Browsing Category remake
Mighty Oaks – Driftwood Seat
Eight years have passed since Ian Hooper, Craig Saunders, and Claudio Donzelli of Berlin-based band Mighty Oaks self-released their first EP Driftwood Seat. Although the collection was never officially released – not supported by a label anyway – the songs garnered several hundred thousand plays on SoundCloud.
While working on their third album, the band decided to have another go at the four songs on the EP that started their career, and whose title track closed almost every show over the years. The new recording reflects the current change over time: not a radical rework but a natural evolution.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Ana & The Changes feat. Dan Byron – Take My Hand
Ana Ćurčin is a singer-songwriter born in Baghdad, raised in Moscow and based in Belgrade, Serbia. She and her band The Changes (Goran Antović – keyboards, Marko Cvetković – bass and Marko Benini – drums) surprised me live at Eurosonic Noorderslag last January. Following up on 2016’s album Sketches Of Belonging, the quartet release their second album Differences in the Spring of 2019.
Its first single is called Take My Hand. The almost unrecognizable original version was written by Igor Simic and Ana Ćurčin for the soundtrack Radio Nostalgia From Mars of the video game Golf Club Wasteland. It has now been re-recorded, featuring Dan Byron, a Romanian singer-songwriter and frontman of the alternative rock band Byron. This new version has a driving, Coldplay-like piano part, which makes it a great radio track.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 39):
morgxn & Walk The Moon – home
16 December 2016, nearly 30 years after I started, I made my last regular Carte Blanche radio show. In that program, I played the track home by morgxn, a guy from Nashville who already sung in a gospel choir at the age of 6. As a 9-year-old, he took singing and piano lessons and started writing his own songs. Then he went to New York, where he ended up in the theatre world.
By 2016 however, morgxn refocussed on his music, which led to the release of his album vital, containing his singles love you with the lights on, Duran Duran cover notorious and the stomper home. The latter alone is so far good for 8 million Spotify streams.
Fast forward to 2018. A slight reworking of home has just been re-released, this time featuring Walk The Moon singer Nicholas Petricca. The two versions don’t differ dramatically, but this sure is a fine reminder of the great electronic soul track home already was!
This week, the Carte Blanche Music blog is the song’s temporary home, as it is the new Wildcard. This means it features here prominently, and it’s only one mouse click away from listening. Just like all of the tracks in the Wildcards 2018 playlist.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank (Sam La More Remix Edit)
Norman Cook is a musical omnivore. Starting off as bass player in The Housemartins in 1985, he went on to form Beats International, Freak Power, Pizzaman, and The Mighty Dub Katz (among others).
By 1996 he adopted his current moniker: Fatboy Slim. When he released his first real hit under that guise, The Rockafeller Skank (in 1998), it was an absolute sensation. It was so eclectic and contained so many musical influences, that is was very unlikely to be played on the radio. Especially because of the lengthy, pitched drop halfway the track. But as a miracle, probably because of its catchy chorus (“Right about now, the funk soul brother”), the track did crossover from the clubs to the media.
Fast forward to 2018… The Rockafeller Skank is a classic, that keeps coming back like a boomerang. Speaking of which: Cook just released the EP Fatboy Slim vs. Australia, featuring seven of his best-known tracks, remixed by Australian producers like The Kite String Tangle and The Aston Shuffle. My personal favourite is Sam La More’s contribution. He left only the vocals of The Rockafeller Skank intact and built a completely new track around it, including both a minimalistic synthesized string part and an infectious new beat. A totally new song, altogether.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Youngr x Endor – Give It Up
Youngr is a one man band from London (via New York and Manchester), and one that really stands out. A year ago, he came to the scene with his debut single Out Of My System, but check his ’bootleg’ version of Temper Trap’s Sweet Disposition as well. On his latest single, Youngr teams up with Endor. Besides a fictive planet in the Star Wars universe, this is a 24-year-old British remixer and producer, who worked with the likes of Alma, Saint Motel and Roger Sanchez before.
Once again, the result is a stomper of a remake. The pair took the basic parts out of Lee Dorsey’s 1969 original Give It Up, sped it up and built a groovy house anthem around it. Sure to become a floorfiller on Fridays and Saturdays.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
a-ha feat. Ingrid Helene Håvik – The Sun Always Shines On TV (MTV Unplugged)
From no other artist I attended as many ‘farewell tours’ as from a-ha. And luckily, they decided to extend their career even further.
Last summer, on 22 and 23 June, the band played MTV Unplugged sessions at Øygardshallen (Giske Harbour Hall) on the Norwegian island of Giske, which will be released 6 October on the live CD/DVD/Blu-ray Summer Solstice. A-ha was accompanied on stage by Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen), Ingrid Helene Håvik (Highasakite), Lissie and Alison Moyet.
Among the 21-song setlist were two brand new tracks (one of which, This Is Our Home, is released as a single) and stripped down performances of all of the band’s classic tracks. One of these, a re-arranged version of The Sun Always Shines On TV, featuring additional vocals by Ingrid Helene Håvik, has been released as a single as well.
Following these MTV Unplugged sessions a-ha will go on an acoustic tour throughout 2018. Their third farewell tour? ?
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Valparaiso (feat. Phoebe Killdeer & Howe Gelb) – Rising Tides
Valparaiso is a Paris based collective, with Hervé and Thierry Mazurel – formerly of French cult act Jack The Ripper – as its core members. They named the project after the Chilean seaport Valparaiso, which has always been a beacon for travellers and sailors. The band symbolizes a harbour that welcomes artists who stay for a while, leave and may come back.
The guest singers on Valparaiso’s new single Rising Tides are Phoebe Killdeer and Howe Gelb. Killdeer is best known as singer with the band Nouvelle Vague. With her own band The Short Straws she recorded The Fade Out Line, which was reworked by The Avener and became an international hit as Fade Out Lines.
The original, instrumental version of Rising Tides was the theme of the film ‘2 Temps, 3 Mouvements’ in 2014. This new, vocal version was produced by John Parish, best known for his work with PJ Harvey. The song sounds like a murder ballad to me. Remember Where The Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue?
Rising Tides is the first music to be released of Valparaiso’s upcoming album Broken Homeland, to be released 22 September.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Mist feat. Alondra Bentley – Fade In Fade Out
As a new track for his most recent outtakes & rarities album Underwater – the last to be released under the Mist moniker – singer Rick Treffers re-recorded the beautiful track Fade In Fade Out. Originally from his 2002 debut album We Should Have Been Stars, the song now appears as a duet.
Co-vocalist Alondra Bentley, born in the UK but raised in Spain, adds an extra touch of delicacy to the already beautiful song. It’s plain and simple, just like the video.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
