Browsing Tag electronic
Yuna – Forevermore
Yunalis Mat Zara’ai is a Malaysian singer-songwriter who sings both in her own language and in English. She cites Feist, The Cardigans, Coldplay, Sia and Bob Dylan as her inspirations. In fact, she calls her music ‘a mix of Mary Poppins and Coldplay’.
In 2013, I fell in love with her single Lullaby, which had a Massive Attack (Protection, Teardrop) kind of vibe to it. Six years on, Yuna hasn’t sat still. Her new single Forevermore has the sound of now, with Dua Lipa as an obvious addition to her list of inspirations (and that can’t be a bad thing, can it?). A welcome return!
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 15)
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. No complaints about diversity, I’d say, 6 out of the 7 being female(-fronted) acts:
- Georgia – About Work The Dancefloor (Wildcard this week)
- Maggie Lindemann – Friends Go (Wildcard last week)
- Moddi – Kriegspiel
- Self Esteem – Girl Crush
- Stefanie Heinzmann – You Get Me
- The Veronicas – Think Of Me
- Yonaka – Lose Our Heads
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: Alex Lahey, Circa Waves, The Heavy, Vampire Weekend, whenyoung, 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.
The Veronicas – Think Of Me
Think Of Me is the first single in nearly two years for Australian duo The Veronica’s. In November 2017, the pop duo were scheduled to put out their fourth album, but instead released a statement to fans saying: ‘Due to personal circumstances out of our control, we have made the decision to hold releases’. In hindsight, those circumstances involved Jessica Origliasso reconnecting with her ex-girlfriend, Aussie actress Ruby Rose. This situation created a tension with her identical twin sister Lisa Origliasso.
Fast forward to 2019: the relationship has ended and The Veronicas are back together. They describe their new single as ‘a song about the end of a toxic relationship’. Apparently, nothing happens without a reason, and at least, it produced a great electro-pop song.
The duo’s new album will be out later this year.
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 14):
Georgia – About Work The Dancefloor
If you follow Carte Blanche Music since it started, back in January 2017, you may remember me recommending Georgia’s singles Feel It and Started Out. If you don’t, no offence 😉
Georgia, the 27-year-old daughter of Leftfield’s Neil Barnes, started her career as a session drummer, before releasing her self-titled debut album in 2015. The singles I mentioned came out later, in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
While these two songs set the stage for Georgia, her new single might just be the track to properly launch her career. About Work The Dancefloor is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard! It sounds like the best song Robyn never wrote, and incorporates a great Kraftwerk-like synth line. Lyrically (“I was just thinking ‘bout work the dancefloor”) it has a grammatical construction that’s so awkward, it can’t help but get stuck in your head.
“About Work The Dancefloor is a song written in response to the clubbing culture I experienced in cities whilst touring,” Georgia said in a statement. “Going out and getting that emotion or sensation from a collective energy in various spaces. It’s that stuff of old school disco, the thrill of the dance floor.”
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.
Self Esteem – Girl Crush
Far too often, when an ‘indie’ artist decides to throw in a pinch of ‘pop’, they are looked down upon, even by their own fans. As if music by independent minds can’t sound poppy, or as if pop and indie are two extremes of a musical spectrum. If that’s your thought exactly, don’t read on. If you’re less narrow-minded, allow me to introduce you to Self Esteem.
Self Esteem is the latest musical project of Rebecca Lucy Taylor, who used to be in the band Slow Club. Girl Crush is the new single off her solo debut album Compliments Please. An ambitious song that includes strings and a flute amidst poppy beats. Lyrically, the track is a reaction to the term itself. Taylor explains: “It should just be known as a crush. This isn’t a ground-breaking gender and sexuality statement, it’s just common sense. Women aren’t a fun new cool thing for straight women to try. (…) It’s a difficult thing to talk about but it’s something I can make a banging pop song about.”
Commercial, but uncompromising.
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 14)
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:
- Maggie Lindemann – Friends Go (Wildcard this week)
- Shanguy – Toukassé (Wildcard last week)
- Kakkmaddafakka – Sin
- Model Depose – Damage Control
- Neo Minor – Run
- Vant – Propaganda Machine
- Vendredi Sur Mer – La Nuit
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: Angèle, Perry Farrell, Rammstein, 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.
Model Depose – Damage Control
Nicknaming Model Depose ‘Model Depeche’ is understandable, but too easy. But you’re not to blame… until now. For the Dutch electronic pop band re-invented themselves with a new sound, which is more guitar-driven. Call it indie, rock or alternative pop, but I like it!
Damage Control is Model Depose’s new single. “When an influential person or loved one is on a collision course, the best you can do is keep dancing, sing along and make the best of it”, according to the band.
Not only is Damage Control the new single, it’s also the title track off their second album. Model Depose promise ‘a full-fledged piece of music in which everything fits together like a puzzle, where grit and a soothing atmosphere always find balance through raw beats, dynamic vocals and subdued synthesizer melodies’. The long-player will be out in September. Until then, the band release a new single and video each month.
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:
- Shanguy – Toukassé (Wildcard this week)
- Sam Fender – Hypersonic Missiles (Wildcard last week)
- Hot Like Sushi – Go Anywhere
- Jonas Brøg – All Across The Sky
- Nasty Cherry – Win
- Pi Ja Ma – I Oh I
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: Broken Social Scene, Panic! At The Disco, Rat Boy, Roosevelt, Tame Impala, Two Door Cinema Club, 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.
Wildcard (week 12):
Shanguy – Toukassé
I’m a fan of Shanguy. It’s their fresh take on electronic pop, which incorporates both funky and jazzy elements, that I’m attracted to. Both their singles La Louze and King Of The Jungle were Carte Blanche Music Wildcards last year.
Until recently, Shanguy was an all-male affair, created in 2017 by Italian DJ NRD1, including French singer-songwriter Eon Melka and Italian singer-songwriter Frank-O. In September 2018, they were joined by Italian singer Shady Cherkaoui-Sørensen. Hers is the female voice you can hear on the band’s new single Toukassé (the title is a corruption of ‘tout casser’, which is French for ‘break everything’). Luckily, the other ingredients remained the same, making this their third great track – and their third Carte Blanche Music Wildcard – in a row!
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.
S.O.S – Firebrick
Originally born in Malta, 24-year-old Anglo-Maltese singer, songwriter and producer Sophie DeBattista followed her British roots and moved to the UK at the age of 18. Most days, she’s busking with her acoustic guitar on the London Underground. It was here she was spotted by The Mayor of London Culture Chief, who offered her a 3 year scholarship at the ICMP music faculty.
An important part of her studies was the creation of her artist brand S.O.S and the creation of her debut EP Edges Of The Mind. This EP contains the four tracks Sophie released over the past three years, and her new single Firebrick.
She explains about the song, which she wrote and co-produced herself: “Firebrick was inspired by a young woman who I’ve known for many years. The song tells the story of how she hasn’t had the best experiences when it comes to the men in her life. Although she’s been cursed with this bad luck, the silver lining in the narrative is that no matter how bad it’s been and no matter how many men have tried to control or deflate her, she comes back fighting each time.”
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.
