The CDR packaging is worth a mention before we move onto the semi festive ‘walls’ with-in. The CDR sleeve comes firstly in a red, gold and green festive bit of fabric that features holly, teddy bears, xmas trees & all manner of bright Xmas fare. Then the cdr it's self comes in a full colour sleeve feature Ms Perry on the front dressed in a sexy Santa’s costume, & then on the back there’s a picture of snow covered  xmas trees- all very bright ‘n’ jolly which is really the opposite to the ‘walls’ with-in which seem to focus in on the bleak & cold side of this time of year.

First up we have the track “Merry & Bright” which is anything but that. After a brief jingle of slay bells we drop into a stark frost bound rumble that’s underfeed by a churning surf like hissing tone. These two elements are focused into a numbing & bleak slice of wall making which falls between chilling AHNW and stark HNW.

The second track is entitled “Sleigh Bells In the Snow” and this opens up with a sample of Ms Perry singing a bare bones acoustics guitar version of “white Christmas” over a slowly rise mass of crackling ‘n’ crisp noise. Pretty soon Ms Perry is faded out & we’re left with just the stark crackling crisp wall. The ‘wall’ nicely  surrounds one like static ribbed snow storm with it’s mixture of crackling ‘n’ crisp juddering  & jittering, that wraps around you in a bleak yet feasting manner. As the ‘wall’ moves over the six minute mark things are pared down more to stark ‘n’ thin cold rain or wintery shower rush, and this progressively fades out  more and more as the track nears it’s end.

Sonically this release certainly doesn’t celebrate the brightly, boozy & joyful side of Xmas, but instead it focuses in on the cold, bleak & emotionally numb side of the festive celebrations….so if you’re feeling rather troubled & fed up with the usual bright & buoyant no brain festive song craft this could well be a good ‘n’ bleak alternative.