Browsing Tag electronic
Dubioza Kolektiv & Manu Chao – Cross The Line
Dubioza Kolektiv are a must-see live act from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their live performances are characterized by power, energy and high-spirited flamboyance. Meanwhile, they balance heavy melodies and important statements.
Their new single Cross The Line is no exception. Musically, it contains their signature blend of traditional Balkan flavours, ska, punk, reggae, electronics, hip hop and rock. Lyrically, it holds an empowering message of freedom. It’s an ode to the determination, courage, and strength needed to leave one’s homeland and face all challenges of an uncertain future. Not for the first time, Dubioza Kolektiv team up with their friend Manu Chao (of Mano Negra fame).
Cross The Line is the band’s first new single ahead of their ninth studio album #fakenews, out in January 2020.
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.
Parov Stelar feat. Lilja Bloom – Go Wake Up
Marcus Füreder, better known by his stage name Parov Stelar, is one of Austria’s internationally most successful artists. He is called the founder of ‘electro swing’ and his music is the soundtrack for numerous movies, TV shows and ads.
But professional success doesn’t lead to personal happiness per se. He recently wrote on his Facebook page: “My last two years were full of personal ups and downs. But it’s during the hard times we learn the most. Music has always been one of my best buddies. It carried me and opened doors to hidden worlds. I am now ready to present to you the Voodoo Sonic Trilogy, my journey through that time. It’s an album in 3 parts and Part 1 will be coming this November.” By now, we know a little more: Part 1/3 will be released on 15 November, while the second and the third part can be expected in the first half of 2020.
The first single off the upcoming trilogy is called Go Wake Up. It’s sung by Austrian singer, designer and painter Lilja Bloom. The two started working together in 2007, when Bloom became Stelar’s muse. She co-produced his album Shine and sang on all of his albums ever since. Stelar returned the favour by making remixes of several of her solo singles.
Go Wake Up is the pair’s new single. A soulful affair with a Motown kind of vibe. In true voodoo fashion the song’s groove grabs you immediately, never letting go again.
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.
Werner’s Weekly (week 45)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Palaye Royale – Hang On To Yourself (Wildcard this week)
- Lizzo & Ariana Grande – Good As Hell [Remix] (Wildcard last week)
- Barrie – Drag
- Hayley Mary – The Piss, The Perfume
- Inge van Calkar – Get Out Of My Way
- Therapie Taxi – Candide Crush
- Zola – Crystal Floors
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Ariana Grande (with Chaka Khan), Haim, Pixies, The Script, and many more.
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.
Therapie Taxi – Candide Crush
Therapie Taxi are very popular in their native France. They sold 170.000 pieces of their debut album Hit Sale, attracted 250.000 visitors to circa 100 live shows, and achieved 300 million streams and views of their songs.
They’re also a prolific band. They quickly followed their successful debut album with an ‘extended version’, containing 10 extra tracks. But since then, they’ve already started releasing brand-new songs. The single Egotrip, only a few weeks ago, and now their next offering Candide Crush. A song as colourful as the Candy Crush game.
Recommended as well:
Therapie Taxi – Cri Des Loups
Therapie Taxi (feat. Roméo Elvis) – Hit Sale
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.
Inge van Calkar – Get Out Of My Way
Inge van Calkar, a Dutch songstress from the northern town of Groningen, has beefed up her already impressive electropop sound. She wrote her new single with two of the Netherlands’ most talented songwriters: Radboud Miedema and Gordon Groothedde. The latter produced the song as well.
Get Out Of My Way is about being too modest for your own good. “I have stood in line for too long, waiting for my turn to come. That’s outrageous,” says Van Calkar. Sounding rather irritated in the chorus: ‘Get Out Of My Way, Liar!’, she is angry with anyone who wants to stop her. “But just as well I’m angry with myself, because I was waiting,” she admits.
Luckily, this frustration results in a great pop song with a pounding electro synth riff. It deserves to become just as big a radio hit as her most recent single Touchdown. Both track are taken from Inge van Calkar’s upcoming EP Full Color.
Recommended as well:
Inge van Calkar – Imaginary
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.
Latest Wildcards: Client Liaison, Sheila & The Kit, Kasador, Lizzo & Ariana Grande
Aaaaaaaaaand, we’re back! After a great holiday in Australia, I’m completely ready to continue and recommend you the best new tracks. Most of them are too good for the radio, but as a music missionary man, I see it as my duty to provide them with a platform. In the end, of course, it’s you who decides.
