You’ve made it to 2025! Congratulations, now you’ll be needing something to take the edge off the hangover/lack of sleep/anxiety that you may already have broken your New Year’s resolution. We have just the thing – sadly this year’s Joyzine Advent Calendar was cut short (as explained here) but that means we have loads of brilliant songs still to share with you over the coming days to lighten the trudge into the new year.
As with all of out songs this year, if you enjoy them we’d love you to consider supporting the excellent work of First Timers Fest in creating opportunities for people from under-represented backgrounds to learn an instrument, form a band, write some songs and get onstage, by making a donation here.
Northumberland based independent record label Cruel Nature Records have been championing sonic diversity for over a decade, with dozens of releases from a diverse range of artists from around the globe, including Sly & The Family Drone, Moloch, Lip Critic and many more. Today they’ve provided us with two tracks from their roster to kick start your new year.
Jason Kester, aka Plan Pony, released his album Electric Swampland Home on Cruel Nature in April, and is currently working on a remix album, reimagining Leeds-based noisenik, Territorial Gobbing’s 2022 album Creature Take The Wheel. Today he shares his remix of ‘All The Beers And Coke In Manchester’.
“I always have loved Theo’s (Territorial Gobbing is Theo Gowans) album Creature Take The Wheel,” explains Kester, “and this year I’ve been doing a lot of sampling, so I started taking bits of the album and reworking them. I was unsure whether to ask Theo if he minded me remixing the album, but that’s where I was headed, and when I did mention it fortunately he was into the idea. The album is already quite abstract so I felt like it would be good to put some beats to it or something like that, but in an off-kilter way! For 2025 I’ve got a few different projects that you’ll see on my Instagram. All I’ve ever wanted to do is be involved in writing music, recording it and playing live, also the fun of putting artwork and videos together, for my projects and other people’s too, so that’s the plan for 2025. And I like Christmas songs because certain songs have become like modern folk songs, EVERYONE knows them and they transcend the era they were created in.”
Download ‘All The Beers and Coke In Manchester (Plan Pony remix)‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Plan Pony: Instagram
Yellow Belly is the musical project of Cardiff based Dominique Finnegan, who creates lush, hypnotic, downtempo electronic music. Her atmospheric debut album Ghostwriter was released in August. Dominique has provided a glimpse of the record with her track ‘Crux’.
What have you been up to in 2024?
In 2024 I have played at a variety of venues and festivals (both as a headliner and opening act), played my debut SOFAR Sounds show, had my first ever BBC Radio Wales airplay and released my debut album, Ghostwriter, which will be released on vinyl by Cruel Nature Records, in February 2025.
And what do you have planned for the next 12 months?
In 2025, I plan to book more live shows across the UK and start writing again!
Download ‘Crux‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Yellow Belly: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Cruel Nature Records: Facebook / Instagram / Blue Sky / 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 ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly
5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks
6: Dead Horse – Historic
7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever
8: Umarells – Closer
9: MJ Hibbett – Moshi Twistmas
10: The Indelicates – Mom Is Waking Up (acoustic)
11: The Fades – Caca (BBC 6Music Session)
12: West Midlands – Totally Killing The Community Clinic
13: Subliminal Girls – Mid-December
14: How To Swim – Soul One
15: Forming – You What
Festive Finale: Stuffed Foxes, One Big Family + Maps & Muir
Advent Extra: Prismatiqk – Hannah & Gabi
Advent Extra: Electric Pets – Stumblin’ In
Advent Extra: The Middle People – Hello John
Advent Extra: Art Trip & The Static Sound – Algorithms of Mass Destruction
Advent Extra: The Scaramanga Six – Vomit Clock
Advent Extra: Trapped Animal Records – Dear Pariah, Jeremy Tuplin + Sunday Driver
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