While isolating at the start of the pandemic, Palace Winter’s Carl Coleman spent a lot of time watching horror films. The paranoia and fear in the movies seemed to reflect the times. It’s hardly a surprise then that this kind of themes started serving as inspiration for new songs. One of those is out now as the band’s new single.

Slasher is a shimmering track with racing drums, noir guitar, a bar piano and a psychedelic solo. Keyboardist and producer Casper Hesselager explains: “After all the heaviness of 2020 and COVID etc., we wanted to make something fun and danceable. So we developed a beat inspired by ‘90s drum ‘n’ bass and things like The Prodigy, Portishead etc. There’s an element of ‘Ennio Morricone and Scott Walker discover ‘90s drum ‘n’ bass’ about it.” Elsewhere, the band also cite The Verve and Everything But The Girl as inspirations for the song. “We wanted to mix all those flavours with a horror movie script, and Slasher was born”, the Danish/Australian duo say on their Facebook profile.

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Formed in 2010, Pinegrove are an American rock band from New Jersey. The line-up is variable, with two main members: Evan Stephans Hall and Zack Levine. On 28 January they’ll release their sixth album 11:11. This title can be explained in a number of ways (pun intended): it resembles a row of trees for instance, or striped corduroy, or people shoulder-to-shoulder. The record was self-produced by the band, and mixed by Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie).

Of the album’s themes, Hall says: “It spends equal time on optimism, community, reaffirming our human duty to look out for one another even in the absence of the people we expect to do those things. What if we have to be our own salvation?”

Just over two minutes long, Alaska is the forthcoming album’s second single. It’s an upbeat four-to-the-floor track, full of driving guitar-based riffs. Lyrically, it references the idea behind the album title. Alaska is about flying diagonally across the country and seeing patterns in cornrows, trees, and more, all resembling the shape of the number ‘1’.

Following an extensive tour of North-America, early 2022, the band will come over to Europe in May.

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Will The Hisunz be third time lucky? They’d deserve it! After debuting last year with their single Guilty Man, CNTRDCTNS was their first single of 2021. They now follow it up with the equally strong track Up High.

It opens with a guitar melody that sounds as if Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars was played at double speed. Soon enough however, they continue the ride in their own direction. The guitars may sound dreamy, but the rhythm section keeps the speed up. The vocal melodies are equally powerful, and fit the euphoric instrumentation. A rock song to dance to!

Hailing from Spain, Emma Barber and Alex Roman formed The Hisunz in East London. Helped by Emma’s husband Jules De Martino and Katie White (The Ting Tings), they’re currently completing their debut EP in their homeland. It’s due to be released in 2022.

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For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.