Browsing Tag jazz
single track, wildcardWildcard (week 34):
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 weekly
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):
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.
single track
First Beige – Not Gonna Feel The Way You Asked For
When I think about music from Australia, jazz is not the first genre that springs to mind. My bad, and First Beige proves me wrong.
Since starting in 2016 as the bedroom-recording project of founding member David Versace, the band has come a long way. In 2020, First Beige is a six-piece. They draw upon jazzy colours, funky bass lines, textural synth layers and interwoven vocal harmonies, backed by driving house rhythms. An infectious live act, their high energy set is full of extended improvised sections. It’s groovy, baby!
The band’s new single Not Gonna Feel The Way You Asked For started as an improvisational jam session as well. Versace explains: “I set up a drum loop and had Marley (bass) and Josh (keys) jam over it. A couple of months later I found the session on my computer and started mucking around with it and structuring it a bit and in no time had a rough demo of the song,” he said. “We had our friend Curtis come and track some trumpet one afternoon and also my housemate Kerry from Pink Matter sing on it. I took it to the band and recorded some final drum/percussion parts then handed it over to Oscar for the mixing and sent it off for mastering…”
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
Werner’s Weekly (week 18)
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:
- Grand Corps Malade – Effets Secondaires (Wildcard this week)
- Dive In – Give Me A Reason (Wildcard last week)
- Inge van Calkar – Spinning Around
- Julian Velard – Half Done
- Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions – Victory!
- Picture This – Troublemaker
- Smallpools x morgxn – Slowdown
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 1975, Hayley Williams, Maria Mena, Pet Shop Boys, and many 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
Julian Velard – Half Done
Both a comedian and a musician, NYC’s Julian Velard has built a cult following in the UK and the Netherlands. He’s currently working on a musical, entitled Please Don’t Make Me Play Piano Man. Scheduled to debut this year, it’ll appear both as an album, a podcast and a live show.
Counter-balancing today’s many depressing songs, the project’s first single Half Done is an up-tempo fun tune. It sounds like a faster version of Nina Simone’s My Baby Just Cares For Me or Lou Rawls & Dianne Reeves’ Fine Brown Frame. What’s not to like about that?
Also check the self-produced video, shot in confinement and featuring the whole Velard family. Julian’s wife Rachel’s moves are especially noteworthy. But hey, the lucky guy married and ex dancer and musical star…
Recommended as well:
Julian Velard – Don’t Ask Me About Hamilton (Anymore) / Goodbye Hollywood, Hello Adulthood
Julian Velard – Sweatpants On The Living Room Floor
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 track
Camino 84 – Standing Back Up
Camino 84 is the moniker of producer/songwriter Ryan Lucht, from Boston. He makes power pop and indie rock, but with jazz and disco as his main inspirations. A bit like Steely Dan, but you may also recognize hints of Ben Folds, Jason Mraz and Phoenix.
Camino 84 have long been ‘a man and his laptop’. However, Lucht gradually started working with others to bring his imaginative songs to life for live performances. By now, it’s an actual band.
Standing Back Up is their new single. An ultimately hopeful and upbeat song, although the lyrics are cutting with every line. It’s already proven to resonate with fans, prompting dozens of messages about how meaningful the song has been to those struggling with their own challenges in life.
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
Werner’s Weekly (week 45)
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:
- Palaye Royale – Hang On To Yourself (Wildcard this week)
- Lizzo & Ariana Grande – Good As Hell [Remix] (Wildcard last week)
- Barrie – Drag
- Hayley Mary – The Piss, The Perfume
- Inge van Calkar – Get Out Of My Way
- Therapie Taxi – Candide Crush
- Zola – Crystal Floors
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: Ariana Grande (with Chaka Khan), Haim, Pixies, The Script, and many 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
Zola – Crystal Floors
How do you mix genres and languages within a song, while avoiding that it sounds like a mess? Singer-songwriter Zola Johnson, from San Francisco, has the formula. Just listen to her new single Crystal Floors. It’s an indie pop song, adding jazzy elements and bossa nova rhythms. On top of that, she smoothly alternates between English and French (in a rare case of French lyrics sung by an American artist really sounding like French).
Zola explains: “I wanted to create this character of myself; mischievous and mysterious. (…) Switching to French helped emphasize the mysterious aspect of the song. It gives a dramatic and cinematic effect which is the vibe I was going for.”
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
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:
- Nicolah – Holiday (Wildcard this week)
- Terouz – Outstanding (Wildcard last week)
- Caravan Palace – Supersonics
- Enter Shikari – Stop The Clocks
- Nasty Cherry – Live Forever
- Sarpa Salpa – Before It Goes Dark
- Tom Sail – Wounded
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: Ava Max, Incubus, K.Flay, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Smash Mouth, Yungblud, and many 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.
