[Kafla]

http://soundcloud.com/andrewcruse/the-christmas-lights-in-israel

why do you always feel confident about a song until you post it!

This has a few rough edges but Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Lights In Israel

Long time ago, a child was born
The King of all men was born in Bethlehem
Our gifts we bring , carols we sing
The saviour of us all died for us you know

The Christmas lights in Israel shine down like security
Where bombs fall like presents in this divided and ancient country

300 years did pass, Jesus didn't last
The emperor Constantine saw the warning sign
In the raging sun a chi-rho cross burned
So Jesus was alive and Christianity thrived

The Christmas lights in Israel shine down like security
Where bombs fall like presents in this divided and ancient country

800 years did pass, Jesus didn't last
Mohammed was the man across the holy land
Rome sent her men , the crusaders came
With Jesus throne regained all our souls were saved

So to the modern day, Jesus fell away
Two bothers fell, a thousand years of hell
Into the lake of fire, Michael and the liars
So Jesus reigns again in New Jerusalem

The Christmas lights in Israel shine down like security
Where bombs fall like presents in this divided and ancient country

[nooms]

kafla,
tremendous..love the vocals great
very atmospheric ,
moving

shoot the drummer though..

amazing..

nooms

[tina m]

this is very good kafla... these christmas songs ive heard so far are amazinly good  & are not the corny santa & holly rubbish i expected
great vocal (just a couple of bits that didnt sound spot on)
niceto hear to faith based song that didnt stick to all the carol stuff
i realy enjoyed it....where did you get the monks they are so hard to find these days

[darreldo]

good attempt, can't knock the people who sit down and write songs.
just a tiny bit too dragged out for my own personal taste but like i said. atleast you got off your arse and wrote it and hope people like it. always something to suit different tastes. good production quality.

[rodders133]

Really like this. Not ur average crimbo song. Thought provoking. You have a great voice and I loved the backing. Not sure what's going on with the drums. The off timing of them kinda distracted me from the niceness of the song. Good stuff

[Kafla]

Thanks for everyone's comments so far , I really appreciate them

I knew the drums would get criticism - I went with a middle eastern set that I found on logic , I decided to try and make them sound primitive , like people banging objects - which is very easy for me  but I just grew to accept and then like them - though I thought they sounded out at first  I have this mad idea in my head of the Isrealites banging objects in the desert 

I know it goes on a little , I tried to whittle it down to what I could but this was as far as I could go without comprmismg the theme - I normally aim for 3- 3.30 minutes !

Anyway it was fun writing and recording this and your reviews a really helpful 

[cheff daniel]

well done, i normally don't like this semi monk choires but this one falls exactly in the right place. keep the drums in, and nice melody by the way.


gr.   Dan

[Kafla]

Yee haa - cheers Dan!

I bought a classical guitar and based this around a little finger picking - when I went to program it I noticed that it needed lots of chords but that really helped devlop the melody.

The choir was a sound in logic - I thought it sounded more authentic than some of the other choirs I have heard in other programmes

Andy

[mihkay]

A stand out piece of work.

Modern Folk, a middle Eastern feel and hint of Xmas carol, all blended together beautifully.

Brilliant. 

[Dutchbeat]

Beautiful, and the choirs are excellent

but still i am sorry to say, for me this is not as good as your other songs, personal taste, but this one is a bit more 'static', short phrase - pause- short phrase etc. I have heard singing melodies from you that i find much, much smarter and sophisticated (and i am not saying this because i hope to enter the X-mas song competion myself later o 

and , the drums, ooh they really seems to reduce the flow

well for me they do

hope it is ok to say this

[Kafla]

Cheers Mihkay

I had a feeling you wouldn't like this DB - cant explain why But sometimes your judgement is too immediate so I challenge you to listen to it 1,000 times and I bet....you still don't like it 

[domstone86]

As always I like your tracks However, whatttt is with the synths coming in at the start! Maybe it's just me, but you could probably find a better sound for that track. Also I've noticed some minor timing issues that could be tweaked a little that'd make the whole thing sound tighter.

Saying that, I'd much rather listen to this than the usual money making crap churned out at this time of year. How did you do the drums on this one?

I like the choir sound at around 3:28, works well, and there's a clever feel around 3:50, how'd you manage that?

Bit of a double edged sword this one, but the pro's seem to outweigh the cons pretty nicely

[jim morrison]

its good Kaf, Because it's such a powerful subject i think the drums could have come sooner with a more stadium like intensity but i know this is hard to do

[Schavuitje]

This is another one I thought I was going to hate haha. But it wasn't
I didn't like the instrumentation purely because on this kind of song vst's just
can't do it justice. And there were some major timing issues, especially with the
drums/percussion... but if that was tightened up this is a really good song with some really
nice idea's in it. It is worth more efort to fix it I would say

[TunSongs]

Excellent vocals and atmosphere. The lyrics are very powerful and well thought out.

The production is great, particularly the guitar and choir . However, I think the drums and sleigh bells would suit a more traditional Christmas song but not this one. I just felt that they didn't gel with the rest of the instrumentation.

I also think that the song could do with a bridge or middle 8 instead of one of the verses to add more variation to the melody.

These are just my opinions so feel free to ignore me if you wish.

Justin