Diplo & Mad Decent Release ‘A Very, Very Decent Christmas’

Following on from last year’s mixtape ‘A Very Decent Christmas’, Diplo and a few friends from his Mad Decent record label are back again to give us this year’s take on a few festive classics.

This release features remixes of familiar songs such as “Jingle Bells”, ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘Little Drummer Boy’, to name a few. Here at TNG, we’ve decided to get into the Christmas spirit with this one and even hung up a few decorations whilst listening.

Jessen Slayter & Wuki kick off things with ‘Rock Them Bells’, sampling ‘Deck the Halls’. This track is a pretty safe, inoffensive offering, which is best described as nice, without ever really being spectacular.

Diplo & Alvaro enlist in the help of Kstylis to bring us ‘6th Gear’, which is a much faster paced, dance floor friendly offering. The track starts off ominously enough, with hype-man-esque vocals and the faint background tune of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’, before exploding into life. Once it kicks in, the track continues to go from strength to strength, powered by its franticly paced, vociferous drums; the type which are synonymous with many a Diplo produced track.

The mixtape does unfortunately contain some filler, namely Snappy Jit’s R&B cut, ‘Lil Drumma Boy’ as well as DJ Fire’s ‘Twerkith On These Bells’, an interlude style track, which offers the suggestion for a new Christmas pastime, which may not quite be for all the family!

‘Troll the Halls’ quickly helps us to get over the mixtape’s filler, with it’s pounding bass and electro feel. I feel this track would work on dance floors across the globe. It is undoubtedly one of the mixtape’s stronger offerings.

Splurt remixes his ‘#OMW2SYG’ (On My Way To Steal Your Girl), with the vocals this time informing us of intentions to use a sleigh to steal the listener’s girlfriend. If anything, this amusing offering is actually better than the original.

Davoodi gives us a remix of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker theme, and it’s brilliant! Ever so slightly (obviously) more drum-laden than the original, this track noticeably picks up its groove towards the halfway point. It unexpectedly turns into a Hardstyle track towards the end, before smartly turning back to a sample of the original, to finish off. ‘Drop It Again (Xmas Version)’ is the perfect track to follow on, as it too has a very similar feel. I never thought I’d hear a Hardstyle version of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ and I certainly never thought it would be this good!

‘Silent Night’ is the next Christmas classic to get the Mad Decent treatment, with the euphoric ‘Totem Night’. It’s “Ho ho ho” sample made me conjure the image of Santa and his reindeers dancing around an open fire, with raving elves holding glow sticks in the background (maybe I should lay off the Eggnog).

The mixtape is superbly brought to a close with ALIZZZ’s ‘What IF (Jingle Edit)’. This track will be perfect for winding down to as you slowly slip into your inevitable Christmas dinner induced food coma. Without hesitation I’d say this is my favourite track on the mixtape. The best version of Jingle Bells since Robin laid an egg.

Mad Decent’s festive offering expertly mixes together quality tracks and an Christmas feel, in a way which makes it difficult for even the most die-hard Scrooge to not enjoy. Give it a listen!

@khonje9

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