Browsing Category single track
Wildcard (week 31):
Tape Toy – Sad Girl
Two years ago, Roos van Tuil (vocals, guitar), Wesley Fransen (guitar, vocals), Maurice van de Graaf (bass) and Marc van Dongen (drums) were put together by their teacher at the Amsterdam school of music. The assignment: “Just show us what you’ve got.” Well, they did.
The quartet clicked and the school project turned into a real band, with quite a bunch of catchy, up-beat songs in their bag. All of them guitar-driven, with great synth melodies and smart lyrics. Tape Toy call their music ‘bubble-grunge’. Within a year after forming, the band amassed an agenda full of festival gigs, and recently supported Skunk Anansie.
Sad Girl is the band’s most recent single. It was released alongside new track 020, which is the area code of their hometown Amsterdam. Following the funky opening riff, dreamy verses alternate with energetic choruses. Near the end, trippy synths build up to the ‘grande finale’, where the huge singalong chorus shines one more time.
This whole week, Sad Girl by Tape Toy will shine at the top of the Carte Blanche Music blog as the new Wildcard!
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.
Lola Marsh – Echoes
Lola Marsh is formed by Tel Aviv, Israel-based lead vocalist Gil Landau and multi-instrumentalist Yael Shoshana Cohen. They came to prominence in 2014, when they played the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona as a five-piece band.
Inspired by artists ranging from Edith Piaf to Sufjan Stevens, their catchy, cinematic indie-pop combines folk and surf music. Listening to their new single Echoes makes me think of a Quentin Tarantino directed Wild West movie. It sounds like an up-tempo Lana Del Rey track, if you will.
Lola Marsh say about the song: “Echoes is about that feeling you sometimes have when you want to disappear, but at the same time, want to be found. That scary beautiful moment just before falling asleep, when you are the most lonesome version of yourself.”
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.
Wallis Bird – Salve!
Wallis Bird is an Irish artist, who is based in Berlin via London. To be honest, the first thing I heard about her, years ago, was not her music, but the story behind it. Bird is left-handed, but she lost all five fingers of her left hand in a lawnmower accident. Four of them could be put back on, but she learned herself to play a right-handed guitar upside down. Maximum respect before I heard a single note of her music. And guess what? Her music doesn’t need this story, it’s great in its own right.
Having spent the past two years writing and recording, Bird is set to release her sixth album Woman on 27 September. Salve! is the new single. The funky instrumentation and verses sound rather Prince-like, but the voice, which alternates between smooth and raspy, is trademark Wallis Bird.
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.
Penelope Isles – Leipzig
There is something in the water in Brighton. Yonaka, Knife Club, Creeping Jean, Lume, Yumi & The Weather and Demob Happy are all fine examples of new artists from the city. And Fatboy Slim, The Kooks, Royal Blood and Black Honey call Brighton home as well. Today, I’d like to add Penelope Isles to that list.
The quartet is led by siblings and dual songwriters Jack and Lily Wolter, and completed by Jack Sowton and Becky Redford. They released their debut album Until The Tide Creeps In only two weeks ago. Leipzig is the third single off it.
The video was filmed in Berlin, Munich, Hannover, Diest and Luxembourg while the band were on tour in Europe last year. The Wolters say about it: “We would constantly be on the lookout for perfect spots along the way and would keep our jeans and white t shirts folded up in a pile in the van ready to go. It’s funny that we actually forgot to shoot anything whilst in Leipzig!”
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.
Hemliga Klubben – Asshole
Most people reading this won’t understand a word of this track, apart from its title. However, music is an international language, that can also be enjoyed when you don’t get the lyrics. Let me introduce to you: Hemliga Klubben (which means ‘the secret club’) from Sweden.
Hemliga Klubben features four talented songwriters, who met in 2017 during a songwriter session in a music studio. A year later, they formed a band. All of the members are involved in every aspect of the song crafting process, and they sing alternately on their tunes. Musically, most of the tracks they write and produce are energetic and up-tempo. Just listen to their new single Asshole for an example.
