The Cat Empire frontman Felix Riebl’s new solo EP is titled Black Room White Walls. No wonder, then, that its first single Black Room is now followed by the track White Walls.

The five-track EP was recorded over several years between New York and Melbourne. But due to an intense touring schedule with The Cat Empire and the release of their latest album he hadn’t had the opportunity to put it out yet. Then, COVID-19 struck and only four shows into their European tour, The Cat Empire rushed home. Just in time to escape the European lock-down. This gave Riebl enough time to prepare the EP’s release.

Don’t expect anything near the Cat Empire sound though. Other than his band’s fusion of latin, ska and funk, his solo tracks are darker and guitar-based with big choruses. The banging rockers combine elements of New Order and Coldplay, while Russian composer Rachmaninoff and Pink Floyd were influences as well.

“There’s an angst to it”, Felix Riebl says about White Walls. “A real dark energy in there, but in the anthemic chorus I feel that it is positive.”

The EP is set to be followed with a full-length album next year.

Recommended as well:
Felix Riebl – Black Room

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Chris Quinton (CQ), Ben Graham, Bryce Crocombe and Josh Rea are Dancer. A brand-new band from the industrial beach town of Newcastle, Australia. They met in their younger years and even spent five years writing, recording and experimenting with songs, without even forming a band. But that’s a thing of the past. Earlier this year, amidst the chaos and the shut down of the music industry, the four decided to formally start a musical outfit, and named it Dancer.

The first song they put out was Fever, but Dreamer is their first proper single. A euphoric and uplifting song that sounds like a mix of The Killers and early Everything Everything. Think punchy indie-pop with huge choruses minus the falsetto. In other words: an epic radio song, that’s already been picked up by Australia’s alternative radio station Triple J Unearthed.

A friend of the band described listening to Dreamer as “…like riding down a giant hill without a helmet!” I’m already curious what else we’ll find underneath that hill. Hint: Dancer will release their first EP in the last quarter of the year.

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Please allow me a little D-tour before properly introducing you to Ellur…

Remember the 1990s? Or, a little bit more specific: remember Britpop? What a glorious time for a music lover! Eventually, in 1995, this whole Britpop hype lead to nothing less than a good old musical war. ‘The battle of Britpop’. Blur vs. Oasis. Country House vs. Roll With It. I loved both bands, but I didn’t dare to say it, or someone would have chopped my head off. Like all wars, it was completely pointless. It didn’t progress Britpop, but ended it.

Luckily, Britpop was followed by post-Britpop. A second wave of bands, influenced by the first. Think The Verve, Radiohead, Travis, Stereophonics, and even Coldplay. But also Embrace.  I love them for late ‘90s/early ‘00s gems like Come Back To What You Know and All You Good Good People. All of them (co)written by the band’s guitarist Richard McNamara.

Fast forward to 2020, we can conclude McNamara’s musical genes found a great new home in his daughter Ella. Always knowing she wanted to pursue a career in music herself, she started writing her own songs at the tender age of 11. She learnt to play the bass and piano, and these instruments also represent the different sides of Ellur’s repertoire. It ranges from piano ballads to full-on pop-rock songs. Alive is from the latter category. Produced by her father, it’s a huge track that sounds like Katy Perry with guitars.

Alive isn’t even Ellur’s most recent single, but I didn’t want you to miss it!

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