Not everybody spent the Christmas period stuffing their face and unwrapping presents. Some released music, others finished long-awaited albums. Others, sadly, lost their lives. This post collects the stories from the music world that you may have missed while logging out for Christmas.

– Pulp finished decade-old demo ‘After You’, with a little help from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (the pair linked up during their recent trip aboard the S.S. Coachella). They unveiled the track on Christmas Day, and it can be streamed here:

– Grime veterans Terror Danjah and Hitman Hyper released a streamable Christmas set, as well as a previously unreleased version of Terror’s ‘Dark Crawler’ (the latter available to download via FACT’s 2012 Advent Calendar, which also featured free music from Supreme Cuts, Vessel, Julia Holter and more).

– Scotland’s LuckyMe label launched its 12 Days of Christmas series of downloads, which has so far featured Obey City, Machinedrum, Baauer and Sevendeaths.

– Minnesota spine-tinglers Low unveiled a new track ‘Plastic Cup’, produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

– DJ Q gave away the VIP version of his vinyl-only single ‘Brandy & Coke’ from earlier this year.

– Capital STEEZ, a teenage rapper from Joey Bada$$’s Pro Era crew, died over the Christmas period. It’s thought that STEEZ committed suicide: the evening before the news broke (Dec 24), his Twitter account simply read “The end.”

– Soul singer Fontella Bass [above], best known for her 1965 hit ‘Rescue Me’, died in St. Louis on December 26, after complications following a recent heart attack. Bass was 72.

– And finally, My Bloody Valentine have finished their long-awaited follow-up to 1991’s Loveless. 

Those of you not yet burnt out on End of Year lists, check FACT’s countdowns of the best albums, tracks, reissues, record labels, videos and sleeve art (best and worst) of 2012. You can read 2012 charts from some of our favourite artists of the year here.