Joy to the world! It’s the return of our favourite festive tradition, the Joyzine Advent Calendar, back for its 22nd consecutive edition, which as far as we’re aware makes it the longest running on the net.
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 2025 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 HOPE not hate, and their stirling work researching, campaigning, and supporting communities to build HOPE and oppose far-right extremism. You can make a donation here.
Today’s track is a wonderful festive cover by Ombudsmen, the ‘Manchester based four piece offering delicious insolvency advice, juicy beats and succulent melodies‘. Firm favourite of Joyzine writer Breige Cobane, we’ve covered their live gigs and album release and always enjoy any offerings from this band who are genuinely unlike any other. Have a listen to ‘Liquid Assets‘ and we’ll bet you a box of mince pies you can’t find a decent comparison… ‘Shifting Sands‘ and ‘Temporary Cemetery‘ are two of our stand out tracks.
We caught up with John from the band for a festive q&a session:
Tell us a little bit about your track please
Long time champion of the band, Gareth Jones, egged us on to record a Christmas song for a compilation he was putting together. We didn’t manage to write one (we’ve put a pin in that) as it was pretty short notice, so we thought we’d do a cover! ‘Stop the Cavalry’ was give or take at the top of everyone’s list.
Mo was in her element as she’s always been quite a big Jona Lewie fan, so you can hear her delivery is as giddy as it is angelic. The synth parts are true to the original so you still know what you’re listening to instrumentally. Then there’s some pretty ska-ish rhythms flying around whilst it’s sprinkled with some quite perky sounding guitar licks.
We were really proud with how it came and out and had a ball recording it.
What have you been up to in 2025?
It’s been a fairly slow one so far. That was mainly down to getting Liquid Assets written and recorded so we’ve been fairly local gig wise.
And what are your plans for next year?
To take the show on the road a bit more and get Liquid Assets in people’s ears. Have you seen how bad the last two quarters have been? People need the fiscal guidance that’s hidden within our beats!
What have been your musical highlights of the year from other bands/artists?
I can’t speak for the others, but that new Fontaines record is up there with their best. I saw them and Kneecap earlier in the year and they were both great. I enjoyed Scott Lavene’s new album too.
Christmas: The most wonderful time of the year or a big bag of humbug?
I say each to their own! I’d personally rather disappear to the other side of the world where it’s not celebrated, but if people want to enjoy it and it’s not in my face then they can crack on. Although, it’s getting shoved down our throat harder and earlier every year it seems. So if you’re a Christmas merchant, does that not trivialise it and take some of the magic away?
Stream and download ‘Stop The Cavalry’ below
Make a donation to HOPE not hate
Ombudsmen: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Check out more fantastic free music on this year’s calendar:
1: Piney Gir & Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot
2: Syd Howells
3: The Happy Hollow
4: Stephen Evens
Check back tomorrow for another free festive download!
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Doesn’t seem to be available to download… unless that pesky Mr EvEns is making me hold out to buy his pesky album (spoiler: I will) …
Hi there, I checked the post and the download button is top right of the SoundCloud embed next to the ‘Share’ button. Hope that helps – JZ