though!) Having already had both of these in-hand over here helped in determining them to be worthy choices to send your way!

The only other mixing of Sun Ra and Brazil I'd experienced before this was was (Portugal-based) Brazilian poet/filmaker/artist Brandão's collaboration with the contemporary Marshall Allen led Arkestra:



Also pretty cool, but VERY different than this amazing comp!
 
Joe Mac said:
I’m pretty sure I’ve been visited by Santa @panino

I think this is the second time you’ve been my Santa, the first I think was 2018, the last year at VMP and my first year in SS, when we drew each other!

A great selection that I look forward to spinning while reading your letter!

Merry Christmas mate!

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it's me indeed....
hope you like the choices I made.
Anna von Hausswolff has been a recent discovery of mine.
the live at Montreux is her last release and I find her fantastic.
she reminds me of the sound of Lankum and Oxn (how do they call it...? goth-folk....), with the organ and her great voice creating cinematic landscapes!
Play the record at night, possibly loudly, it will be scary!
One Leg One eye, was recommended by you first... I just delivered the record! ;)
and goat are one of my special bands, afrobeat and kind of weirdly unique!
I like the raspy voice of the lady singer and the bizarre mistique built around the band members and image.
enjoy!
 
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