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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Larkins – Hit And Run [2020 Version]
Manchester-based band Larkins follow their 2019 EP TV Dream with a second 4-track release. Their new EP Hit And Run contains their previous singles Make You Better, Pieces and Flood, and the brand-new title track. Or, to be more precise: a brand-new version of the title track.
In 2015, Hit And Run was the first single Larkins ever released. Guitarist Dom Want says about it: “It’s always been a favourite from the live shows but we knew that when we recorded it years ago we didn’t do it justice. We took it back to basics in the studio with (producer) Mark Crew. Feel like we’ve been searching for that Foals vibe for years, hopefully we got it right this time around.”
Recommended as well:
Larkins – Not Enough Love
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.
The Radar Station – Subtle Science [2020 Version]
Brent Buckler, Sander Cliquet, Vincent Lembregts and Marijn Geerts have two main activities: making music and renaming their band 😉. After releasing two albums as Barefoot & The Shoes, they went on under the Sun Gods moniker. Following a good start with the strong debut single Subtle Science, another act claimed the rights to the band name. Bad timing, since the Belgians were just finishing their debut album. Yet the quartet decided to continue as The Radar Station.
From that moment on, their career took a turn for the better. Belgian alternative pop station Studio Brussel picked the band from 999 submissions and entered them in the pre-selection of their talent program ‘De Nieuwe Lichting 2020’ (the new class of 2020). On behalf of the contest, The Radar Station recorded a new version of Subtle Science. They improved the song’s structure and dynamics, but kept its secret weapon intact: Brent’s characteristic, warm voice. Effectively, they turned this War On Drugs– and Snow Patrol-like song into an earworm of their own.
In the end, the StuBru listeners proved them right, and chose The Radar Station (alongside Crooked Steps and Sunday Rose) as one of the winners of the competition. Their prize: airplay and professional coaching throughout the year. Hopefully, this will help Subtle Science become the hit it should have been 16 months ago.
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.
Spo Dee O Dee – Colours [2019 Version]
In 1988, singer/guitarist Ross Curry, bass player Ralph Brink and drummer Jan Holtman formed Spo Dee O Dee. The Dutch rock band took its name from one of the first prototypical rock ‘n’ roll songs: 1946’s Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Stick McGhee. That was named after the alcoholic fruit drink ‘spodi’, a cocktail of red wine and bourbon. In the early ‘90s, they got more and more popular in the live circuit and on alternative radio stations. Their debut album Goin’ Walkabout was produced by Richard Jansen of legendary Dutch rock outfit Fatal Flowers.
For their third album, Spo Dee O Dee got the chance to record in Dublin with U2 producer Flood. Because of equipment failure however, the band returned home without any recordings. In 1995, they called it a day.
Fast forward to 2019. Spo Dee O Dee are back together and will start a comeback tour through the Netherlands in January 2020. As a warming-up, they re-recorded one of their first singles, 1991’s Colours. Still a great song with international class. I hope the world is ready for them now!
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.
Corine – Un Air De Fête À Tokyo [Japanese Version]
One year ago, French nu-disco queen Corine released her debut album Un Air De Fête. A party record indeed, to which it’s impossible to sit still. I’ve recommended several of the album’s singles, but the title track was my favourite. Not in the least because of the irresistible synth, that appears to be borrowed from Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. There’s no denying Giorgio Moroder has been a big influence, anyway.
Two years ago, Corine put out an Italian version of her debut single Pourquoi Pourquoi (called Perché Perché). Now, she chose Un Air De Fête as her next single. However, as the new title Un Air De Fête À Tokyo gives away, it’s sung in Japanese. That doesn’t make it an easy choice for radio stations in Europe, for whom French is difficult enough. But it’s a clever move for her to break through in Japan, with its 126 million inhabitants. And for those who listen first and foremost to the song as a whole, it’s still the same fun track it always was.
Recommended as well:
Corine – Je Danse Le Mia
Corine – Un Air De Fête
Corine – Maquillage
Corine – Il Fait Chaud
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.
