Browsing Tag electronic
Áslaug – In My Head
Singer-songwriter Áslaug Vigfúsdóttir was born in the Netherlands, but obviously has Icelandic roots. Her 2019 debut single Take From Me was enough to be invited for showcase festival Eurosonic Noorderslag. Last week, streaming platform Deezer chose Áslaug as the Dutch entry for their talent programme Next 2020. This will secure her editorial support throughout the year.
Her self-titled debut EP just came out. Fans of artists like Haim and The Japanese House will love its mix of dreamy synth chords, polyphonic drifts and catchy hooks. All of these elements are also presents in Áslaug’s new single In My Head. A track with international potential.
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 13)
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:
- Hollie Col – She Knows (Wildcard this week)
- Bée – Nothing Alike (Wildcard last week)
- Miya Miya – Underwater
- Deluxe – Barcelonnette
- Tones & I – Bad Child
- The Dears – The Worst In Us
- Mathea – Wollt Dir Nur Sagen
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: Badly Drawn Boy, Circa Waves, Nothing But Thieves, 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.
Shingai – Coming Home
You may remember Shingai Shoniwa as the singer and bass player in the Noisettes. They released great singles like Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go) and That Girl. If not: do yourself a favour and click the links before reading on…
The EP Ancient Futures is Shingai’s first solo release, which draws on her Zimbabwean and Bantu heritage. Coming Home is the EP’s first single. I dare you not to move your hips to its dancefloor-ready beats. BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac called it ‘bonkers pop music’, and that’s just what it is.
The video for the single is the first western music video to be shot in Zimbabwe. Shingai hopes it will challenge narrow views of Africa. She wanted to celebrate the country’s beautiful landscape rather than the usual shock horror that you read about in the news. The title Coming Home, however, is more than just literal. “It’s coming home to yourself,” says Shingai, “to a realisation of sorts, that this is the person that I want to be.”
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 12)
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:
- Bée – Nothing Alike (Wildcard this week)
- Ren – I Drive Me Mad (Wildcard last week)
- Austra – Anywayz
- Casey Lowry – Psycho
- Merci, Mercy – Fucked Myself Up
- Millie Turner – Jungle
- The Lemon Twigs – The One
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: Alma, Circa Waves, Fish, Foals, The Killers, 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.
Tones & I – Bad Child
Let’s skip the introduction, shall we? I mean, the word ‘epic’ doesn’t even begin to describe what kind of year 2019 was for Tones & I. How often does it happen that an artist’s debut single becomes the biggest hit of the year? Worldwide!?! Dance Monkey was exactly that, and racked up more than 1,2 billion streams on Spotify alone.
In its slipstream, follow-up single Never Seen The Rain became a hit as well. Now Toni Watson (her real name) doubles her chances for a third hit. The Australian singer-songwriter just released two songs simultaneously: poppy tune Bad Child and ballad Can’t Be Happy All The Time. These are her first new tracks since 2019’s The Kids Are Coming EP.
Bad Child is my favourite among the two. Impressive how it’s already recognizable as a trademark Tones & I song. It begins with “My family always said I was the bad child, throwing me away into the bad pile”, but mind you, this is not autobiographical. The sad, seemingly introspective lyrics are based on a heart-breaking story of a friend, which she simply brought to life.
Recommended as well:
Tones & I – Never Seen The Rain
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.
Sega Bodega – U Got The Fever
Sega Bodega is London-based artist Salvador Navarrete. This explains the title of his latest album Salvador. He currently has some bad luck. Or bad timing, at least. His new single is called U Got The Fever. Obviously, this has nothing to do with Corona, but I hope politically correct music directors see that too. Okay, the song is very contagious, but only in a good way. That’s why I think it deserves to spread all over the world.
The first notes, with a sampled “Ooh-aah” remind me of Cloudbusting by Kate Bush. Of the part that goes “Ooh I just know that something good is gonna happen”, to be exact. Elsewhere, we hear an old-school, computer-generated rhythm and an eerie whistle melody. All and all, it’s got something spacey to it. And it holds some good advice as well, in these challenging times: “Go home, lock your doors, turn off your phone, and hope it’ll all be okay in the morning. Although it never is…”
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.
Austra – Anywayz
Austra is the musical vehicle of Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Katie Austra Stelmanis. Since her 2017 album Future Politics, she’s been out of the spotlights. It now appears, she’d got caught up in a toxic relationship that was tearing her apart. The good news is, the experience inspired her next album HiRUDiN, which is set for 1 May. Stelmaris explains: “Being in a toxic relationship can sometimes feel like being lost in a maze. Every attempt to turn a corner lands you back where you started. HiRUDiN is both a bold acknowledgement of such patterns of behaviour and a testament to the power of breaking them.”
Following Risk It, Anywayz is the second single to be released ahead of the long-player. “It explores the fear associated with leaving someone, and the terrifying realization that without them in your life, the rest of the world will continue unscathed as if nothing has changed.”
Anywayz is a wonderful, Sparks-like electronic indie-pop song, where Stelmaris sounds like a one-woman choir. Executed with other instruments, this could just as well have been a gothic rock smash. I’d love to hear that version one day 😉
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.
Oklou – Entertnmnt
French producer, vocalist and composer Marylou Mayniel goes by the stage name Oklou. She started her career producing boundary-pushing electronic underground music. Currently however, she’s moving towards chart-worthy pop music.
Her new single Entertnmnt is a bewitching single that glides across a strange, haunting aural landscape. It’s a well-built love song about ‘when people see you as strong and proud but you’re crying on the inside, putting up a fake smile’. The song’s co-producer Mura Masa calls Oklou ‘an amazing songwriter and this song isn’t any exception to that’.
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 10)
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:
- Sports Team – Here’s The Thing (Wildcard this week)
- The Magic Gang – Think (Wildcard last week)
- Betty Who – The One
- Efecto Pasillo feat. O’Funk’illo – Chacho [2020 Version]
- Elle Exxe – Rose Gold
- Papooz – Figs And Gorgonzola
- Tout Va Bien – This Is How We Say Goodbye
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: Christine & The Queens, Half Moon Run, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, 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.
Elle Exxe – Rose Gold
Now this is confusing… Allie X and Elle Exxe both released new music this week. This recommendation is for the latter, who was born as Linda Harrison, by the way. Her new single is called Rose Gold. You won’t be surprised it’s ‘the best song I’ve ever made’, according to the singer. The good news: it actually is.
Elle Exxeplains: “It’s intimate and revealing whilst driving relentlessly; metaphorically imitating my actual journey in the music industry… Which hasn’t been easy but it’s made me the artist I am today. (…) I hope this song gets heard so that those who are struggling chasing their dreams can feel less alone. But also I hope it gets heard so people can shake their shoulders to the hi-hats and shake-off a bad day.”
If you’re really into this track, or into Elle Exxe herself, the artist designed a jewel to go with it.
Rose Gold is the first in a series of new songs she will release on the 20th of every 2nd month of 2020. Acoustic versions will be put out on the months inbetween.
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.
