By Keith Walsh
I’m all for the winter holidays starting just after Halloween. Hence this post.
The darkwave recreation by LA’s Woves of the classic song from the Peanuts Holiday Special, Christmastime Is Here, by Vince Guaraldi has a sense of mystery about it. Yet despite being in a minor key, the new version came from a fun, creative place. Seriously, this song is so chill inducing in all the right ways, and the eeriness of the video is perfect.
When speaking with Josh Ricchio and Emily Zuzik of Woves, I suggested that people might respond by saying “what have you done to my precious childhood memories?” to which Zuzik countered archly, “we dragged them through the pandemic..and put them in a minor key!”
Instrumentation by Ricchio is immaculate, employing hardware synths exclusively, including a Korg Minilogue, a Moog Matriarch, and some Eurorack modules. Zuzik’s vocals are superb as well. The mix was created at Ricchio’s home studio in L.A., Sing Engine Records. No matter that the song was released two years ago. It’s worthy of classic status, and music lives forever.
Ricchio and Zuzik, coincidentally both former New Yorkers, met through a Craigslist ad in Los Angeles ten years ago, and since that time have collaborated on a variety of projects. In just a couple weeks, Woves’ debut album will release, on December 10, from RetroReverbRecords.
WovesMusic.com
Woves Bandcamp
Woves On YouTube
RetroReverbRecords.com
(Christmas Tree image by Annie Spratt, Unsplash.com)
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