Carte Blanche Music

European Border Breakers Chart 14 December 2018

december 14

At the end of the year, people tend to look back. This applies both to radio stations and – to a lesser extent – to streamers. As a result, the main European Border Breakers Chart, which combines airplay and streaming data, counts many tracks that were released in the past half year or so, re-entering the Top 100. This week, no less than 23 on a total of 30 (re)entries have been in the chart earlier.

And even amid those seven first-timers, there’s rather little variation, as Ex:Re (the solo project of Elena Tonra (pictured), singer of British indie pop band Daughter) enters with three tracks, bringing her total to five positions in this week’s Top 100. All seven newcomers are below:
#25: Charlotte Adigéry – Paténipat
#42: BenjiFlow – Deep End
#53: Ex:Re – Where The Time Went
#82: Ex:Re – New York
#83: Stereo Honey – Icarus
#92: Ex:Re – I Can’t Keep You
#95: Jo Wedin – Maybe Not Tomorrow

For the full Top 100, click the ‘EBBChart’ tab in the top menu of this blog (loading of the PDF may take a little while). More charts, like the Tips (ranking the tracks that are on their way to the Top 100), the Airplay Chart and the Streaming Chart, are available at www.europeanborderbreakerschart.eu, where you can also listen to all of the tracks and watch their videos, as well as share them via social media.

single track

Broken Bells – Shelter

december 14

Nine years have past since the single The High Road marked the first release of Danger Mouse & James Mercer’s collaborative project Broken Bells. During that period, the Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley and The Black Keys producer and the Shins frontman put out two albums together: Broken Bells (2010) and After The Disco (2014).

The duo maintain that four year interval with the release of their brand new song Shelter. With an interesting, rare groove kind of drum beat, experimental synths, understated guitar lick and catchy chorus, it convinces instantly.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

pop

single track

Bilderbuch – Checkpoint (Nie Game Over)

december 13

Bilderbuch pulls the same trick as The 1975, releasing two albums shorly after one another. Last week, to the surprise of many, the Austrian indie band put out their fifth album mea culpa out of the blue, while announcing number six, Vernissage My Heart, has already been scheduled for 22 February 2019.

Mea culpa has a loungy sound, with easy-going beats and groovy guitar licks, occasionally enriched by strings, horns, organs and vocal samples. Album highlight Checkpoint however, is a melancholic shoegaze-kind of song. Its mantra-like chorus ‘Wir sind nie Game over’ makes it an earworm with huge hit potential.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | pop | rock

single track

Fever High – Avec You

december 13

Around the turn of the century, Adam Schlesinger and his band Fountains Of Wayne turned into cult heroes via singles like Stacy’s Mom and Sink To The Bottom. Schlesinger’s latest activity is producing Brooklyn pop duo Fever High, consisting of guitarist/singer Anna Nordeen and singer/songwriter Reni Lane.

Following up on their 2017 debut album FHNY, they just released their new single Avec You. A song that’s both industrial and glittery, melting French and English together over a backdrop of heavy synths and booming drum machines. This is how Bananarama could have sounded in 2018.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

electronic | pop

single track

The Specials – Vote For Me

december 12

You may know The Specials as the ska band they are, who scored hits like A Message To You Rudy, Ghost Town and Nelson Mandela (as The Special AKA) in the early eighties. But perhaps you’re more familiar with bands that originate from The Specials, like Fun Boy Three, General Public or The Colourfield. Anyhow, thanks to several reunions throughout the years, The Specials have never really been away from the scene.

On 1 February 2019, the band – including original members Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter – will release their new album Encore. Vote For Me is the first single off it. A great song, that brings back memories of their hit Ghost Town.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

pop | ska

single track, wildcard

Wildcard (week 50):
I Wear* Experiment – Almere

december 12

I Wear* Experiment just released their new EP Jupiterz. It features the Estonian electro-pop trio’s sadly overseen single Dogs and recent follow-up Almere. They wrote the latter tune on some free days in between concerts, in the Dutch city of Almere, where their manager lives. Almere used to be the song’s working title, but the band decided to stick with it. That’s why the title isn’t mentioned in the song’s lyrics at all.

Hot on the heels of their new EP, Johanna Eenma, Hando Jaksi, and Mikk Simson put out a video for Almere. A great song, which isn’t strange, knowing the band cite Chvrches’ edgy big banger beats and Florence & The Machine’s graceful vocals among their influences.

This week, Almere by I Wear* Experiment is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, so it features here prominently for seven whole days!

