Browsing Tag pop
The Slow Readers Club – On The TV
Last May, Manchester four-piece The Slow Readers Club released their third studio album Build A Tower on multiple formats, causing it to become a hit in both the physical album chart, the vinyl chart, and even the cassette chart. On The TV is the latest single to be taken off it.
Singer Aaron Starkie says of the track: “On The TV is a song about feeling a sense of discomfort, disassociation and extreme anxiety at the state of the modern world. It’s a scream against everything from caged kids at the Mexican border to the rise of nationalism in the UK and US. In the verses I seek solace in family and ask my parents for guidance. It also has a great riff.“
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 Charts.
I Wear* Experiment – Almere
I Wear* Experiment are an electro-pop trio from Tallinn, Estonia, consisting of Johanna Eenma, Hando Jaksi, and Mikk Simson. They felt the punch and aggressiveness in their genre has gone missing over time and decided to bring that back. This resulted in a sound that leans towards experimentation and cinematic soundscapes. The band cites Chvrches’ edgy big banger beats and Florence & The Machine’s graceful vocals among their influences.
Almere is I Wear* Experiment’s new single. An intriguing title. Not only because it’s named after the Dutch city of Almere (I presume)(*), but also because the title isn’t mentioned in the song’s lyrics at all. Nevertheless it’s a great synth-pop song!
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(*) After posting the above blog, I Wear* Experiments Hando Jaksi sent me this explanation:
“Thank you for the good words. Why the song is called Almere – We had just finished our tour in Asia, started the European leg of the album tour and had some free days in between the concerts. Our manager lives in Almere and offered us to stay at his place for a few days. So, coming from weeks of heavy scheduled touring in places where many people don’t speak any English and there are always little difficulties here and there, the few days off were like a spa treatment for us. All we had to do was to eat, sleep & see the local sights.
It was also the first time after a long period when I could sit behind a table and create some music which is much more enjoyable than trying to do it mid-flight somewhere over China. So, sitting behind our manager’s kitchen table, the song Almere was created (I named all the new song ideas with the name of the city we currently were).
The first time we had the chance to try out the song was on big festival in Vietnam named Monsoon Music Festival and it seemed to work well for the 10.000 people there. And when choosing songs for the new release, Almere was one of the first favourites of us all.
The song itself is pretty dark & gloomy and that actually was not the emotion we got from the time we spent in Almere but in a way, at least for us, the contrast works.”
Thanks for making this clear Hando!
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 Charts.
Werner’s Weekly (week 47)
Last week a great diversity of new music saw the light. There were very good releases in every thinkable genre. After applying heavy criteria, I added the likes of Chvrches, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Hozier, The Kooks, Rita Ora, and The Vaccines to my Carte Blanche Music playlist on Spotify, alongside a host of emerging artists you probably haven’t heard of before. And Jennifer Lopez as well. Listen to her new single Limitless without prejudice and you’ll hear it’s a really good song.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Below, you can find my ‘best of the best’ selection Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. Via the links you can access my original recommendations and you can listen to all six of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. Here you go:
- Jonas Brøg feat. Laura Mathilde – I Think Of You I Cry (Wildcard this week)
- Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before (Wildcard last week)
- 1010 Benja SL – Ultimaybe
- Audio Adam – Emma Watson
- Hollydays – Minuit (La Baie Noire)
- Moscow Apartment – Orange
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 Charts.
Anya – Lift Me Up
When a song called Lift Me Up isn’t uplifting, something goes terribly wrong. Well, don’t fear, Anya’s new single is as uplifting as can be. It’s an upbeat, soulful track.
Introducing the tune on Facebook, the Danish singer explains: “About a year ago, in a really rough period of my life, I wrote this song. It’s written to a future love. Someone who could lift me up and help me out of the heartache I was in. It worked pretty well. This song continues to make me happy every time I hear 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 Charts.
Audio Adam – Emma Watson
It’s been over a year since we last heard from Audio Adam. Following the Dutch band’s debut album This Is Our Home and its follow-up Moving Down The Grey Line, they recorded a few stand-alone singles. Break Down was the latest, 14 months ago.
Since then, the band shrunk into a trio, which recorded the songs for their upcoming third album, due to be released in 2019. The first single is out now. Bass player Emiel Schaap says about the pop rock track: “Emma Watson is about worshiping famous people and an unhealthy attraction to celebrities.” The name of Harry Potter actress Emma Watson is not part of the lyrics, however. Schaap explains: “The title comes from the chorus, where we sing ‘Am I what?’, which resembles ‘Emma Watson’.”
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 Charts.
