Browsing Tag funk
single track
funk | indie | pop
Red Rum Club – The Elevation
For a great live act like Red Rum Club, not being able to play live is a horror scenario. Especially with a new album coming up, that was meant to be heavily promoted by a large chunk of gigs. Obviously, the Liverpudlian sextet are not the only ones with this problem.
Luckily, the tracks on Red Rum Club’s upcoming sophomore album The Hollow Of Humdrum are not only future live staples. They are also very well tailored for radio airplay and inclusion in streaming playlists. The long-player (out on 2 October) contains a wide variety of songs. They range from acoustic ballads to disco themed festival anthems. Expect theatrical brass lines, pop choruses, rumbling bass lines, western guitars and Latin percussion. A melting pot spelled f-u-n.
Following former Carte Blanche Music Wildcard Ballerino, the band now put album opener The Elevation in the spotlights. Another euphoric and shamelessly funky pop tune that begs you to pump up the volume.
Recommended as well:
Red Rum Club – Ballerino
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single trackelectronic | funk | indie | pop
Stats – Naturalise Me
13 November, only a year and a half after their debut album Other People’s Lives, Stats put out opus #2. The London-based band’s sophomore record is titled Powys 1999. It was recorded in a residential studio close to where frontman Ed Seed grew up in Powys (Wales). On the album, Seed (vocals, guitar) is joined by Nicole Robson (vocals/keyboards), Stu Barter (vocals/bass), John Barrett (drums), Duncan Brown (guitar), Iso Waller-Bridge (vocals/keyboards) and Ant Whiting (keyboards).
Naturalise Me is the long-player’s first single. It’s a funky, danceable pop song with an industrial, Depeche Mode-like feel to it. The track finds Seed questioning his roots. “Growing up I felt like I didn’t fit in or belong where I was born and raised”, he says. “When it comes to the countryside we often talk about the natural – and by implication the unnatural – as if we are talking about the real, and by implication the fake. I felt somehow fake in Powys as a born incomer, un-local, neither Welsh nor English. But by looking at the landscape, I started to realise the construction and extraction behind it, and the myth of its naturalness.”
Recommended as well:
Stats – The Family Business
Stats – Lose It
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weeklyelectronic | funk | indie | jazz | pop
Werner’s Weekly (week 36)
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:
- Sebu with Eraserfase – The Worst That Could Happen To Us (Wildcard this week)
- Archie X – Loud Boy (Wildcard last week)
- Alex The Astronaut – Caught In The Middle
- Altered By Mom – You Can Do What You Want With My Heart, Babe
- Dancer – Dreamer
- Ellur – Alive
- London Grammar – Baby It’s You
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: Billie Joe Armstrong, Dua Lipa, Sheryl Crow, The Smashing Pumpkins, and more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weeklyfunk | hip hop | indie | jazz | pop | rhythm & blues | rock | soul
Werner’s Weekly (week 35)
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:
- Archie X – Loud Boy (Wildcard this week)
- Town Of Cats – Lemons (Wildcard last week)
- Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler – Sabotage (Looks So Easy)
- E^ST – I Wanna Be Here
- Ellie Dixon – Space Out!
- Mell & Vintage Future – Brand New Day
- The Flowers – You Don’t Say!
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: American Autors, Bright Eyes, Roosevelt, and more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 34):
electronic | funk | jazz | pop
Wildcard (week 34):
Archie X – Loud Boy
Debut singles seldomly come any stronger than this. Archie X are a Belgian duo, and their first track is totally exciting. Parts funk and parts jazz, but 100% pop at the same time. Excuse me if I raise the bar too high, but Billie Eilish is a fair reference in my ears.
Last year, Charline D’Hoore took part in Belgian TV talent show The Voice Of Flanders, where she impressed the jury with her version of F.U. by Little Mix. Apart from playing the guitar (like she did in her audition), she also plays the piano and saxophone. Tom Lodewyckx, a musician in bands that accompany talents during TV talent shows, is her musical partner.
Loud Boy is their very first single and a very promising one. I love the kind of confident bass lines it starts with. After a short into, together with Charline’s voice, a simple but effective beat kinks in. What follows, is a rollercoaster of vocal layers, voice effects, changes in tempo, creepy whispering, a jazzy interlude and more.
