Browsing Tag drum & bass
High Contrast – God Only Knows
Drum & bass isn’t subtle music. It isn’t meant to be and it shouldn’t. Drum & bass is music to dance to and I love it for it. High Contrast, however, tries to throw in a pinch of class occasionally, and he can really pull it off. Especially when he builds a track around a classic sample, like Aretha Franklin’s 1965 single One Step Ahead in his own song Remind Me.
On his new single, High Contrast (real name: Lincoln Barrett) takes it one step further. A bold step, that will likely not be appreciated by everyone. Personally, I think this is very well done, but why don’t you judge for yourself? Sit tight for a quite ‘different’ take on the Beach Boys classic God Only Knows…
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 46)
What ‘big names’ I added to my daily updated Carte Blanche Music playlist last week, you ask? How about Dannii Monigue, Icona Pop, Liam Gallagher, Morrissey, Turin Brakes and The Wombats? But perhaps more interesting, from a discovery point of view, are less well-known artists like Fil Bo Riva, Kris Berry, Nana Adjoa and Pale Waves. Please, check them out and enjoy their talent!
Additionally, I compiled my Werner’s Weekly playlist for you, featuring a personal selection of last week’s best new music. Every track comes with additional information, which you will find by clicking the links below. You can listen to all seven tracks in this compact, alphabetically sorted chart through the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar.
If you like what you hear, follow my playlists, and I’ll keep you updated on new music as soon as it’s released.
- The Presets – Do What You Want (Wildcard this week)
- MisterWives – Never Give Up On Me (Wildcard last week)
- High Contrast – Love On A 45
- Joan As Police Woman – Warning Bell
- Millie Turner – Eyes On You
- She Drew The Gun – Sweet Harmony
- Zak Abel – Still Want UUU
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 Charts.
High Contrast – Love On A 45
Remember Shakin’ Stevens, kids? Probably not ?. So I won’t ask you about his manager… Anyway: the manager of the Welsh rock ‘n’ roll singer has a son: Lincoln Barrett, who is better known as remixer and drum & bass producer High Contrast.
This century, so far, High Contrast released one or more singles almost every year. And he is gaining ever more mainstream success, with his latest singles even hitting daytime radio playlists.
Recently, he dropped his 6th album Night Gallery, including the singles Shotgun Mouthwash, Questions and The Beat Don’t Feel The Same. But the best of them, I think, is Remind Me, which includes a fragment of Aretha Franklin’s 1965 single One Step Ahead.
Another one of my favourites on High Contrast’s album is an equally (northern) soulful affair: Love On A 45, which seems to have been inspired by an old record as well. However, he claims not to have used any direct samples on this album, instead recreating everything that might sound familiar. Anyway, this sounds like a hit to me!
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 45)
No better way to start a new music week than with a compact playlist containing the best new songs that were released in the past week. Werner’s Weekly is just that, and presents the tracks in alphabetical order:
- MisterWives – Never Give Up On Me (Wildcard this week)
- Dagny – Love You Like That (Wildcard last week)
- Angèle – La Loi De Murphy
- Eliza & The Bear – Hell
- Enter Shikari – The Sights
- Plan B – Heartbeat
- The Sound Of Arrows (feat. Annie) – Wicked Ways
- They Might Be Giants – I Left My Body
For more of 2017’s musical highlights so far, follow my container playlist Carte Blanche Music. Last week, I added many emerging artists, and better-known ones like The Fratellis, Tricky and Weezer.
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 Charts.
Plan B – Heartbeat
Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew is better known as Plan B, originally a hip hop artist, who likes to incorporate elements of genres like soul and drum & bass into his music. The first time he did so, on his second album The Defamation of Strickland Banks (his alter ego), he shot straight to number one.
After the follow-up Ill Manors though, he went through – in his own words – a ‘complete identity crisis’, including drinking too much Jack Daniels and Coke. He announced a hip hop concept album of which he predicted “I know radio ain’t gonna play it”, but that didn’t see the light.
What did see the light though, was a baby girl. That may be one of the reasons his next album will be more personal than before. The record isn’t finished yet, but it does already have a title (Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose) and a release date: 13 April 2018.
Already available now is the single Heartbeat. A welcome return to soul and drum & bass, giving the track a sound akin to Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy.
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 30)
For those of you who are not on holiday, I’ll pretend not to be as well. On the other hand: why would you stop listening to new music when you’re not at home? The stream of great new releases doesn’t run dry either.
The last seven days I enriched my 2017 container playlist Carte Blanche Music with Armstrongs, Nothing But Thieves, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Ride, among others. And as always, the crème de la crème of this fine bunch if brand new songs is listed alphabetically in my Werner’s Weekly playlist below. Please allow me to bring you up to speed in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
- Aloe Blacc – King Is Born (Wildcard this week)
- Alice Merton – No Roots (Wildcard last week)
- Chase & Status feat. Emeli Sandé – Love Me More
- Last Train – Between Wounds
- Tom Grennan – Found What I’ve Been Looking For
- Young Gun Silver Fox – Midnight In Richmond
Through the links above you can read my recommendations for each track, and while reading, you can listen to all of the songs via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar.
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 Charts.
