Browsing Tag melancholic
Kele Okereke – Yemaya
Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke, who so far released his solo material as Kele, just put out the first song under his full name. It’s the beautifully intimate, acoustic track Yemaya.
Okereke says about the song: “In the west African Yoruba religion, Yemaya is the mother goddess of the ocean, she is kinda the patron saint of pregnant women and fertility. According to myth, when her waters broke, it caused a great flood creating rivers and streams and the first mortal humans were created from her womb. When I knew we were having a baby she started to be appear in my thoughts and dreams a fair bit.”
The singer recently announced a seven date acoustic solo tour through Europe.
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.
Axel Flóvent – Quiet Eyes
Axel Flovent is a talented, 19-year-old singer-songwriter from a small fishing village in Iceland. He has been compared to artists like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and fellow countryman Ásgeir, and Axel has a bright future ahead of him. A future lit by northern lights, presumably.
He has been writing music for years, but he only broke through in 2015 with his EP Forest Fires, whose songs have already been streamed over 16 million times. Since this EP, he released two songs. Quiet Eyes is the third. A beautiful melancholic song that deserves to be heard by at least 16 million more people.
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.
UNKLE (feat. Mark Lanegan & Eska) – Looking For The Rain
When UNKLE (then consisting of Mo’Wax label boss James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy) worked on their debut record in 1998, they collaborated to a great extend with DJ Shadow. The resulting album Psyence Fiction was a star studded affair, featuring Richard Ashcroft (The Verve), Badly Drawn Boy, Mike D. (Beastie Boys), Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and Ian Brown (Stone Roses) across the tracks.
In 2017, UNKLE only includes James Lavelle, but his upcoming fifth studio album The Road Part 1 has a comparable all-star line-up, featuring Andrew Innes (Primal Scream), Liela Moss (The Duke Spirit), Jon Theodore (Queens Of The Stone Age), Justin Stanley (Beck) and many more. The album’s out on 23 June, with work on The Road Part 2 already underway.
UNKLE’s cinematic, driving new single Looking For The Rain features both former Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan and Mercury Prize nominee Eska.
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)
On Sunday evenings, when you presumably finish your weekend with a nice glass of wine, a relaxing playlist or a good book (or all three of them), I make hard choices. What songs that made my container playlist Carte Blanche Music last week, deserve to be in my alphabetically sorted ‘best of the best’ playlist Werner’s Weekly?
The hardest part is not putting songs in the list, but taking songs out. In the end, each week I’m very proud of the result. This time as well. It’s as varied as ever. A damn fine selection of brand new music, if I may say so myself ?. Follow both playlists to never miss out.
You can listen to the songs by clicking the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. The links below take you to my short and snappy commentaries on each track.
- TANA – Leave Away (Live) (this week’s Wildcard)
- John Adams – Things That Make You Beautiful (last week’s Wildcard)
- Blas Cantó – In Your Bed
- Cold War Kids (feat. Bishop Briggs) – So Tied Up
- Rilan & The Bombardiers – Supernatural
- Soulwax – Do You Want To Get Into Trouble?
- Ten Tonnes – Silver Heat
- The Gift – Big Fish
Apart from the selection above, I added great tracks by Circa Waves feat. Pvris, The Cranberries, Lizzo and Depeche Mode (and many more) to my daily updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Sounds like an interesting list to follow if you’d ask me… (but hey, it’s a free world!)
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.
Blanche – City Lights
Quite honestly, I never expected I’d mention the Eurovision Song Contest as much as I have recently. Earlier I mentioned the B side to Levina’s Perfect Life and recommended Swedish runner-up Nano. Today, I want to point your attention to Blanche, who will represent Belgium in Kiev.
Blanche’s real name is Ellie Delvaux. She’s only 17 years old and hails from the Belgian bilingual capital of Brussels. However, her track City Lights is sung neither in Dutch nor in French. I think this could very well have been a track by Birdy, but although it bears resemblance to Éclat by Alexe Gaudreault, it’s claimed to be an original song (which is one of the requirements for participating the Eurovision Song Contest). I really like it!
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 12)
It’s that time of the week again… Out of all the great new music I dragged into my container playlist Carte Blanche Music last week (tracks by 311, Black Honey and Kasabian, to name but a few), I hand-picked the very best. Those are proudly collected in my alphabetically ordered ‘best of’ playlist, called Werner’s Weekly. For my Werner’s Weekly playlist on Spotify, click the player in the sidebar. By clicking the links below, you can read my recommendation per track.