I’m sure Hemliga Klubben are huge Pet Shop Boys fans, like me. This could explain why Asshole’s chorus sounds very much like the Boys’ banger Pandemonium, off their 2009 album Yes.
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.
Striking Matches – Boring
American singer-songwriters/guitarists Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis form Striking Matches. They leaped to fame after the music supervisor for the television series ‘Nashville’ used nine of their songs in the show’s first four seasons. Two of those were featured on their T-Bone Burnett-produced debut album Nothing but the Silence.
Combining their blues and roots based guitar riffs with pop melodies, their music has been dubbed ‘blues-pop’. New single Boring, with its percussive rhythms and infectious call-and-response chorus, is a great example.
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.
Amber Run – Neon Circus
Joshua Keogh, Tomas Sperring and Henry Wyeth met at Nottingham University, where they studied Humanities and Law. In second year, they decided to abandon their studies to focus on the band. Following three EP’s, Amber Run released their debut album 5AM in 2015, a collection of emotive, anthemic rock tracks.
The trio’s upcoming album, Philophobia (set for a 27 September release) will be their third, and Neon Circus is its new single. A track that comes to the point straight away with a heavy guitar riff and an up-tempo drum beat. After two minutes, however, the pace slows down for the second half. A song with two faces.
Explaining the lyrics, frontman Joe Keough says: “Neon Circus is about getting the fuck off your phone. Nothing meaningful happens with your head tilted downwards towards your black mirror.”
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 – Je Danse Le Mia
France has a rich tradition in rap and R&B. Like all over the world, these are the dominant genres in the country nowadays, but the history goes way back. In the ‘90s and ‘00s, these genres were very popular as well. And these are exactly the focus decennia of the upcoming album Back Dans Les Bacs, which compiles the biggest French rap and R&B songs, reprised by current French artists.
The first single off this album is Je Danse Le Mia by Carte Blanche Music favourite Corine. She featured here three times already. The original version, which sampled Give Me The Night by George Benson, was a huge hit for Iam in 1993. For her make-over, Corine drowns the song in her signature future disco funk, while keeping the classic sample intact. Meanwhile, she proves to be a very fine rapper herself. Great clip as well, by the way. A remake by the book!
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 Wyze – Faded Gold
Chase Ellestad (vocals, guitar) and Chris Cheong (synths/pads) met in Miami one night in the summer of 2016, where they continued to party for a few days. They discovered they both lived in Toronto and started producing music together when they returned to Canada. In June 2017, The Wyze was formed. They used their apartments as studios to record a volume of music.
Faded Gold is the debut single from the indie duo; four more songs will follow throughout this summer. It was written and produced by Ellestad and Cheong, in collaboration with Nick Henriques. The song’s bassline alone should be nominated for an award. Lyrically, Faded Gold is about the realization you’re headed down the wrong path, rather than the one you intended to take.
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 30):
Baker Grace – Sad Summer
How is your summer, so far? Is it a time of joy where you go to the beach, hang out with friends, travel or just have a jubilant time in the sun? Or is it less exciting, and is that only made worse by what we see on social media? If you’re in the latter group, Baker Grace is with you.
The 18-year-old New Jersey pop songstress wrote a song that speaks to the introvert in all of us. “Sad Summer is an anthem for the people who need a break from social media”, she shares. “The pressure to be happy all the time, to look good all the time, and to always be doing something cool.”
The intro sounds like the theme song of an ‘80s TV series. Then, Baker starts singing in a staccato style, reminiscent of Lizzo’s performance in Juice. Next, she comes up with a hook that’s unlikely to leave your brain anytime soon: “Gonna be a sad sad summer, such a bummer / I could be falling in love but baby I don’t give a fuck.”
Eventually, Sad Summer is the ultimate anti-summer anthem. A colourful tune for the introverted Instagram generation of today. Also, it is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard! So maybe it isn’t such a sad summer for Baker Grace, after all.
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.
