Browsing Tag hip hop
Rat Boy – Public Identity
“Sooner or later, Rat Boy will break through big time”, I wrote in April last year, four months before he released his debut album Scum. The album spawned six singles, and although Turn Around M8 would have made a great seventh, he already moved on.
Last week Rat Boy’s new EP Civil Disorder came out. A collection of seven new tracks, of which I like the hard-hitting Public Identity best. Sure to be a future fan favourite!
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 Weekly (week 50)
The year may slowly come to an end, the stream of great new music certainly doesn’t!
Throughout the year I’ve gradually been filling my 2017 container playlist Carte Blanche Music with the best just-released tracks, and last week I had no problem adding another bunch of new songs worthy of your undivided attention. In the past seven days only, Belle & Sebastian, Haerts, Manic Street Preachers, Turin Brakes and The Wombats were among the ones who joined the ever growing club of top tunes this year produced so far. I’m already looking forward to the last two weeks, and beyond!
But first: the crème de la crème of new releases, combined in Werner’s Weekly. The tracks are below, the actual songs are in the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar and more info is behind each link. In less than 25 minutes you’ll be completely up to date!
- The Go! Team – Mayday (Wildcard this week)
- Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – It’s A Beautiful World (Wildcard last week)
- Blue Rose Code – Bluebell
- Skygge feat. Kiesza – Hello Shadow
- Therapie Taxi (feat. Roméo Elvis) – Hit Sale
- Toploader – Together

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.
Therapie Taxi (feat. Roméo Elvis) – Hit Sale
Therapie Taxi is a Parisian trio, consisting of Adé, Raph and Renaud. They only released their first EP earlier this year, but their new single comes just in time to make sure their definitive break-through will take place in the final month of 2017.
Hit Sale not only mixes electronic music with pop melodies, it also features a contribution of famous Belgian rapper Roméo Elvis. It’s a ‘dirty hit’, that’s for sure. Look out for Therapie Taxi’s first album, that will come out on 2 February 2018.

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 Weekly (week 48)
While daily updating my Carte Blanche Music container playlist (with The Academic, Dua Lipa, Isaac Gracie, Saint Raymond, Shaka Ponk, Toto a.o., last week), and daily recommending you great new music via this blog, there’s only one moment in the week that I present you with the very best tracks of the past seven days…
Each Monday morning (European time) I give you Werner’s Weekly. A shortlist of highlights for your discovering and listening pleasure, brought together in the compact Werner’s Weekly playlist (see the player in the sidebar). It’s also listed alphabetically below and each link provides you with more information. If there’s anything more I can do to make your life easier, please tell me… 😉 . For now: enjoy!
- The Bamboos (feat. Montaigne) – I’ll Make You Happy (Wildcard this week)
- Kira Puru – Tension (Wildcard last week)
- Fabri Fibra – CVDM
- Gin Wigmore – Cabrona
- Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – It’s A Beautiful World
- Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott – He Wants To

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.
Fabri Fibra – CVDM
I’ve never been a huge rap fan, but Jovanotti’s flow has always appealed to me. Only this year, I discovered another Italian rapper that I like a lot: Fabri Fibra. I admit, I’m rather late at the table…
Last summer, I wrote about his track Pamplona, and here is his new single. It’s called CVDM. An abbreviation, so much is clear… CVDM is short for ‘Cazzo vuoi da me?’, meaning ‘What the f*ck do you want from me?’.
Musically, the track is less aggressive. The jazzy piano melody and easy-going beats make for a radio-friendly song. At least outside Italy ?

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.
Tim Dup – Une Envie Méchante
Tim Dup is a 22-year-old French artist, who recently contributed two songs to the latest album of his hugely popular fellow Frenchie Louane.
Dup’s own music cultivates paradoxes : rapping and singing, softness and outrage, shadows and lights. This also explains the title of his album : Mélancholie Heureuse.
His new single is about today’s society forcing perfection upon everyone. This pressure makes people extremely unhappy, even those who appear to be perfect, according to Tim Dup. The theme has been worked out in the alarming video as well.

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.
OrelSan (feat. Stromae) – La Pluie
For an artist who announced he’d stop making music for a while, Stromae is pretty musically active. Last Spring, he launched a surprise single (the instrumental Repetto x Mosaert), and now he appears on La Pluie (French for ‘the rain’). This is a song by popular French rapper OrelSan (real name: Aurélien Cotentin).
La Pluie is a track on OrelSan’s album La Fête Est Finie (‘the party is over’), that was released last week. It contains quite a few featured artists, like his incredibly successful fellow-countrymen Maître Gims and Nekfeu, Dizzee Rascal and twin sisters Ibeyi.
It’s not the first time OrelSan and Stromae collaborate. They did so earlier (together with the aforementioned Maître Gims) on the party track AVF. This was the closing song on Stromae’s album Racine Carrée and was criminally omitted as a single. Let’s see what happens with this new banger they’ve done together…

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 Weekly (week 41)
Only once a week, this forward-looking music blog looks back: every Monday morning I present you with the best new music of the past week. This shortlist, called Werner’s Weekly, is a compilation of all of the tracks I added to my longlist Carte Blanche Music in the last seven days. These include new songs by artists as diverse as Dua Lipa, Liam Gallagher, Lukas Graham, The 1975, Tiggs Da Author and Tricky.
However, only six of them have made this summary. You can hear them all via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. For more info: click the links below…
- Isaac Gracie – Silhouettes Of You (Wildcard this week)
- The Hunna – Summer (Wildcard last week)
- Delv!s – Home Again
- Mullally – She Don’t Know Me
- Philip Selway feat. Lou Rhodes – Walk
- Témé Tan – Coups De Griffe

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.
Témé Tan – Coups De Griffe
His given name Tanguy Haesevoets already reveals Témé Tan has roots in both Kinshasa (Congo) and Brussels (Belgium), and as an artist, he fuses those worldly roots with pop, soul, hip hop and minimalistic electronics.
His first two singles, Améthys and Ça Va Pas La Tête, leaned towards world music, whereas his third effort Coups De Griffe has more of an electronic feel. On this track he sounds like a male version of French singer Yelle, which is a compliment in my book. But hear for yourself:

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 Weekly (week 40)
Carte Blanche Music is like a three-stage rocket:
- throughout the week I select and collect great new music in my 2017 container playlist Carte Blanche Music
- for the most ear catching/interesting/noteworthy tracks I write a recommendation on this blog
- the very best of the best are admitted in my own, subjective, alphabetically ordered ‘hall of fame’ called Werner’s Weekly
You can check if you agree with my choices by listening to the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar and click any of the links below to find out more about a song. Happy discovery!
- The Hunna – Summer (Wildcard this week)
- Rae Morris – Do It (Wildcard last week)
- Caparezza – Ti Fa Stare Bene
- Hippo Campus – Baseball
- Les Gordons – Let The Music Speak
- Tiggs Da Author – Work It Out

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.