- John Adams – Things That Make You Beautiful (this week’s Wildcard)
- Fatboy Slim – Where U Iz (last week’s Wildcard)
- Avi On Fire – Win
- Black Stone Cherry – Cheaper To Drink Alone
- Lukas Graham – Drunk In The Morning
- New Politics – One Of Us
- Public Service Broadcasting (feat. Tracyanne Campbell) – Progress
- Welshly Arms – Legendary
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 11): John Adams – Things That Make You Beautiful
After Aberdare singer-songwriter John Adams sung Cannonball by Damien Rice on The X Factor UK in 2011 (bringing the original back in the charts at a higher position than at first release, a first in chart history), he went on to crowdfund his debut album The Pavement Is My Stage by busking across the UK in 2013.
This week, he releases not one, but two new singles. My personal favourite – and this week’s Wildcard – is Things That Make You Beautiful. This is in part due to its simple but touching video.
No doubt this has to do with the fact that last week, after over 30 years, an old class-mate came back into my life. She suffers from progressive eye-trouble, but is incredibly optimistic and strong. She recently entered a comprehensive program to help her remain as independent as possible. Walking with a stick, taking the bus, working on the computer, using her cell phone… things that are so self-evident for most of us. Of course, all of the confronting situations involved also bring up feelings of insecurity. That’s exactly what needs to be overcome.
The video for Things That Make You Beautiful captures both the freedom and the insecurity, and shows what you are capable of when you have self-confidence. I’m sure my friend is going to get to that point!
With or without this story in mind, enjoy this week’s Wildcard on Carte Blanche Music: Things That Make You Beautiful by John Adams!
This is his other single, See You Again:
Both tracks are taken from John Adams’s forthcoming EP, due out in June/July 2017.
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.
Me & That Man – My Church Is Black
If you like the impressive, dark music of the likes of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash, Me & That Man are your new best friends.
Me & That Man is a collaboration between Nergal, the frontman of Polish extreme metal band Behemoth and British/Polish rocker John Porter. Not your obvious collab, but it works.
24 March they’ll release their album, with the self-explanatory title Songs Of Love And Death. A collection of stories about individualism, rebelliousness and darkness, musically rooted in blues and rock. Let’s say: a 2017 version of American Recordings. Or, as Nergal concludes: “This is not happy music, but it’s liberating.”
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.
Banner. – Compass
In the ‘About’ section of this blog you can read: ‘Carte Blanche is all about great new music’. I like to live up to that promise. Therefore, today I proudly present Banner., a new Dutch singer-songwriter, who was born and raised in The Hague. He is a self-taught musician since he started playing guitar at the age of 14. His songwriting career began when he was 18 and currently, he is studying vocals at the Herman Brood Academy in Utrecht.
Banner. names Queens Of The Stone Age, Fink and Sticky Fingers as his influences. But Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Japan and David Sylvian are never far away either. This makes it difficult to describe his music. Something like ‘indie folk’ or ‘indie pop’ comes close, but doesn’t do right to the outbursts of guitar that are present as well.
You know what? You’d better listen! To whom? To Banner.! That’s Banner with a dot. Point taken…
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.
Pretenders feat. Neil Tennant – Let’s Get Lost
This is not the first pairing of legends and it won’t be the last. But it sure is beautiful! Let’s Get Lost was already a ‘Pretenders only’ track on their latest album Alone. This is the new single version, featuring the unmistakable vocals of Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant. And that’s not all. They blend together wonderfully with Chrissie Hynde’s voice. Let’s Get Lost is part of a double a-side single with the rock track Gotta Wait, but this ballad is the one for me.
The video below is not the original clip by the way, but a great animation by ‘MrPopov’ I stumbled upon, which uses Let’s Get Lost as its soundtrack. I like it as much as the song itself 😉 .
- 24 Feb. ’17 – Rather disappointing update: this appears to be a Disney animation, only uploaded by this ‘MrPopov’. Just so you know…
- 1 March ’18 – Another disappointment, sorry guys: a year after this post, ‘MrPopov’ suspended his YouTube account; probably a rights thing. Therefore, I added the audio-only ‘video’
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.
