Yes, even we plan to shut up shop for a couple of days of sprout munching and whatever it is that we all do at this time of year. Christmas starts tonight at Crossbones, the Crossbones gathering and the remembering of the Winchester Geese is always around 6pm in the 23rd, in the street by Crossbones gates, in Southwark, under the shadow of The Shard jsut over London Bridge, if you are still in town you should come along, we’ll be singing in the street, sharing food, drinking gin and mulled wine, celebrating the misfits… See you on the other side, happy Christmas from us…

1: Sphagnum Moss – Cafe Oto always come up with a Christmas treat, here’s a “free download release from Sphagnum Moss to mark the turning of another year. OTO wishes you all a great time over the festive period and many thanks as ever for all the support!

Half festive sound collage, half yuletide mix (or, at times, seemingly several mixes laid on top of one another), Sphagnum Moss takes a phantasmagorical trip alongside ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in a clamorous distillation of the season.

From the opening massed pealing of church bells to stratified, spectral choirs; carolling brass bands to a fragmentary, yearning pop reverie; crackling wrapping to a convivial fireside poem, Sphagnum Moss brews a heady infusion of holiday cheer across 30 densely packed minutes”. Download

2: Penelope Trappes has a rather beautiful slice of Christmas. we’re rather looking forward to what Penelope has to offer in 2025, she was lasy heard on that excellent Gazelle Twin Shadow Dogs album recently covered onthese pages – ORGAN THING: The much awaited album of “ghost” or “shadow” versions of tracks from Gazelle Twin’s album Black Dog featuring reinterpretations by Keeley Forsyth, Gary Numan, Mark Jenkin, Marta Salogni, Penelope Trappes, Sealionwoman and BEAK>, of course it is essential…

3: Stuffed Foxes, yeah I know we only just reviewed the French band’s excellent new album and shared this a couple of days ago (one of the twenty or so great albums to come out since most publications put out their best of the year lists) but hey, have some more, it is rather like Mince Pies, you can’t have too many – ORGAN THING: Stuffed Foxes aren’t just for Christmas, Stuffed Foxes are from Tours, that’s in France, they’ve just released a rather refined psych flavoured noise album…

4: The Other Rock Show Christmas edition from last year… A show made to listen to over Christmas Dinner on yer actual Christmas day on Resonance FM. you can, as always, listen back to it at anytime over the holidays via Mixcloud. It is a very Christmas-flavoured show, or a Winterly show, you can listen to it now, you don’t really need to be actually eating your Christmas dinner, it is more of a Winter/Solstice thing, a heartwarming thinG, a Winter delight. Here’s what it said on the Resonance listing page on the day –

“Marina Organ has curated a family-friendly selection of unusual yet seasonal music with a tendency towards structural otherness – music that not only breaks out of the constraints of usual songwriting, but is just what you need to get you through your Yule, whatever you’re doing. Welcome to a very special largely gentler but still sneakily weird Christmas edition of The Other Rock Show”

5: A touch of Fear that we can’t share but you can watch on YouTube…

And of course….

We’ll see you on the Otherside when we’ll be back with those best of the year lists, a few more album reviews before the year is done as well as a look at what the London Art Scene has to offer in early January