Browsing Category remake
Grace Lightman – Repair Repair [2019 Version]
Before going solo, British electro-pop artist Grace Lightman fronted London psych-rockers The Hypnotic Eye. Her solo work is characterized by a somewhat detached vocal delivery, over dark beats and moody production. She describes her music as ‘one part ABBA and two parts Twin Peaks’.
One of her first solo outings, at the end of 2016, was the single Repair Repair. Lightman says of it: “The track started out as a jingle for a fictional weight loss milkshake advert but became a song about people’s fear of change, and the inevitability of becoming robots.”
A new version of this song now appears on the singer’s debut album Silver Eater, along with a new video. You can check it via the player below. The original, totally different video is harder to find, but if you’re curious: it’s here.
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.
Maggie Lindemann feat. Travis Barker – Friends Go
Last March, Friends Go by Maggie Lindemann was the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. The original was a funky pop song, incorporating ska elements. By then, she already hinted at a future remix that former blink-182 drummer Travis Barker made of the track. That version is out now, but it turns out not to be a remix at all.
Instead, Lindemann and Barker rebuilt the track and turned it into a badass rock version. A mix that sounds so natural, that it might as well have been the original version. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t sound out of place in the blink-182 catalogue either.
To me, this version sounds even better than the original, which I already liked a lot!
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.
Izzy Bizu (feat. Chris Martin) – Someone That Loves You ’19
Izzy Bizu (British singer Isobel Beardshaw, who has an Ethiopian mother) put out her first EP Coolbeanz in 2013. The year after, she already performed at the Glastonbury festival. She continued to release singles of her own (most notably White Tiger), and ahead of her debut album A Moment Of Madness, she was the featured singer on electronic music duo Honne’s 2016 single Someone That Loves You.
A year later, Bizu opened for Coldplay on their A Head Full Of Dreams tour. That same year, she and the band’s singer Chris Martin sung Someone That Love You live together for the first time. Two years later, on her new EP Glita, a studio version of this duet appears. Although Martin is uncredited as a vocalist, the male voice is unmistakably his.
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.
Anteros – Breakfast [2019 Version]
No better way to start the day than with a good breakfast. On today’s menu: full English with tapas on the side…
Laura Hayden grew up in Barcelona and was an MTV Spain presenter before moving to London, where she formed Anteros with Joshua Rumble (bass), Jackson Couzens (guitar) and Harry Balazs (drums ). After numerous singles and two EP’s, they released their debut album When We Land last month. The band recorded it with Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Marika Hackman, Bloc Party).
The record includes recent singles Call Your Mother, Ordinary Girl, Fool Moon and Drive On, and it contains new versions of their first single Anteros (2015) and second single Breakfast (2016). The latter has been chosen as Anteros new single. Funny to hear how the song evolved from the original version into the remake, which you can hear below.
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.
Dodgy – Staying Out For The Summer ‘19
Dodgy are a British pop-rock band, which had its finest moments during the Britpop era in the mid-1990’s. Who doesn’t remember (and love) hits like Staying Out For The Summer, Good Enough and In A Room?
The former celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Originally a minor hit in 1994, it became one of their signature songs a year later, when it was re-issued in remixed form. Now, Dodgy re-recorded the track. To be honest, it’s a pretty straight-forward remake, but Staying Out For The Summer ’19 is still a great song. And a wonderful introduction if you’re new to the band. A bunch of guys with a good heart, for all of the proceeds of this version will go to a charity for homeless people.
Dodgy will play their breakthrough album Homegrown in full on their upcoming UK tour. They will be supported by Babybird (best known for their hit You’re Gorgeous), and Tony Wright (lead singer of rock band Terrorvision). A truly great line-up!
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.
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.
