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.

An oasis does not a desert define.

It is, I suppose, the music headline of the summer festival season - Noel walks out on Liam and the rest of the band mid-tour, saying that it is all over for Oasis forever. How very rock-n-roll it all is, just like it was in the 1970s and 1980s. If there is one thing that surprises me it is that it hadn't happened once or twice already, another is that it might actually be good news.
The fact is that, while it is obvious that both parties are not going to live on a poverty-fuelled diet of baked beans and chips from here on (unless out of choice), both could be successful, particularly without the weight that they seem to bring to bear on each other, and musical variety could well be the winner for the listener.
The cynics, myself included, have considered the thought that it is merely à propos a future reconciliation - and the cash-machine that might go with it - but only time will tell. I admit I'm not a huge Oasis fan, though also not a hater. The possibility of collaborations is of more immediate interest to me. As Jack White, Damon Albarn and many others have done, once away from their alma mater, the brothers Gallagher could both cut it and that might result in something out of their current mould.
On the other hand, Oasis or not, Manchester is hardly a musical desert. In my "I've Just Listened To" list I mentioned a newly released item by two Mancunians and here it is...

To say that the album artwork is basic is an understatement: it is hand stamped.

It is not going to sell thousands, whatever its merit, because it is a 12" vinyl-only release and also limited to 300 copies worldwide. Was it thus ridiculously expensive? Well no, actually, £7.99 plus the usual p&p.
The miscreants behind it are one half of 'Pendle Coven' - the 'Demdike alter ego' witch (sic) Elizabeth Southerns was identified with - and actually Miles Whittaker. The other contributor is Sean Canty, a notable vinyl collector across all imaginable genres, plus some more besides, and he is much involved with the 'Finders Keepers' label.
It might sound like folk territory but, in fact, it is total cross-genre electronica and is certainly none-the-worse for that.