Chase & Status feat. Emeli Sandé – Love Me More
Earlier today, I mentioned Chase & Status, and since there’s no such thing as coincidence, here they are again. The production duo, composed of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), make a radio-friendly variation of drum & bass and have worked with major artists like Dizzee Rascal, Cee Lo Green, Rihanna and Example.
One of the big names that will appear on Chase & Status’s new album Tribe (due to be released on 18 August), is Emeli Sandé. She provides vocals on their new single Love Me More. This track, oddly, features exactly the same speeded-up Funky Drummer sample as her break-through hit Heaven did, back in 2011.
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 11)
After a week full of great releases (by Fickle Friends, Blackfield, Maxïmo Park and others), that you can find in my container playlist Carte Blanche Music, it’s time to draw up the balance-sheet: what were the best new tracks of the past week? I chose the songs below (in alphabetical order), that you can listen to via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. Click the links to read what I wrote about them earlier.
- Fatboy Slim – Where U Iz (this week’s Wildcard)
- San Fermin – No Promises (last week’s Wildcard)
- Jens Lekman – Wedding In Finistère
- Levante – Non Me Ne Frega Niente
- Nano – Hold On
- Pale Waves – There’s A Honey
- Seramic (feat. Bootsy Collins) – Greg’s Love
- Todiefor feat. Helen – Beautiful
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 Charts.
Nano – Hold On
Nano Omar (or simply Nano, as an artist) is a Swedish singer-songwriter. His youth was somewhat troubled, ending in jail twice, but the future looks a whole lot brighter.
He released his debut single Lion in the spring of 2015, but he really came to prominence while performing in Melodifestivalen 2017, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. On 11 March he’ll compete with 11 other contestants to represent Sweden in Kiev.
Even if Nano doesn’t win the final, he still produced a great song. After starting off like a Rag ‘N’ Bone Man or John Newman kind of track, it evolves into a combination of pop and drum & bass that could’ve been produced by Sigma or DJ Fresh. I love it!
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 46)
Van de hele stapel nieuwe releases kregen er 14 afgelopen week het stempel ‘Werner Tipt’, met bijbehorende vermelding in de gelijknamige Spotify-playlist. Nog nooit gehoord van Fews, Washington of Escondido, maar wel nieuwsgierig hoe die klinken? Dan weet je waar je moet zijn. Vaults, Alex Clare, Imagine Dragons, Emeli Sandé en Liv zijn enkele van de artiesten die hen daar gezelschap houden. Maar alleen de crème de la crème van de toekomstmuziek heeft Werner’s Weekly gehaald…
She’s American van The 1975 is al sinds maart van dit jaar in Carte Blanche te horen. Eerst als singlesuggestie van hun album I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It en nu ook als echte single. In Engeland althans, want in Nederland komt de band niet echt van de grond. Jammer, want She’s American is een heerlijk radioliedje. Daarom is ‘ie deze week de Carte Blanche Remschijf!
Afgelopen week draaide ik Fountains van Uncle Frank al en toen viel me pas goed op hoe lekker die op de radio klinkt. Die zouden meer mensen eens de zender op moeten slingeren. Daarom zet ik het nummer deze week in de etalage die Werner’s Weekly heet. Ook Find Me van Sigma feat. Birdy promoveert deze week vanuit de Werner Tipt-lijst naar het hoogst haalbare op nieuwe-muziekgebied ;-).
Al sinds hun debuut uit 1998 ben ik een fan van de Spaanse band La Oreja De Van Gogh. Niet iedereen kan hun (pop)muziek waarderen, al was het maar omdat het niet zo lekker meezingt. La Planeta Imaginario, hun 7e studioalbum, is ook niet hun sterkste, maar de track Pálida Luna zou een goeie single zijn. In elk geval in de Spaanstalige wereld. Luister maar…
Dan San is een zesmansband uit de Belgische industriestad Luik, wat wellicht de melancholische, soms dromerige sfeer van hun muziek verklaart. Ook de samenwerking met producer Yann Arnaud (o.a. Air) kan daaraan bijgedragen hebben. Hun indrukwekkende nieuwe single heet Ocean.
Half januari komt The xx met hun derde album I See You. De eerste single daarvan heet On Hold. Die kwam naar eigen zeggen moeizaam tot stand, totdat ze een sample toevoegden uit I Can’t Go For That van Hall & Oates, die de losse onderdelen samensmolt waaruit het nummer tot dan toe bestond.
Met I’ll Make It Worth Your While van het Londens drietal Artificial Pleasure maak ik deze week de cirkel rond. Het nummer, hun debuutsingle, heeft iets weg van Love Me van The 1975 (en dus van David Bowie’s Fame). Ook Talking Heads klinken erin door. Een superliedje en een dikke tip voor mijn andere radiocollega’s.
Het hele – uiterst bescheiden – bovenstaande lijstje vind je uiteraard terug in mijn Spotify-playlist Werner’s Weekly. En al mijn inmiddels ruim 700 aanraders van dit jaar staan in de lijst Werner Tipt. Als je die zo sorteert, dat de laatste toevoegingen bovenaan staan, verschijnen mijn recentste suggesties pal onder je neus. Snuffel er maar eens aan! (en de playlists volgen is natuurlijk helemaal leuk…)
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 Charts.
