Forgotten Treasure: Bruce Haack “I Like Christmas” (1981)

I’m a huge fan of almost all music themes. I could playlist music for hours and hours, trying to find the perfect selections to fit the context. Christmas is the one exception. I can’t stand it.

Christmas music usually falls in two very distinct categories: extremely sappy and kitch or melodramatic songs that makes you want to jump off a bridge.

This being one of the exceptions for me; a song that makes into my christmas playlist every year. “I Like Christmas” is an experimental early-electronics vocoder version of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol”. It was originally released by Bruce Haack and Ted Pandel on the 1976 Ebenezer Electric album.

The song was then re-imagined and released in 1981 on a 7″. This version really turned up the craziness, making it seem right out of a John Waters or Tim Burton film.

I didn’t know a ton Bruce Haack but it turns out he was en electronic music pioneer of sorts. The classically trained (Julliard School) Canadian musician had a productive career that spawned three decades.  His influential vocoder-based music was compiled and released by Stones Throw titled “Farad: The Electronic Voice“.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours from the MIMS Family!

Lexis

Montreal-based DJ and the founder MusicIsMySanctuary.com (2007) and 24 Hours of Vinyl (2011).