Record Label Samplers: A Christmas Record

OK, we’re getting towards the end of this blog series — and it’s a record label sampler that’s also a themed compilation, so including this album in this blog series is cheating a bit.

But! It has virtually everybody who was signed to Ze Records at the time, and it doesn’t have any “external” artists, so I think it counts as a record label sampler.

Ze Records was a late 70s/early 80s a label I discovered a few years back, and I’ve slowly been buying everything they released. I think I’m done now? They didn’t really last all that long — perhaps five years of actually doing stuff, but they were really productive years.

They were a New York Downtown sort of outfit — combining a post punk approach to disco, so you have stuff that’s free jazz adjacent along with slick soul music. I guess that sounds like a mess aesthetically, but it really coheres — and there’s a lot of humour in many of these bands, and that comes through on this Christmas album.

Which can be listened to as a joke, but it’s also just a really good album in itself. OK, there’s a couple of songs that are just downright annoying, and not in a good way, but who can resist Suicide doing a festive song? Or James White having a Christmas with Satan?

I also think it works well as a record label sampler — somebody stumbling onto this might well be intrigued by this and go out buying the albums of the different acts.

 04:30 Cristina - Things Fall Apart
 03:16 Suicide - Hey Lord
 03:26 Three Courgettes - Christmas Is Coming
 06:11 James White - Christmas With Satan
 05:17 The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
 04:55 August Darnell - Christmas On Riverside Drive
 03:15 Material, Nona Hendryx - It's A Holiday
 02:54 Was (Not Was) - Christmas Time In The Motor City
 02:49 Davitt Sigerson - It's A Big Country

Full album:

And individual tracks:

Things Fall Apart (Remastered)

Suicide - Hey Lord (1981)

Christmas Is Coming (Bonus Track)

James White-Christmas With Satan

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping (Music Video)

Christmas on Riverside Drive (Remastered)

Material with Nona Hendryx - It's A Holiday

Was (Not Was) - Christmas Time in Motor City

It's A Big Country

This blog post is part of the Record Label Samplers series.

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