Ladies, gentlemen, and anyone between and besides, it gives me great pleasure to announce the official beginning of this year's Christmas Album project!

I'm doing things a bit differently this year. Firstly, the total track number is undecided; it'll be what it'll be, but I'm aiming for a minimum of six. In addition, the countdown won't cease on the 24th this time either; the cut-off date this year is the 31st, giving me extra time to play around with. Finally, there are to be NO external samples, copyrighted or licensed/royalty free, used in ANY track on this album; in fact, the only sound outside of Music 2000 I am allowing myself to use is my own voice. Every chord, bass patch, drum and lead you are going to hear this go 'round will be produced within the confines and limitations of Music 2000.

The theming is also of note this time: every song will be a fully realised, complete version of an unfinished sketch or demo from my discography. Of which, there's quite a few- which is why I asked my partner Dio Maxwelle to curate a small selection of songs she'd like to hear as potential suggestions. I had planned to go with that idea well in advance, given 2017 was both the 5th anniversary of my netlabel 103 Records, and the 10th anniversary of my music "career" as a whole, but after serious struggles with mental health all throughout the year robbed me of my ability to compose most of the time I figured I owed it to myself and to my dedicated followers to end this celebratory year with something that's... not just a collection of old work from years ago.

The track reworked here is a never-finished Dubstep track I did under my retired Hypnotherapist alias, titled "Tesco Value Skrillex". So named because it's pretty blatantly obvious that I'd been listening to the likes of "Ruffneck (FULL FLEX)" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t2TzJOyops) and "First of the Year (Equinox)" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYYyMu3pzL4) a lot at the time, and both were rubbing off on the direction I wanted to take the alias in before I put it to bed. The shift from Dubstep to Electro House/Bass house under my Visor Jack name was pretty natural, and though it's a little out of my comfort zone- I'm more a Fake Blood guy then a Steve Angello one, as far as production goes-the end result is pretty solid for a first attempt. It's getting the album started off on the right foot, of that there's no doubt. That I got to preserve the original unfunny joke in the original title- just with a different producer and budget grocery chain- is an added bonus.

Original Sketch: 103records.bandcamp.com/track/tesco-value-skrillex-sketch