The Christmas Special 2025

A collection of holiday- and winter-themed vaporwave releases

Dec 19, 2025

Let’s not beat around the bush: 2025 was a particularly bleak year in terms of global politics and the music industry. At the same time, I rarely had as much fun doing my job in my 25-year career as a music writer (in fact, I published my first album review in a German music magazine in 2001).

I have to thank you, dear reader – I truly appreciate your support. I hope you’ll keep following me into these weird musical rabbitholes that I find so fascinating but that no traditional music magazine or legacy newspaper would commission me to write about.

My small family doesn’t really celebrate Christmas, but like everyone else, I do appreciate the impending time off. The fourth quarter was an intense one. I’ve been wrapping up this big work project, and I’ve started research for what will hopefully become my second book. On these dark mid-December evenings, I’m watching John Carpenter movies, reading Mark Fisher essays, and listening to vaporwave tapes.

Please find a selection of winter- and holiday-themed releases below – most of them are free/name-your-price downloads on Bandcamp. Thanks to Kratzwerk for some of these recommendations.

I’m signing off until the new year, but I already have some promising releases and interviews in my schedule for early 2026.

All my best to you and your (chosen) families,

Stephan

The Signalwave Community – The Signalwave Christmas Special 2025

DiskLab Co – Holiday Countdown: Volume II (2025)

These two Christmas-themed collections are filled with melancholic, nostalgic, mysterious and humorous vignettes, simulating the experience of flipping through channels transmitting from a distant past – strange commercials and jingles in foreign languages, a holiday greeting message from Paul McCartney, a Spanish Christmas rap over a cheap Casio beat, an elevator jazz version of Wham’s “Last Christmas”. Big fun.

Need more? Here are last year’s installments of both compilations:

Mabisyo – Jazz Up Your Christmas (2025)

midnight driver – Beats For The Yuletide (2023)

Two Christmas tapes for the barber beats lovers: Mabisyo from Chile and midnight driver from Poland have plundered, chopped and screwed some laid-back, festive smooth jazz and acid jazz – the perfect soundtrack for a cup of tea, some speculoo, a burning incense stick and an open fire.