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Moby feat. Gregory Porter & Amythyst Kiah – Natural Blues [Reprise Version]
New Yorker Moby was one of the most successful dance acts of the 1990s. His ‘Twin Peaks’ indebted single Go was a huge hit in Europe as well. It was followed by classics such as Move (You Make Me Feel So Good), Feeling So Real, Everytime You Touch Me and his ‘re-version’ of the James Bond Theme.
But Moby also turned a hugely successful album act with the release of Play. This long-player was built around samples from the famous field recordings collected by Alan Lomax. Initially Play didn’t do too well, due to the singles not being picked up by radio stations and television networks like MTV. But by licensing the songs to films, television shows and commercials, they became hits after all. This in turn resulted in radio and television joining the party after all. No less than 9 tracks off the album were released as singles.
One of those songs was Natural Blues, which originally contained an over 60 year-old sample from American folk singer Vera Hall’s Trouble So Hard. In 2021, Moby releases a new version of the song, this time featuring Gregory Porter and Amythyst Kiah. Their soulful vocals, paired with an orchestra, make for a powerful and moving combination, that gives the song a renewed energy.
This version will be included on Moby’s upcoming ‘best of’ album Reprise, set for release on 28 May. On this new compilation, the musician revisits and reinterprets his greatest hits with a host of guest singers, accompanied by the Budapest Art Orchestra. Nevertheless, it’s probably one of the most poppy records to ever come out on the legendary classical label Deutsche Grammophon.
Recommended as well:
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir – All The Hurts We Made
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir – A Simple Love
Follow Moby on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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.
Beach Bunny feat. Tegan & Sara – Cloud 9
Beach Bunny is a Chicago-based 4-piece around front woman Lili Trifilio. When they released their debut album Honeymoon, in 2020, the closing track Cloud 9 was one of its highlights. It was rightly released as a single, early that year, but only recently it started to truly make an impact. Thanks to TikTok (where it racked up 1.3 million(!) creations), the track re-emerged and went viral. So far, it spent five consecutive weeks on the Spotify Global Viral 50 chart, earning more than 2 million streams per day and over 78 million total streams. It also crossed from the streaming charts to Billboard’s Hot Alt Songs chart and the Rolling Stone Trending 25 chart. Meanwhile, it’s one of the most added songs at alternative radio.
And now, there’s a brand-new version of Cloud 9, that’s likely to spice things up even further. This new take on an already great tune features Canada’s finest singing twins: Tegan & Sara Quin. The Platinum-selling duo not only lent their voices to the song, but also updated its lyrics to include gender neutral and feminine pronouns.
The sisters say about the collaboration: “We’re massive fans of Beach Bunny, and when we heard Cloud 9 for the first time fell in love with the brilliant lyrics and addictive melody. We love that Lili was up to let us experiment with changing the pronoun in the chorus to ‘she’. The efforts made to make the song relatable to everyone, isn’t just about inclusivity, we think it’s a great indication of the flexibility and creative spirit of the band at its core!”
Follow Beach Bunny on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
Follow Tegan & Sara on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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.
Allie X – Glam! [2021 Version]
Alexandra Hughes began her career by performing in televised talent shows in her native Canada. She continued her career as Allie Hughes, before switching to her current moniker Allie X (not to be confused with Elle Exxe). After moving to Los Angeles, California, she released the song Catch, which reached #55 in her home country.
A few years earlier, in 2013, she recorded a demo for Glam! (Love Me Forever). The song leaked in 2015 but was never put out as a single. Last year, as a bonus track for a special edition double LP of her early albums CollXtion I and CollXtion II, she recorded a new version of the track. This time around, it is a single. More than that, it’s a banger!
Glam! is about Allie X leaving Toronto to start working on her music in LA. In her own words, it’s an ‘unapologetic superpop synth fantasy song about following your dreams’. In my words, Glam! is a very lovable bubblegum-pop track. For fans of Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX and Katy Perry.
Follow Allie X on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
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.
Indochine x Christine & The Queens – 3Sex
In 2021, it’ll be 40 years since Indochine formed in Paris. In the beginning, they were mainly successful with an emerging new wave audience. Ultimately however, they crossed over to the general public. So far, they sold over 13 million albums and singles, making them the best-selling French band.
One of their first songs to reach a large audience, in 1985, was the single 3ème Sexe (‘third sex’). It was a hymn to sexual tolerance. Still one of their most popular songs, it continues to be played at radio. Also, the band regularly play it live at concerts, often in new versions.
Strange enough, the song is missing from Indochine’s recent ‘best of’ Singles Collection (1981-2021). But in good news: the band reprised the song (now titled 3Sex) with Héloïse Letissier of Christine & The Queens. They couldn’t have found a better (and more fitting) artist to perform it with. Where the original version was sung in a pretty aggressive, activist way, this version sounds softer. This is not only helped by the addition of a female voice, but also by a more electronic musical approach.
Let’s hope this song will get humanity one step closer to understanding, for there is still much to gain as far as sexual tolerance is concerned…
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.
Efecto Pasillo feat. Huecco – Funketón [2020 Version]
Efecto Pasillo is a popular Spanish band, formed in 2007 on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria. Three years later (now 10 years ago), their first, self-titled album came out. The band have dedicated the whole of 2020 to the celebration of this milestone.
So far, Efecto Pasillo released four albums. Throughout this year, they’ve been releasing new versions of tracks off these albums, each with a guest artist. In the end, they’ll have released ten updated versions, and meanwhile, they’re working on three brand-new songs.
