February 28th, 2020
single track
Kingswood – If Only
If you’re lucky enough to live in Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne (Australia), I’ve got a great night out to recommend. Early March, Aussie alt-rockers Kingswood will throw launch parties for their new album Juveniles. Fans will have the opportunity to secure a physical copy of the record, and enjoy free beer and pizza. Devotees in any other country of the world can only wait for the album until 13 March, and will have to arrange their own booze and food.
For warming-up purposes, Kingswood just put out the single If Only. A melodic rock song with classic vocal harmonies.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
remake, single track
Efecto Pasillo feat. O’Funk’illo – Chacho [2020 Version]
Ten years ago, Canarian band Efecto Pasillo released their first, self-titled album. In 2020, the band will celebrate this jubilee. They’ll release updated versions of ten tracks from their four albums to date, which haven’t been singles yet. In addition, Efecto Pasillo is working on three brand-new songs.
Each new version will include a contribution by a befriended band. The first of these singles is Chacho, originally a track on their debut album. This fierce new version features a band that served as a huge inspiration for them to start making music: O’Funk’illo. For fans of Red Hot Chili Peppers in their early days.
Recommended as well:
Efecto Pasillo – Las Banderas
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
remake, single track
Fletcher Gull – Deciduo [2020 Version]
Fletcher Gull is a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. His musical career so far reads like a boy’s adventure tale. He first picked up a guitar and started gigging at the age of 8. His first EP followed at 13. Two years later he toured China with an orchestra. He started his own band, Galb, at 17. Right now, Gull is a solo artist, who describes himself as a ‘song boy’.
Two years ago, he released his first solo EP Remember That you’re Gone. A remake of the opening track Deciduo has now been re-released as a single. It’s got a colourful, bright alt-pop sound. Think of a cross between MGMT’s Kids and Walking On A Dream by Empire Of The Sun.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
single track
Tout Va Bien – This Is How We Say Goodbye
Tout Va Bien (‘I’m fine, thank you’) is the musical vehicle of Jan-Wouter Van Gestel from Belgium. In his home country, he broke through in 2013 with his debut single If You Go Away. This was an intimate reworking in English of Jacques Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas.
It’s been three years since Tout Va Bien released his EP A Curious Encounter With. Now, he’s back with a delightful new track. This Is How We Say Goodbye is a beautiful song with Beatlesque horns and an ear-catching string arrangement. Pure and honest music that deserves to be heard. Just click below to enjoy it via your favourite music platform.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
single track
Betty Who – The One
In 2020, it’s an absolute rarity for an album to ‘last’ two years. Australian singer-songwriter Jessica Anne Newham, known by her stage name Betty Who, keeps the tradition alive. She released her album Betty exactly one year ago, but the first single already came out in January 2018. Three more singles followed ahead of the long-player. Often, nowadays, the album release signals the end of a marketing cycle, but Betty Who had one more trick up her sleeve.
Over one year after single #4, she just released one more track off the record. One with a great story and one that ticks all the right boxes. The tune is called The One, and it was designed to make Who feel like ‘the love child that Britney and Justin never had’. She explains: “It was the music that I grew up on and to this day still some of my favourite music in the world. It has influenced me for so long that I wanted to pay tribute to that era of pop. I used to be upset when I was a kid that I wasn’t a boy, because it meant I couldn’t be in a boy band. I didn’t want to be in a girl band, I wanted to be in a boy band. So… this one’s for you 10 year old Betty Who.”
Mission accomplished, I’d say. The One perfectly re-creates the Max Martin sound that catapulted everyone from Backstreet Boys to Britney Spears into pop mainstream. A great homage.
Recommended as well:
Betty Who – All Things
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 9):
Wildcard (week 9):
Sports Team – Here’s The Thing
With the handful of singles Sports Team released since 2017, they created their own hype and amassed a large and loyal following. Their wild live shows, packed with energy, humour and nonchalance, sell out rapidly. All of this resulted in a steadily growing anticipation for the band’s debut album. Well, the fans don’t have to wait much longer. The London-based six-piece just announced their first long-player Deep Down Happy will come out on 3 April.
The album is preceded by another new track, Here’s The Thing, which is probably their best yet. On it, Sports Team frontman Alex Rice makes fun of politics, without exaggerating. With his youthful enthusiasm, he gets away with anything, anyway 😉. It’s an authentic, up-beat rock stomper that is bound to be a live favourite, just like the band itself.
But first of all, Here’s The Thing is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
Recommended as well:
Sports Team – M5
In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
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.
single track
Elle Exxe – Rose Gold
Now this is confusing… Allie X and Elle Exxe both released new music this week. This recommendation is for the latter, who was born as Linda Harrison, by the way. Her new single is called Rose Gold. You won’t be surprised it’s ‘the best song I’ve ever made’, according to the singer. The good news: it actually is.
Elle Exxeplains: “It’s intimate and revealing whilst driving relentlessly; metaphorically imitating my actual journey in the music industry… Which hasn’t been easy but it’s made me the artist I am today. (…) I hope this song gets heard so that those who are struggling chasing their dreams can feel less alone. But also I hope it gets heard so people can shake their shoulders to the hi-hats and shake-off a bad day.”
If you’re really into this track, or into Elle Exxe herself, the artist designed a jewel to go with it.
Rose Gold is the first in a series of new songs she will release on the 20th of every 2nd month of 2020. Acoustic versions will be put out on the months inbetween.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
single track
Papooz – Figs And Gorgonzola
Rhythm guitarist Armand Penicaut and vocalist/lead guitarist Ulysse Cottin are Papooz. They met whilst studying Literature at the Sorbonne university in their home city of Paris. Since forming the band, they reinvented themselves with every new album. Their debut Green Juice was light and fresh, but follow-up Night Sketches was more groovy.
On new single Figs And Gorgonzola, they replace the synths and groovy bass with piano and a lush guitar. This makes for a more folky approach. One could easily mistake Papooz for an American band, but they’re decidedly French. And still, this new single fits perfectly in their earlier output. Probably because of their trademark androgynous voices. Hopefully a third album is on its way.
Recommended as well:
Papooz – Theatrical State Of Mind
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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.
single track
Violent Soho – Lying On The Floor
It has taken Violent Soho four years to come up with a follow-up to their 2016 album WACO. But now (or 3 April, to be precise), the waiting is over. And the title? A disturbing Everything Is A-OK. Frontman Luke Boerdam says about the new record: “It started out as a personal journey but it ended up being… something deeper. It wasn’t just personal, it ended up being this other message ‘everything is not ok with the world around us’.”
A-OK, more or less the album’s title track, and Vacation Forever have been released as singles in 2019. The new year brings a new teaser. Lying On The Floor is a grunge-drenched track, which even opens with a variation on the famous Smells Like Teen Spirit riff. “It’s about burying your head in the sand and neglecting your problems”, according to Boerdam.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
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
Werner’s Weekly (week 9)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- The Magic Gang – Think (Wildcard this week)
- Egoism – You You (Wildcard last week)
- Deluxe – I Love You
- Larkins – Hit And Run [2020 Version]
- League Of Wolves – On The Run
- Raphael Gualazzi – Carioca
- Young Gun Silver Fox – Kids
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Alanis Morissette, Biffy Clyro, The Fratellis, Hooverphonic, Roachford, Sparks, and many 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.
