Browsing Tag electronic
Wildcard (week 6):
Billie Louise – Like Machines
Belgian radio station Studio Brussel has its own talent contest. Each year, a jury and the broadcaster’s listeners choose ‘De Nieuwe Lichting’ (‘the new class’).
This year, one of the nine contestants (selected out of a thousand artists that sent in their music) was Billie Louise, an ultra-young band, consisting of Billie Louise (16, vocals), Dejan (17, drums), and Jérôme (22, keys). They have been together for such a short time, they only played their first ever gig last week.
Billie Louise is the daughter of Reinhard Vanbergen, who played in Belgian bands like Das Pop, The Happy, and Rheinzand. Growing up with pop music, but mainly listening to hip hop herself, she started writing her own songs at the age of 13. Like Machines, a song about a world where people are becoming more and more alike, is the band’s first single. Musically, acoustic instruments like violins and piano are in perfect harmony with synths and beats. A very promising debut.
Billie Louise didn’t win the StuBru competition, but they did win my heart. Like Machines is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
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.
Werner’s Weekly (week 6)
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. A great collection of female-fronted tracks this week!
- Dua Lipa – Swan Song (Wildcard this week)
- Sigrid – Don’t Feel Like Crying (Wildcard last week)
- Band Of Skulls – Cool Your Battles
- Girli – Deal With It
- Nilüfer Yanya – In Your Head
- Piroshka – What’s Next?
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: Cage The Elephant, The Chemical Brothers, Circa Waves, 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.
Girli – Deal With It
North London’s Girli (born Milly Toomey) has been releasing singles and EP’s since 2015. 13 of them. Only now, she announced her first full offering: her debut album Odd One Out will arrive on 5 April. No doubt, it’ll be full of teenage-angst filled electropop, including the former singles Hot Mess, Day Month Second and Young, as well as her new one: Deal With It.
With its more rock-inspired pulsing pop sound, Deal With It is a track I expect to come to life at the singer’s infamously energetic live shows. Girli is clearly ready to make this her 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 5):
Dua Lipa – Swan Song
I’ve got a weak spot for Dua Lipa. In my then radio show, I pronounced her ‘princess of pop’, the first time I played her first official single Be The One in 2015. For me, it’s still one of the best pop singles of this decennium.
In the years that followed, she released a self-titled debut album that spawned 8 commercial singles and a further 3 promotional singles. Also, she was the featured singer on hits by Sean Paul, Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris and Silk City. All of those tracks are present on the Complete Edition of her long-player, effectively making it her first Greatest Hits album. In the meantime, her live shows grew bigger, bolder and better. Dua Lipa is the full package.
Moving on to the next stage of her career, the singer just released a brand-new track. Swan Song is the title song of the forthcoming movie ‘Alita: Battle Angel’. Just like the movie, the video for the song takes place in a futuristic dystopia.
There is a Dutch touch to Swan Song: musician, composer and producer Tom Holkenborg (a.k.a. Junkie XL) wrote the full soundtrack to the movie. By consequence, he is also involved in this great single, which is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard.
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.
Model Depose – Bombs Are Falling
It looks like Model Depose enjoy the silence. After their EP’s Untitled (2011) and Nightwatch (2013) they spent another three years to finish their debut album Splitting Light. Since then, another three years have passed. But… a new album is expected ‘in 2019’ (which potentially means ‘at the end of the year’). Luckily, the Dutch electronic pop band just put forward the album’s first single.
Bombs Are Falling is further proof of their profound love of Depeche Mode. It was the first song the band ever wrote, but they re-wrote it to suit their contemporary style. The song is inspired by a personal experience with the stress that might remain after having been in a war zone.
Bombs Are Falling is the first in a string of singles. The next one can be expected in March, after which Model Depose will release a new track every month. You do the maths… fat chance we’ll have to wait for that new album until next Autumn.
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 4)
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:
- Jon Tessier – For A Little Eye Candy (Wildcard this week)
- Lizzo – Juice (Wildcard last week)
- American Authors – Stay Around
- Jesse Hite – When It All Comes Down
- Stats – Lose It
- Videoclub – Roi
- whenyoung – Never Let Go
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: The Cranberries, The Dandy Warhols, Hozier, Jade Bird, Joe Jackson, Sigrid, Yungblud 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.
Stats – Lose It
You might not know Ed Seed by name, but he was part of La Roux (remember the great single Bulletproof?) and played guitar and keys in Dua Lipa’s band. He quit that day job to take care of his new-born son and started working on his own band Stats’s debut album Other People’s Lives, to be released on 15 February.
Stats are a London sextet that plays full-band dance music, inspired by the likes of Roxy Music and LCD Soundsystem. The group got a boost last year, when their single Rhythm Of The Heart (created around a recording of Seed’s son’s heat beat) got airplay on Elton John’s Beats1 radio show. Their funky latest single Lose It however, sounds like it could be playlisted by radio stations and streaming services all around.
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.
Videoclub – Roi
At the tender age of 17, Adèle Castillon has quite a career already. After quickly rising to fame as a YouTube personality, she was asked to play roles in several French movies. And now, she added singing to her CV. Together with fellow teen, singer-songwriter Matthieu Reynaud (son of French jazz guitarist Régis Reynaud), she forms Videoclub.
After releasing their debut single Amour Plastique in September 2018, Roi (‘king’) is only their second outing. A lovely electronic pop song with classic chanson melodies, coupled with eighties-influenced raps. This song couldn’t have come from any other country than France…
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 2)
After last week’s Carte Blanche Music Top 2018, which was Werner’s Yearly, basically, here is a brand-new edition of Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. As always, it contains the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best new releases in alphabetical order:
- The Lottery Winners – That’s Not Entertainment (Wildcard this week)
- Mokono – Signs (Wildcard last week)
- Cat Pierce – Human Experience
- Christon – Closer To A New Day
- Emmy Wildwood – Everything Hurts
- 900 Miles feat. The Kooks – Hold Tight
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: The Gift, Sofi Tukker, Sting, Reel Big Fish, 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.
Cat Pierce – Human Experience
Since Catherine Pierce – half of the duo The Pierces, which is currently on hiatus – started creating her first solo album without the backing of a record label, she released six singles.
The latest, Human Experience, came out on Boxing Day. It’s a beautiful, mystic song about birth and death, with a rather creepy intro and a chorus that Lana Del Rey would kill for.
Pierce’s album is slated for a 2019 release and will, according to the singer, be more personal than the music she released with her sister. “Although”, she says, “Allison and I are talking about doing more music together because we miss it.”
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.
