Rather late on the uptake here (please excuse our tardiness once again), but in case it has escaped your notice, Darren Hayman and Fika Recordings have been pursuing rather a delightful project throughout December, giving away free, Christmas-themed MP3s every day over at the Fika website.

This musical advent calendar includes tracks by the likes of Ballboy, Bill Botting (of Moustache of Insanity and Allo Darlin’ fame), Moustache of Insanity themselves, Standard Fare’s Emma Cooper, and a rare musical outing for Josie Long amongst others. Every day has brought a new delight and they are all available to play and download at fikarecordings.com/christmasinhaworth – we would thoroughly recommend that you get in on the action. Plus if you’re quick you may still be able to buy Darren Hayman’s Christmas in Haworth EP, which sparked the whole thing off!

We teamed up with Fika in the summer to release Moustache of Insanity’s Album of Death, and they have released many other fine (and beautifully made) records and cassettes by the likes of Amida and Red Shoe Diaries. And if that wasn’t testament enough to their status as all-round good eggs, they’re only going and releasing the debut album from Tigercats, one of our favourite new bands of 2011!

Here’s to a Merry, Music-Filled Christmas

PYT xx