In the Wildcards 2018 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.

electronic | indie | pop

single track

All Good Things – Machines

december 11

You might not have heard of All Good Things, but you may very well have heard their music. This group of Los Angeles-based musicians of varied backgrounds (everything from Halestorm to Britney Spears) have built a fanbase by supplying music to video games and soundtracks. They’ve done this without anyone really knowing who they are, until a growing army of fans tracked them down.

Only a year and a half ago, All Good Things (Dan Murphy – vocals and guitar, Andrew Bojanic – guitar and vocals, Liz Hooper – bass, keyboards and vocals, Miles Franco – guitar, bass and vocals, and drummer Randy Cooke) decided to go public. They put out the album Machines, full of anthemic, bombastic rock tracks, and the title track is the first single off it. Explosive stuff!

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | rock

border breaker, single track

Perfect Son – It’s For Life

december 11

Last summer, I recommended the song Malomiasteczkowy by Dawid Podsiadło. A great song, but ‘difficult’, for it was sung in Polish. In that respect, It’s For Life by Perfect Son stands a better chance of being picked up outside his home country Poland, as it has English lyrics. The first good signs are already there; the song entered the European Border Breakers Chart at #50 last week. This position was achieved through airplay in Poland and Slovakia, but hopefully the song’s visibility in the EBBChart will stimulate radio stations in other countries to play the song as well.

Perfect Son is the stage name of Polish singer and producer Tobiasz Biliński. Sometime in 2016, just as the began to find success with his electropop project Coldair, he decided it was time for a radical change. Bilifiski restarted his career as Perfect Son, making complex yet accessible pop music. It even got him signed to legendary record label Sub Pop, once the home of The Jesus & Mary Chain, Nirvana, The Postal Service, Saint Etienne and The Shins, and currently of The Afghan Whigs, Fleet Foxes and Soundgarden, to name but a few.

Cast, Perfect Son’s debut album, is slated for release on 15 Februari 2019. It’s For Life is the long player’s first single.

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

indie | pop

cover, single track

The Orielles – It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)

december 10

2018 has been one hell of a year for The Orielles. Everything grew: the attendance to their shows, their success in general and also the number of band members. Originally made up of sisters Sidonie B and Esmé Dee Hand-Halford and their best friend Henry Carlyle Wade, they recently recruited a new member, Alex Stephens, on keyboards.

Early this year, The Orielles (who chose their band name as a homage to The Shirelles) released their debut album Silver Dollar Moment, which includes the single Let Your Dogtooth Grow. But in an era where artists can’t afford to rest on their laurels, they now come up with not one, but two brand new songs, bundled on a good old-fashioned double A-sided single. The A-side – a tale about their neighbour’s cat – is called Bobbi’s Second World, but allow me to concentrate on the AA-side…

There, we find It Makes You Forget (Itgehane), a song that was already great in the original version by Peggy Gou. The Orielles have turned the electro/acid tune into an indie disco stomper to great effect. They explain: “After noticing a passion for songs that make us emotional, want to dance and quite literally ‘forget’, we decided to cover one of Peggy Gou’s latest floor fillers, ‘Itgehane aka It Makes You Forget’ hoping that we could evoke the aforementioned qualities of music within other listeners!”

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

disco | indie | pop | rock

werner's weekly

Werner’s Weekly (week 50)

december 10

In the past, when people were only exposed to music that was released in their own country, December was a month where nothing much happened, as far as new songs were concerned. Nowadays, with millions of artists all around the world putting their music on platforms like Spotify, available for everybody all over the planet, things are different. Of course, this month, you need to plow through all the well-intentioned Christmas mayhem (don’t look any further, these are the all-time highlights), but then you’ll find a wealth of great new tracks. By Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kakkmaddafakka, KT Tunstall, Smallpools or Underworld, for instance.

Below you’ll find the cream of the crop: Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. Treat your ears via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar and/or click the links for more info:

- The Vaccines – All My Friends Are Falling In Love (Wildcard this week)
- The Lighthouse – Catch Fire (Wildcard last week)
- Art Brut – She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit
- Bob Mould – What Do You Want Me To Do
- Calogero – On Se Sait Par Coeur
- Grimes feat. Hana – We Appreciate Power

For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

electronic | indie | pop | punk | rock

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European Border Breakers Chart 14 December 2018

Broken Bells – Shelter

Bilderbuch – Checkpoint (Nie Game Over)

Fever High – Avec You

The Specials – Vote For Me

Wildcard (week 50):
I Wear* Experiment – Almere

All Good Things – Machines

Perfect Son – It’s For Life

The Orielles – It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)

Werner’s Weekly (week 50)

Wildcard (week 50)

Werner’s Weekly (week 50)

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Wildcard (week 50)

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