D’Hoore’s impressive delivery and Lodewyckx’ tight production make for a song with international hit potential. Immediately picked up by Warner Music, it’s up to them to transform this promise into reality (no pressure 😉 ).
For starters, Loud Boy by Archie X is this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, which means it’ll feature prominently at the top of this blog for a whole week.
In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you’ll find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weeklyelectronic | funk | hip hop | indie | jazz | pop | rock
Werner’s Weekly (week 34)
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:
- Town Of Cats – Lemons (Wildcard this week)
- Altered By Mom – Walking With The Enemy (Wildcard last week)
- Altered By Mom – Better On The Page
- Amy Allen – Difficult
- Fritz – Arrow
- Liela Moss – Turn Your Back Around
- Päter – Sleep
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 Cribs, eels, Tame Impala, Weezer, and more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 33):
funk | hip hop | indie | jazz | pop | rock
Wildcard (week 33):
Town Of Cats – Lemons
There are pop songs, rock tracks, dance tunes, etc. And then there are the ditties that are impossible to categorize. These are ‘genre defying’, as they say. Musical melting pots, as it were. This is one in the latter category.
But how about a short introduction to start with? Town Of Cats are from Brighton, a town that is slowly taking over from London as the musical capital of Great-Britain. Other Carte Blanche Music favourites from Brighton are Black Honey, The Magic Gang, Lime, MarthaGunn and Yonaka. As well as Fatboy Slim, The Kooks and Royal Blood, of course.
The last few years, Town Of Cats built themselves a solid reputation by ripping up festivals around their home town with their explosive cocktail of styles. Hip hop, jazz, punk, afro-beat, (prog) rock, funk … it’s all there, and more. The best reference I can think of, is a cross between Dog Eat Dog and Fishbone. Remember them? They were fantastic as well!
Lemons is Town Of Cats’ new single. With its lively rhythms, blasts of brass and guitar, a good old-fashioned sax solo, and sing-along vocals, it bursts with energy. Not the music you’re likely to hear on the radio (which is plain stupid, if you’d ask me), but you can easily imagine this band to grow into one of the huge future live bands. Can’t wait for the festival season to re-open. But way ahead of that, on 28 August, Town Of Cats release their sophomore album The Elephant’s Room.
This whole week, Carte Blanche Music combines the sweet and the sour, as Lemons is the new Wildcard. They don’t come any wilder than this!
In the Wildcards 2020 playlist you’ll find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weeklydisco | funk | indie | pop | rock | soul
Werner’s Weekly (week 30)
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:
- Doves – Prisoners (Wildcard this week)
- Grace Farriss – All The People (Wildcard last week)
- Calogero – La Rumeur
- Raye – Natalie Don’t
- Saint Motel – Preach
- Sophie Hunger – Alpha Venom
- The Waterboys – The Soul Singer
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: beabadoobee, The Go! Team, Yungblud, and more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
werner's weeklydisco | electronic | funk | hip hop | indie | pop | rock | soul
Werner’s Weekly (week 29)
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:
- Grace Farriss – All The People (Wildcard this week)
- Noga Erez – No News On TV (Wildcard last week)
- Alice & Moi – T’aimerais Que Ce Soit Vrai
- Esteban – Suburban Paradise
- Killboy – That’s OK I’ll Just Fuck Myself
- La Oreja De Van Gogh – Te Pareces Tanto A Mí
- Nikki & The Waves – Shirts
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: James Bay, San Cisco, The Goo Goo Dolls, and more.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
single trackdisco | funk | indie | pop
Saint Motel – Preach
Saint Motel came on my radar via their single My Type. The year after, 2015, they released the equally great track Cold Cold Man, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since. Currently, the band are recording their album The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, which will be the sum of 3 EP’s. The first, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Pt. 1, came out last year. The second set of 5 songs, a.k.a. The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Pt. 2, will follow later this year.
Two of these songs are out there now. A Good Song Never Dies came out last March, and you can now put your hands together for Preach. It holds all of the elements I love Saint Motel for: it’s funky, danceable and utterly catchy. If there were a prize for ‘Best bass line’, this would be a contender. Add a ton of synths and horns, and a potential summer hit should be in the pocket!
Recommended as well:
A Good Song Never Dies
Destroyer
Move
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