October wasn’t only a great month to take some time off, it was also a great month for new music. Traditionally, in anticipation of the year-end period, October is a month with many releases. This year is no exception. Throughout my holiday, I updated my Carte Blanche Music Spotify playlist regularly. Head over there for an overview of recent new tracks you wouldn’t want to miss. Today, I’ll also resume my recommendations on this blog. But for a start, let me present to you the Carte Blanche Music Wildcards of the past four weeks:
Week 40: Client Liaison – The Beat Supreme
It only felt appropriate that the first Wildcard during my holiday would come from an Australian act. Enter indie-pop duo Client Liaison, consisting of Monte Morgan (vocals), and Harvey Miller (keyboards, producer). I wrote about their earlier single The Real Thing before. The band are influenced by late ’80s and early ’90s electronic and house music, as can be heard again on their new single The Beat Supreme.
Week 41: Sheila & The Kit – Mike [Edit]
Easy Lover by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins was the very first Wildcard in 1985. Mike by Sheila & The Kit was #1800! It’s a track off the Dutch alternative synth-pop outfit’s first EP, appropriately titled EP. Since it lasts 7’39 on there, but I suggested it should be edited and put out as a single. And ta-dah… someone listened 😉. Although four and half a minute have been chopped off, the song still has the same great vibe and energy. It now fits the dance floor and the radio!
Week 42: Kasador – Givin’ It Up
You may know Canadian indie-rock band Kasador from their recent track High Rise. This is one of the 12 tracks on their debut album Brood And Bloom. The long-player was partly produced by Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair of The Tragically Hip, and partly by Graham Walsh (Sam Roberts, Lights, Wintersleep). The latter produced the band’s new single Givin’ It Up.
Week 43: Lizzo & Ariana Grande – Good As Hell [Remix]
In 2016, Lizzo recorded Good As Hell for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’. It also served as the lead single from her debut EP Coconut Oil. Following her performance at the MTV Music Video Awards, it’s climbing up the Billboard charts. A new version of the song, as a duet with Ariana Grande, will only enhance this success. A well-deserved belated hit.
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.
Werner’s Weekly (week 40)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Georgia – Never Let You Go (Wildcard this week)
- Mélodie Lauret – 23h28 (Wildcard last week)
- Ana & The Changes – Beneath My Lungs / I Turned 30 Yesterday
- Lizzo – Good As Hell
- Madame Psychosis – Kapow
- Sheila & The Kit – Mike
- The Lighthouse – Pretty Classy
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Liam Gallagher, Sløtface, Tegan & Sara, Temples, and many more.
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.
Sheila & The Kit – Mike
Following a string of singles and a maxi-single with remixes, Sheila & The Kit just released their first EP. And just to be clear, the Dutch alternative synth-pop outfit called it EP. It contains the past single Ruffhouse and two long tracks: Liar Liar (6’29) and Mike (7’39).
Although I’m a sucker for radio edits and I love a song that makes its point within three and a half minute or so, Mike is a monster track. Made for the dance floor, not for the radio, obviously. In the long, instrumental mid-piece the duo go completely bezerk to great effect. In this case, size does matter (although I’d love to make a radio edit of it, for more exposure 😉 ).
Recommended as well:
Sheila & The Kit – Time Again
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 39):
Georgia – Never Let You Go
I can’t wait for the new year, for it’s sure to start with a bang. On 10 January 2020, Georgia will release her second album Seeking Thrills. Each new single off it is better than the one before. The best so far, About Work The Dancefloor, was a Carte Blanche Music Wildcard in April.
Now, Georgia repeats that feat with her brand-new single Never Let You Go. A Robyn-esque song with a ludicrous catchiness, that was entirely played by the talented London artist and producer. Easily one of the best pop songs of the year so far, this is the one that should propel her onto radio playlists around the globe. If not, music directors should be fired and replaced by people with ears.
As a stamp of approval, let me remind you one last time that Georgia is the daughter of Leftfield’s Neil Barnes. But soon, he’ll be referred to as the father of Georgia. Never Let You Go is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. The repeat button was invented for this kind of songs.
Recommended as well:
Georgia About Work The Dancefloor
Georgia – Started Out
Georgia – Feel It
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 Lighthouse – Pretty Classy
Following two EP’s in 2016 and 2017, The Lighthouse are about to put their debut album in the spotlights. The long-player, Whatever Comes Our Way, will see the light of day on 27 September. Ahead of it, the Belgian electronic pop band release its 4th, bass-heavy single.
Pretty Classy sounds fiercer than its predecessors, thanks to well-placed bursts of guitar over a bed of synths. A roaring mix between melodical alt-pop and stadium guitar rock.
Recommended as well:
The Lighthouse – Tel Aviv
The Lighthouse – Catch Fire
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.
