New Music 2016 - Part 7 - Aurora - All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend

Well, now that I'm thinking about festivals in 2016, this memory from Green Man 2015 is worth all the rain and more.
I wandered away from the Mountain stage during a lull in proceedings and took this image of folk making the best of a soggy day whilst on my way...

When you see something live, that you are previously at best only slightly aware of, and it wildly exceeds all expectations you don't need to do anything except be there; you can't do anything about it because it just happens. This was one such occasion for me.

Aurora, Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival, 23 August 2015.

Running With The Wolves EP started the ball rolling and the title track is on the forthcoming LP. Aurora Aksnes is quite something to behold live.

All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend (Decca-UMO, 11 March 2016).

She is also good for a cover song from time to time, and I'm not talking Oasis and the John Lewis Christmas 2015 one here, although that certainly garnered much publicity and attention for her. This, although she could not have known it at the time of performance in June 2015, is now far more topical. It is not much short of acapella.

Is There Life on Mars?

New Music 2015 - Part 78 - Aurora Aksnes - Running With The Wolves EP

This seems to have been one of the biggest 'stories' in a whole slew of UK newspapers for a couple of days. Yes, I am going to comment on it.
Whatever you think about pre-Christmas hubbub or the much-commented-upon John Lewis Christmas TV advertisement that isn't an issue for me. John Lewis Partnership, a UK chain of department stores, has a history of choosing an artist to cover a well known hit song as a sound-line to their annual campaign. The song and the artist chosen are often surprising juxtapositions. In 2012 it was Gabrielle Aplin covering Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the track 'The Power Of Love'.

That the press seems to think that the singer Aurora Aksnes, chosen to cover Oasis' 'Half The World Away' on it, is unknown is quite the issue for me. Where have all you supposed music sleuths been?

She released the 'Running With The Wolves EP' in May this year (Decca, Universal Music Group --- so hardly an underground release) and she certainly hasn't spent the time since then hiding in a cave somewhere in her native Norway.

Aurora, Walled Garden Stage, Green Man Festival, Sunday 23 August 2015.

I guess you just had to be there to realise that something beyond the usual was going on. Always keep your eyes and ears open, and not just for the music alone...
Don't worry about Oasis (they'll love hating the cover and blaming each other all over again), or indeed this saccharine version designed to serve a single purpose. I don't blame Aurora for taking this opportunity to gain exposure without having to allow any of her own music to be compromised by its use in the advertisement.
Her brand of Scandinavian electro-pop might have been a bit too dark for the target market anyway...  This is the title track.

Unless that is you fancy spending Christmas dancing in a deserted quarry backed by a mysterious metropolis.

The four-track EP is far better than the song covered. Aurora's début LP is due for release in early Spring 2016.

Lots more to come... New Music 2010 - Part 1

I seem to have done a lot of looking back in the last few weeks and there is still more to be written - thinking about all the live performances I have been lucky enough to see has bought back many memories particularly of festivals - and a selection of singles that have made me take notice should be some fun too.
While I'm thinking, and with few important releases due in the last weeks of 2009, here are a couple that I'm looking forward to in early 2010 and both are by returning artists, very different in style, the existing output of which I already have and like.

The first, rather delayed by the very sad events of 2008, is the second album by Leeds' Corinne Bailey Rae. The self-titled début from 2006 still sounds as good to me now as it did the first time I heard it back then and I'd be very surprised if The Sea were to disappoint. Very much of relevance in 2010 is the fact that she is also an awesome live performer.

The first single is 'I'd Do It All Again'. It is on radio play lists now and recent performances of new material at small venues have garnered very positive reviews. She is an artist I have not heard live and I would like to put that right in 2010, which is also true of the next act.

The lead single is 'Norway' and apparently the album Teen Dream doesn't disappoint either. I'm a huge fan of the Baltimore duo Beach House and both albums; Beach House (2006) and Devotion (2007).


For this album they are again signed to Bella Union in the UK which, as far as I am concerned, says a great deal.

This I think, is not even the start of it...

2009 Isn't done yet - more new music, part 13

Over the last few days there has been lot of discussion about music in 2009 and, I have to admit, I've been involved in some of it whether that be in person or, as this evening on the likes of MySpace and perpetuating that, right here right now. That is fine, in so far as it goes, but why draw a line under 2009 in music when there are still two months to go? I know that the few weeks before Christmas may not be the best but surely that's no reason to write it off already and who knows from where it might come? In truth my wish-list is probably now longer than ever and here are just four rather diverse examples from it:

It seems an age since Norway's Anne Lilia Berge Strond (aka Annie) released her first solo LP 'Anniemal' and actually it was 2005. This one is her second and it is 'Don't Stop'.
Next up is a long underrated star of the UK rock guitar scene, though to very good effect, more recently prominent as the guitarist in Bat For Lashes' live band: she is former 'Ash' guitarist and solo artist Charlotte Hatherley.

Her second solo album, The Deep Blue (2007), garnered a reputation for being somewhat difficult to get to know and possibly not without reason. I have it on vinyl, so that is not for want of trying, but this one seems rather more approachable and that is not to say it is in any sense derivative, for it is not, rather she seems to be reinvigorated and if you have seen a live 'Bat For Lashes' gig this year then it is surely not hard to understand why.

Next up is another band that I have mentioned before but this time one from France. A garage/rock/punk four-piece, with something curiously Parisinenne, 'Plasticines' return with their second album 'About Love', which is a follow on from 'LP1' (2007), except that it isn't quite as simple as that...

Zazie Tavitian left the band after the first album and has been replaced, albeit in a different rôle, by drummer Anaïs Vandevyvere.

Now that's interesting: but just try persuading almost anyone that France has home-grown pop (it most certainly does) and you will find it at best difficult, at worst Sisyphean. The very thought of trying to convince anyone that it has [even one] credible all-female rock band is almost too scary to contemplate. Why are we so blinkered?

To finish how could I possibly resist adding yet another album of folk/Americana to my list?

This one is the third release by Lisa Redford and one much championed by Bob Harris on BBC Radio 2 - and the same 'whispering Bob Harris' for those of us whose memories can just about stretch back to the 'Old Grey Whistle Test'- therefore absolutely no chance whatsoever.