After collaborations with acts like Despistaos, David Otero and Georgina, the seventh jubilee single features Huecco. He is the creator of the rumbatón genre, which mixes rumba flamenco with reggaetón. To make things more complicated, Huecco collaborates with Efecto Pasillo on a reprise of their 2013 track Funketón. This results in an extremely catchy cocktail of funk and rumbatón.
I dare you to try and sit still to this one!
Recommended as well:
Efecto Pasillo feat. O’Funk’illo – Chacho [2020 Version]
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.
T99 vs. Youngr – Anasthasia [Youngr Bootleg]
I like to see myself as a musical omnivore, but obviously, I’ve got my preferences. Overall, dance is not one of them. Still, there are terrific dance tracks. In 1991, T99, a rave act from Belgium came to the scene. At that time, I was even less into dance than now. But boy, did I like their singles Anasthasia and Nocturne!
Fast forward to 2020… Bootleg boss Youngr was given access to the complete Armada Music catalogue. He chose ten tracks and poured his trademark musical twists and mix magic over them. This resulted in his new album Bootleg Mixtape, Vol. 1. Among others, it contains reworkings of Afro Medusa’s Pasilda, Phats & Small’s Turn Around, and, as you could have guessed, of T99’s Anasthasia.
To the latter, Youngr added guitars, percussion and accessible synth melodies. At heart, it remains the big and bold rave classic it always was, but ready for today’s dancefloors. Epic in overdrive!
Recommended as well:
Youngr – Ooh Lordy
Youngr x Endor – Give It Up
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.
The Radar Station – Zanzara [2020 Version]
If you think 2020 is a strange year, remember The Radar Station had two of those years in a row. In 2019, they were forced to change their then band name Sun Gods, just before releasing their first album. As The Radar Station, they re-recorded some of their earlier singles and continued working on their debut. In the process, they won ‘De Nieuwe Lichting 2020’, a band competition on Studio Brussel.
The support of the Belgian alternative pop radio station would have helped propel The Radar Station into the world. However, shortly after winning the competition, COVID-19 changed everything. Most of the promotional plans had to be cancelled, but the band proved creative in keeping their fans engaged. Now that their album Life Inside A Tornado has finally seen the light, we can conclude it’s been worth the wait.
The album title was taken from the lyrics of Zanzara and After The Tornado (two totally different versions of the same song). The band explain: “The lyrics of this song were based on a quote by the Dalai Lama: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.” We found this reassuring and befitting of our own outlook on life. So try to be a mosquito, but less annoying if possible.”
The re-recorded version of Zanzara, already a single in early 2019, still is one of my favourite songs on the album. A great slice of ‘big music’, channelling Peter Gabriel and Simple Minds, while adding contemporary elements of new musical heroes like The War On Drugs and Editors. Well worth a re-release as a single!
Recommended as well:
The Radar Station – The Giant
The Radar Station – Subtle Science [2020 Version]
Sun Gods – Zanzara
Sun Gods – Subtle Science
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.
Demi Lovato (feat. Travis Barker) – I Love Me [Emo Version]
Carte Blanche Music is all about new songs. I love to introduce you to artists you might not have heard of before, but a great new track by a well-known act deserves a recommendation as well. Either way, credibility is never an issue when I make my selections. Credibility is a subjective concept that biases the opinion of snobs, who often mistake credibility with quality (an equally subjective concept). I’m not a snob, I just like great (new) music.
Well, that was a very long introduction to the new Demi Lovato single. Or rather, a new version of her earlier single I Love Me. Last year, Travis Barker made a remix of Maggie Lindemann’s Friends Go. The former blink-182 drummer turned it into a track that didn’t sound out of place in his ex band’s catalogue. Now, he applies the same formula to Demi Lovato. His Emo Version of I Love Me turns the pop track into a driving rock song. Lovato’s ace vocals sound great on a bed of pounding drums and soaring guitars.
If Barker would be commissioned to compile a whole album full of rockified pop songs, I’d be the first to buy it.
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.
Chvrches – Forever [Separate But Together]
In 2018, Scottish electro-pop band Chvrches released their latest album, the Greg Kurstin-produced Love Is Dead. It was promoted via four official singles: Get Out, My Enemy, Never Say Die and Miracle.
Another track off the album, Forever, was given a second life earlier this year, thanks to Netflix. It was featured on the show Elite, which follows teenagers at a private school in Spain. In response to this placement, the band decided to record a new, stripped back, reinterpreted version of the song. Dubbed Forever [Separate But Together], a new video for the track shows the members of Chvrches playing the track in their various home studios as they self-isolate in the coronavirus pandemic.
Recommended as well:
Chvrches – Get Out
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.
Helmut Fritz – Ça M’énerve [2020 Version]
There are several ways artists cope with the corona crisis and the implications it has on their lives. Most responses have a serious and rather heavy tone (which one can understand). Others take a more humorous and light-hearted approach (which makes for a welcome change in my opinion).
First, let me take you back in time. In 2009, French artist Éric Greff scored a huge hit in France, Belgium and Switzerland with his single Ça M’énerve (‘that’s irritating’). In it, he portrays German dandy Helmut Fritz, living in Paris. After two more hits, the fun seemed to be over. Until now…
Fritz has returned with a new version of his first novelty hit, complete with corona-inspired lyrics. It started as a Facebook joke, but after 2 million views, he decided to make a proper recording and put it out. Even if you can’t understand what he says/sings, it’s still as infectious as a virus, but a whole lot less dangerous.
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.
