October 31st, 2017
Eliza & The Bear – Hell
Exactly halfway this year, Eliza & The Bear’s single Higher was the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. Not bad, for a band that started as a hobby project of five musicians who felt they had failed to make it as super stars.
After renewed interest in their efforts led to the release of their self-titled debut album, in 2016, Eliza & The Bear are now working on the follow-up. Higher was the first taster off it, but this time they go deeper, as their new single is called Hell. I bet the place has never been celebrated as triumphantly as in this great song.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
OrelSan (feat. Stromae) – La Pluie
For an artist who announced he’d stop making music for a while, Stromae is pretty musically active. Last Spring, he launched a surprise single (the instrumental Repetto x Mosaert), and now he appears on La Pluie (French for ‘the rain’). This is a song by popular French rapper OrelSan (real name: Aurélien Cotentin).
La Pluie is a track on OrelSan’s album La Fête Est Finie (‘the party is over’), that was released last week. It contains quite a few featured artists, like his incredibly successful fellow-countrymen Maître Gims and Nekfeu, Dizzee Rascal and twin sisters Ibeyi.
It’s not the first time OrelSan and Stromae collaborate. They did so earlier (together with the aforementioned Maître Gims) on the party track AVF. This was the closing song on Stromae’s album Racine Carrée and was criminally omitted as a single. Let’s see what happens with this new banger they’ve done together…

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
US Girls – Mad As Hell
US Girls is the stage name of Meghan Remy. She definitely was a US girl when she started the project in 2007, but she has since moved to Canada. In her early career, when she performed with a tape machine as her backing band, she released numerous vinyl singles, cassettes and CD-R’s on small labels.
The noise-pop she produced at the time has in recent years been exchanged for a more sophisticated sound. Her latest single even embraces a 60’s girl group sound, comparable to the Shangri-La’s, for instance. You may think that’s Mad As Hell, but I like it!

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 44)
Franz Ferdinand, High Contrast, Morrissey and Weezer proivide just a few of the great new tracks that I added to my 2017 container playlist Carte Blanche Music last week. But the best of ‘em all, alphabetically ordered, are to be found below and in the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. Want more information about any of them? Just click the link!
- Dagny – Love You Like That (Wildcard this week)
- Childcare – Getting Over You (By Dressing Up Like You) (Wildcard last week)
- Arcade Hearts – Running
- Liza Anne – Paranoia
- Magnus Bechmann – Bruises
- Rews – Your Tears
- The Royal Engineers – Rock ‘n’ Roll Will Never Let You Down
- Sleigh Bells – Rainmaker

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Rews – Your Tears
These girls know how to rock. Rews is a duo from Belfast and London, consisting of Shauna Tohill and Collette Williams. Their very first single Miss You In The Dark, released only in February 2017, landed them a spot at the legendary Glastonbury festival. And it was all uphill from there…
Leading up to the release of their debut album Pyro, on 3 November, Rews now bring us a brand new single and video: Your Tears.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Magnus Bechmann – Bruises
Let’s hope that 21-year-old Norwegian song smith Magnus Bechmann will soon give up his day job as a kindergarten teacher, so he’ll have more time to write great songs. His talents were already manifest at the start of this year, when he came up with his debut EP Loners Get Lonely Too, featuring brilliant tracks like It Bothers Me.
His new single affirms his influences, that appear to range from Blur via Phoenix to Two Door Cinema Club. Bruises is another bouncy, smart slice of pure pop, spiced up with catchy guitar hooks. We want more!

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
European Border Breakers Chart 27 October 2017
Is it your work or hobby to discover new artists and music? Are you for example working for a radio station, a booking agency, a management company, in the live industry or are you a fellow music blogger? Then the European Border Breakers Chart is an indispensable piece of information. Each week, it ranks emerging European artists breaking borders across Europe.
This week’s chart has 8 first-timers among a total of 14 (re)entries: Liam Payne – Bedroom Floor (#36), Pixx – Romance (#63), this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard Dagny – Love You Like That (#75; pictured), Bausa – Was Du Liebe Nennst (#88), Naaz – Up To Something (#89), Eddy De Pretto – Fête De Trop (#91), Chris & Kem – Little Bit Leave It (#92), and Everything Is Recorded – Show Love (#98).
Also, the chart has a new #1 this week. Want to know which one? You can check the complete Top 100 by clickicg the ‘EBBChart’ tab in the top menu of this blog (loading of the PDF may take a little while). For more charts (like the Tips, ranking the tracks that are on their way to the Top 100), please visit www.europeanborderbreakerschart.eu, where you can listen to all of the tracks and watch their videos as well.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Liza Anne – Paranoia
Liza Anne is Nashville singer-songwriter Liza Anne Odachowski. She makes music since 2010 and already released two albums: The Colder Months (2014) and, appropriately, Two (2015). She just finished her third effort, Fine But Dying.
The singer is not afraid to open up about herself. Her new single Paranoia is about the anxiety she says she’s lived in for most of her life. “Growing up, people would always say I was too happy to be depressed, or too social to have anxiety”, she says. “It’s pretty inhumane to expect a human being to represent only one side of themselves.” Paranoia exposes her other side. A frighteningly good song!

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Sleigh Bells – Rainmaker
Duran Duran – Come Undone, EMF – Unbelievable, Eric B. & Rakim – Paid in Full (and follow-up I Know You Got Soul), Milli Vanilli – Girl You Know It’s True, PM Dawn – Set Adrift On Memory Bliss, Snap! – Ooops Up, Soul II Soul – Keep On Movin’ (and follow-up Back To Life) and many, many more all have one thing in common, except for being worldwide hits: they all sample the legendary drum break (after [3’30]) from The Soul Searchers’ Ashley’s Roadclip (1974).
Now, we can add one more song to that impressive list, and honestly, I didn’t see it coming. New York duo Sleigh Bells, that used to do noise-pop, put it at the heart of their new single Rainmaker. It makes the song instantly recognizable and likeable. Rainmaker is taken from the band’s upcoming mini-album Kid Kruschev, which will be out 10 November.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Mahler – Sheria
If you’re curious what dream pop/trip hop from Belgium sound like, look no further and meet Mahler. They combine slow beats, dreamy synths and psychedelic guitars with melancholy voices.
Sheria is this quartet from Gent’s very first single. A most promising start, with an eye-catching self-made video, starring a girl and a chameleon. The animal’s slow movements are a great match with the music.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.