It’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeeear! Yes, the Joyzine Advent Calendar is back once again to bring you 24 days of fantastic free music downloads from a amazing array of our favourite artists. This year marks the 21st edition of our online calendar making it (as far as we’re aware) the longest running on the net (though we’re always happy to be corrected). As always, every track is completely free to download and we don’t require you to sign up for a mailing list (though you can if you want to) or hand over your personal data – it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s visited the site during 2024 and to hopefully bring a few more listeners to some very deserving artists.
However, if you do enjoy the tracks we would love you to consider making a donation to our chosen cause, which this year is the wonderful First Timers Fest, a brilliant grassroots DIY organisation helping people take the first step into making music. Alumni include Joyzine faves Big Joanie, Panic Pocket, Charmpit and Breakup Haircut, with many more great bands coming through every year. We asked First Timers for a few words about what they do:
First Timers Fest is all about supporting new people into music! Yes that’s right, we mean you! We demystify the music making process through a series of beginners workshops that encourage people to try something new, no pressure to start a band after. The festival is open to everyone, but we particularly want to encourage people from marginalised groups to apply.
Next year we will be hosting our workshops at the Cavendish in Stockwell but following a sell out festival at the Victoria in Dalston we have decided to host the festival at a much bigger venue: The Oslo Hackney! This will take place on 4th May 2025. See you there!!!
We’ve got a sleigh-full of fantastic tracks for you again this year, including some festive tunes, plenty of exclusives and some of our favourite songs of 2024. Let’s get crack(er)ing!
Dead Horse are a band much entwined with Joyzine – singer/bassist/sax player Kevin Lennon has appeared within these pages, on our radio airwaves and our gig stages in various forms, while drummer Duncan Clark has penned the occasional Joyzine article and designed our lovely magpies logo. They’ve been regulars on the calendar in recent years and earlier this year contributed a track to the third and final installment of our 20 Years of Joy compilation series. As a special extra Advent Calendar gift today only we’ve made the physical edition of the trilogy (ft 3. ltd edition birthday cards) ‘pay what you want’ for Bandcamp Friday – get yours here.
Today they’ve provided us with an unreleased track, ‘Historic’, which rides in on a smooth bassline before a burst machine gun drums bundles us into the boot of a runaway sax getaway car and eerily muffled vocals terrorise us from somewhere unsettlingly close. It’s pure Dead Horse, thrilling and disquieting in equal measure, and if you fancy a little more you’re in luck – the London trio release their third EP Ménagerie a Trois on Friday 13th December via Milk Filth Records. They’ll be launching the EP with a gig the same day at Blondie’s in East London – tickets via Dice.
We caught up with Duncan to find out more about the track.
Tell us a little about your track please
So this one was recorded a while ago. Nearly 2 years actually. We got together with Luca Bianco and had a bit of an improvisation session at our practise studio and hit record. We’ve got four tracks for that session as the B side on the new EP.
What have you been up to in 2024?
In 2024 we mainly spent our time recording a new EP, playing approximately 6 shows and providing the soundtrack to Johnny Walker’s Mexican advertising.
And what do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We’ve got a few new videos up our sleeve for early next year.
Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?
Defo a hate, I used to work in TK Maxx and they had them on repeat from Oct-Jan. Pure psychotic-mania inducing stuff.
Download ‘Historic‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Dead Horse: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:
1: Piney Gir – Reindeer
2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information
3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys
4: First Timers Fest – Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly
5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks
Check back tomorrow for another free festive download!
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