Record Store Day: Noel Gallagher Actually Does Something Surprising….

So Record Store Day came and went, and hipsters and anoraks alike (guess which one I am) can try to get some sleep after camping outside their record store overnight and then playing their records all day (Unless they are too scared to play their records in case they “lose value”)…

I was told someone had been outside Fives Records in Leigh on Sea at 2am and that there were four hundred people outside Rough Trade East on Saturday.

Judging by the number of listings I saw, a fair few have spent their time listing their purchases on eBay…

I have never been one to buy a record and then not play it (what’s the point?) so I skipped home (not literally) from Fives on Saturday morning with my Mastodon / Flaming Lips single, Bowie picture disc, Arcade Fire EP and Noel Gallagher EP plus two gorgeous Kinks reissues of Something Else and Face to Face (a few of which were still available at Rough Trade East this lunchtime). The sun was shining, the lark was on the wing, the snail on the thorn…

Of all the records, the one that was most surprising was the White Vinyl Noel Gallagher EP entitled Songs From The Great White North. In addition to some nice B-sides, there was a track from his forthcoming collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous, a couple of Mancunian DJ-types. I had heard about this in the press, and if I am honest I thought it sounded like a Bad Idea. Gallagher collaborating with a DJ to psychedelic effect? I pictured Gallagher dressed like Rick Wakeman: cape, flared corduroys and perhaps a kaftan, whilst some prog-rock sounds mixed with some dreadful Guetta style dance beats…

I should have known better.

What is actually in the disc is a very interesting re-working of Shoot a Hole into the Sun and if the rest of The Amorphous Androgynous record is half as good as that then it will be a Very Good Thing indeed. Noel Gallagher getting creative? Whatever next? Liam Gallagher becoming articulate?

NB. I know that the song has lurked away on a B-side for a month or so, but then you’re not reading this blog to find out about the latest tunes…are you?

The song is here on Spotify – check it out and tell me what you think…

Record #35: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: Shoot a Hole into the Sun (Amorphous Androgynous remix)