Browsing Category single track
Neo Minor – Run
On 1 March, Belgian foursome Neo Minor released their eponymous debut EP, where the band adopt a sound they describe as ‘melodical sound-pop music with some subtle sound-scaping elements’. After first single The More (I Try), it’s now time for the follow-up.
Run is an up-tempo track with a galloping, Running Up That Hill-like drum beat, and a wonderful piano melody. A song about hope and striving for the unreachable. Despite this theme however, I’m confident that Run will bring mainstream success nearer for the band.
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.
Model Depose – Damage Control
Nicknaming Model Depose ‘Model Depeche’ is understandable, but too easy. But you’re not to blame… until now. For the Dutch electronic pop band re-invented themselves with a new sound, which is more guitar-driven. Call it indie, rock or alternative pop, but I like it!
Damage Control is Model Depose’s new single. “When an influential person or loved one is on a collision course, the best you can do is keep dancing, sing along and make the best of it”, according to the band.
Not only is Damage Control the new single, it’s also the title track off their second album. Model Depose promise ‘a full-fledged piece of music in which everything fits together like a puzzle, where grit and a soothing atmosphere always find balance through raw beats, dynamic vocals and subdued synthesizer melodies’. The long-player will be out in September. Until then, the band release a new single and video each month.
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 13):
Maggie Lindemann – Friends Go
When Los Angeles singer-songwriter Maggie Lindemann released her debut single Pretty Girl in 2016, she immediately hit the bull’s eye. It was a Top 10 hit all over Europe, clocking 550 million Spotify streams to date. That’s such a huge number, that some of her other tracks, with 20 to 50 million streams, almost seem like flops (which they aren’t, obviously).
On her funky new single, Lindemann tries a new sound, incorporating ska elements. In an interview with Billboard, she says that her love of pop-punk and ska hasn’t been represented in her music before, so she wanted to create a track that offered something new to her fans. “I love No Doubt, Panic! At The Disco, but I also love my pop music. So I wanted to give all of that kinda in one, my own take on it.”
Also looking forward to a remix Blink-182’s Travis Barker made of this track. But for now, the single version of Maggie Lindemann’s Friends Go is the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, giving it the most prominent position on this blog for a whole week.
In the Wildcards 2019 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
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 Mazarines – Afterglow
After playing a few movie roles around the turn of the century, actress Renee Faia is currently the lead singer of The Mazarines. She’s in the band with her partner Gregg Stewart, who adds his baritone vocals and shimmering rhythmic guitar. The Mazarines’ sound walks the line between dream pop and atmospheric folk with a dash of late 60’s French pop.
Since their eponymous debut EP, the duo took six years to come up with a follow-up, aptly titled Deux (which, dûh, is French for ‘two’). Afterglow (below) is the lead track of this second EP, but please, also lend your ear to the band’s dreamy, ‘Twin Peaks’-esque take on Echo & The Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon.
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.
Vant – Propaganda Machine
After forming in 2014, Mattie Vant and his band Vant appeared to be off to a good start. Great rock singles like Fly-By Alien and Karma Seeker led to the release of their debut album Dumb Blood in 2017, and that summer, they played the main stage of many a renowned festival. But then, just before the release of the EP Talk Like Thunder, the band announced they were taking an ‘indefinite hiatus’.
During that hiatus, Mattie re-invented himself and decided upon a new, more electronic musical direction. He explains: “If I had wanted to keep making straight-up ballsy rock music for the rest of my life, I could have kept that incarnation of Vant going forever. But once I stumbled upon the song Propaganda Machine, I knew there was no turning back, I’d have to start from the bottom and prove myself once again.”
This pivotal song, Propaganda Machine, is the new single of the new Vant. A self-released track (on Mattie’s own imprint Dumb Blood Records), which showcases the man’s new course. If you like what you hear, you’ll be glad to know a new album, Conceived In The Sky, it on its way.
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.
Swimming Tapes – Pyrenees
London-based five-piece Swimming Tapes produce charming and summery indie-pop, Their debut album Morningside (24 May) will be full of it. This explains any comparisons with bands like Real Estate and Belle & Sebastian.
Pyrenees is the long-player’s first single. The band explain: “Pyrenees is a sweet little bop of a pop song. It might only clock in at two-and-a-half minutes but we still managed to get two different guitar solos in there. The song’s about what follows an argument with a loved one, that middle of the night feeling when you realise actually you’re the one in the wrong.”
The song makes me think of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle in Frente!’s delicate version.
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.
Hot Like Sushi – Go Anywhere
Somehow, Swiss band Hot Like Sushi had the feeling that they couldn’t shake their booties as much to their own music as with their role models Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak and Prince. They found the solution to that observation by flying to Los Angeles, where they immersed themselves in the local music scene and soaked up the West Coast swag. Together with producer Benny Steele (Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, Nile Rodgers, David Guetta) they recorded five new songs, which they describe as ‘swag pop’.
Go Anywhere has just that. It’s direct, funky and a whole lotta fun. I agree with this review I once read, which stated they’re ‘the best thing to come out of Switzerland since chocolate’!
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.
Von Wegen Lisbeth – Lieferandomann
After starting off in 2006 as Fluchtweg, and changing their name several times, this German indie pop band now goes by the moniker of Von Wegen Lisbeth. Their full album debut Grande came out in the summer of 2016 and spawned the great singles Bitch and Sushi.
Three years later, they’re ready for phase 2. The band’s second album, called sweetlilly93@hotmail.com, will be out on 3 May and the first single Lieferandomann is out now. Just like before, they sing about everyday observations, accompanied by instruments they appear to have bought on the flea-market around the corner. Charming stuff!
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.
Airways – Trampoline
I like British band Airways, and apparently, so do you. Their single Reckless Tongue ended in both Your Favourites 2017 and Your Favourites 2018, meaning it was one of the best read Carte Blanche Music recommendations for two years in a row.
This week, they release two singles simultaneously: Trampoline and The End. ‘Two carefully crafted golden crispy supple nuggets of audio’, as the band describe them themselves. Both of the two showcase a new sound for Airways, which I like a lot. Not in the least because Twenty One Pilots appear to have been an inspiration. This is most evident on Trampoline, the track that I like best.
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.
Pi Ja Ma – I Oh I
Pi Ja Ma are French visual artist and singer Pauline de Tarragon, and composer and multi-instrumentalist Axel Concato (ex-Melody’s Echo Chamber).
As the daughter of a painter, De Tarragon started drawing under the influence of her father, who encouraged her development as an artist. In 2014, she participated in TV talent show Nouvelle Star, where she ended third. Shortly after, she met Concato. He started to create Pi Ja Ma’s bewitching sound landscapes, which have an almost innocent freshness and a fertile spontaneity, and complement her voice wonderfully.
Their debut album Nice To Meet U is out now, and I Oh I is the new single off it. With her gift for drawing, De Tarragon is also responsible for Pi Ja Ma’s artwork and videos.
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.
