For the last several years, Funky DL had been toying with the idea of producing a Christmas related instrumental album, but put the idea aside, fundamentally because many Christmas related releases have a tendency to be more about the novelty than the actual music.

DL wanted to take the reverse approach and make it more about the music first, which then just so happens to be tied to the theme of Christmas.

Finally making the decision to go ahead, DL crafted the skeletal instrumental versions in November 2022, then sent the framework demos to the chosen live musicians to familiarize themselves with. Then the initial live session took place on December 1st 2022 at a studio in Ealing, west London.

With Xantoné Blacq on keys, Sean Allen on Bass and Miles James on Electric guitar, DL carefully supervised and in post-production, arranged and orchestrated the 9-track set to craft this beautiful and soulful rendition of a boom bap Christmas Soundtrack.

Obviously with not enough time for a Christmas 2022 release, DL then had the luxury of one year to prepare the album for commercial release for Christmas 2023. This included 4 months of admin in clearing the publishing rights for 6 of the tracks with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Publishing and Kobalt/MPL Communications Publishing.

What adds to the magic of this project is that the bulk of the recording, editing, arranging and revisions were done during the Christmas holiday of 2022, adding the spirit of Christmas to the creativity within the project.

The imagining was to create a colorful landscape of audio, sprinkled with lavish guitars, sparse organs and vintage synths; thus resulting in an exceedingly intricate and melodic set, filled with fly beats, slick bass and smooth chord voicings.

Adding additional keys and synths to further embellish the already luxuriantly lush sound, DL observed the project taking on a life of its own and fast became one of his personal favorites as an instrumental package.

The choice to keep the project strictly beats and without lyrics was intentional, as the idea was for the album to provide the perfect backdrop of instrumentals that could be enjoyed during the holidays, whilst cheerful conversations between friends and family could still take place without vocal interference.

However, there are some light wordless vocals in a handful of the tracks that further add ambience and color as the album progresses.

So whatever you're doing during the holidays, there's a likely chance that this project will fit in perfectly as soundtrack to what is often referred to as... "The most wonderful time of the year".