Moscow Apartment – Orange
Moscow Apartment are a promising Canadian teen duo, consisting of Brighid Fry (14) and Pascale Padilla (16). After releasing their self-titled debut EP in 2017, they decided to submit the demo for their track Orange to the Canadian Songwriting Competition. It won them the Under 18 category.
After picking judge Joel Plaskett’s brain about music, song writing, and production, they went back into the studio and co-produced the final version of their winning song. “The recording experience was fun because we had really strong ideas of what we wanted Orange to sound like and we were able to manifest those ideas with engineer Guillermo Subauste’s help.”
About the track itself, a tune that mixes indie folk with triumphant pop, the duo explain: “Orange is about the weird twilight-zone feeling that happens sometimes at sunset – when things suddenly don’t feel real, like everything around you is a movie.”
Moscow Apartment’s second EP is on its way.
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 Charts.
Wildcard (week 46):
Jonas Brøg feat. Laura Mathilde – I Think Of You I Cry
Full disclosure: Danish-born, Holland-based Jonas Brøg is not only a very talented singer-songwriter, drummer and producer, he’s also a friend of mine. A guy that I knew as happy and light-hearted. Then, three years ago, he sunk into a depression. It was (and is) heart-breaking to see his sadness, especially since there appears to be no reason for it; he crafts great songs with an extreme ear for details, he has a wonderful wife, a beautiful child… and this damned depression…
Lucky for him, Jonas also has his music. He picked up drumming again, stopped (temporarily, I hope!) producing songs for others and started writing for himself, as a therapy. However delicate his own songs are, he decided to share them for the first time, taking us along on his journey back into the light. And with his character and attitude, I’m very confident he’ll get there!
Jonas is not the only talented musician in the Brøg family. On a holiday in Denmark, he was stunned when he heard his 15-year-old niece Laura Mathilde sing. He convinced her to sing on one of his songs and the result is breath-taking. As Jonas explains: “Although merely 15 years young at the time of recording this song, I’m convinced her soul is older than a few thousand years and I personally love the depth of her voice.”
This final version of I Think Of You I Cry may very well be its 50th incarnation. Jonas is a perfectionist and he tweaks his songs endlessly. In my ears, he reached perfection this time, with distorted synth notes, a dry drum sound, beautiful string arrangements, captivating vocals, and lyrics about a destructive, half-hearted, jealous and unhealthy kind of love. For you didn’t expect this to be an optimistic song, did you? 😉
If you like Hooverphonic (whom I adore), you should definitely listen to I Think Of You I Cry by Jonas Brøg feat. Laura Mathilde. It’s this week’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, so it’s only one mouse click away for a whole week.
In the Wildcards 2018 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 Charts.
Hollydays – Minuit (La Baie Noire)
Hollydays are Elise Preys and Sébastien Delage, a pop duo from Paris. Seven years ago, they came together in high school. At first, they were playing covers, but in 2012, they started writing their own songs as Hollydays. Pop songs, that is, by its original meaning, being ‘popular’. The band love melodies that everyone can sing, all together. Their musical vision: a good melody can make the difference.
After releasing a single and three EPs over the years, Hollydays have finally put out their debut album Hollywood Bizarre. Four of their old songs are on it, next to nine new ones. I’m particularly fond of Minuit (La Baie Noire). A Vive La Fête kind of electronic pop song with great instrumentation and catchy vocals. Frencher than French.
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 Charts.
Georgia – Started Out
One of the first recommendations I wrote, in January 2017, was for Georgia’s single Feel It. Since then, the daughter of Leftfield’s Neil Barnes has been working on new music, with Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips, for instance. Although there is no album in sight yet, she does give us a new single.
Started Out is an upbeat and euphoric track. It has a throwback feel, caused by electronic claps, squelchy bass lines and dreamy, misty-eyed vocals. “I used a 909 drum machine, an SH-101 synth… Everything you hear on the recording is analogue,” she says, “But I also wanted it to be poppy. As well as being nostalgic, I wanted stuff to be quite modern, because otherwise it’s just a cheap copy. I wanted to add my flare.”
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 Charts.
1010 Benja SL – Ultimaybe
1010 Benja SL, a producer and vocalist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the latest signing to the Young Turks label (home to The xx, Sampha, Kamasi Washington and others). New to the scene, he only put out two singles, before his just-released six-track EP Two Houses. The title refers to the artist’s own dualistic tendencies. He explains: “The Two Houses are the houses of contradiction; the left and right brain, the loving and fearing heart, the long and short end of the stick.”
1010 Benja SL created the project entirely by himself, writing, playing and producing every single note. The six tracks are very different, but they all have experimentalism in common. Ultimaybe is the set’s first single. An exciting track that combines contemporary R&B with ’80s-leaning funk.
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 Charts.
