Browsing Tag pop
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.
Werner’s Weekly (week 46)
Early November and the first new Christmas songs are starting to appear. Honestly, they’re not my thing. Apart from tongue in cheek Christmas songs or festive tunes with an edge, which I add to a dedicated playlist: Werner’s X-Mess. Feel free to follow and get the party started! 😉
Meanwhile, there’s still more than enough ‘normal’ music coming out. By Ice Cube, The Kooks and The Smashing Pumpkins, for instance. I add all of this great new music to my Carte Blanche Music playlist on a daily basis and the highlights are recommended here on the blog.
And then, there is the highest level of honour: a position in Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. This alphabetically ordered selection contains only the best of the best of last week’s releases, kicking off with the latest two Carte Blanche Music Wildcards. You can listen to the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar, while more information on each track is available through the links below:
- Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before (Wildcard this week)
- The Proclaimers – Then It Comes To Me (Wildcard last week)
- Nona – Last To Know
- Ruby Bones – Not Enough
- Sophie & The Giants – Waste My Air
- Sunflower Bean – Come For Me
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.
Sunflower Bean – Come For Me
Julia Cumming, Jacob Faber and Nick Kivlen, who form Sunflower Bean, are a bunch of busy bees. After delivering their second album Twentytwo In Blue last March, they’ve been touring constantly. In the meantime, the New York band also managed to record a new EP. It’s called King Of The Dudes and set for release on 25 January 2019.
The EP is preceded by the single Come For Me, which they recorded with pop producer Justin Raisen, who worked with Charli XCX, Santigold and Sky Ferreira before. This collaboration results in a somewhat poppier vibe, while the song still sounds self-assured and rebellious.
Speaking about Come For Me, Julia Cumming says: “This song was inspired by inner strength, power, and sexual freedom. In 2018 there is no time to waste and no time for shame. This song is a declaration of that. Do you really want to come for me? Do you really want to waste my time? The song is a dare, a threat, and a beckoning.”
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.
Saint Raymond – Echo
As an artist, British singer-songwriter Callum Burrows uses the moniker Saint Raymond; the word ‘Saint’ was in the street where he grew up, and Raymond was the name of his grandfather (true story).
Young Blood, I Want You, Be There, and Great Escape are my favourite feel-good anthems amongst his earlier work, but Saint Raymond is back with a new favourite. Echo is another fun, upbeat track, of which Burrows says: “The song is about how opposites in a relationship are sometimes what makes it work.”
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.
Nona – Last To Know
Talented young Dutch singer Nona (born Nona van der Wansem) made quite an impression with her first single It’s Alright. My blog about it was the second-most read in the month of release (July), while it was my most-read recommendation in the months of August and September. In October, it was still in the Top 10.
On her soulful debut, Nona’s powerful voice made her sound like a re-born Amy Winehouse, who’s certainly one of her musical heroines (excusez le mot). However, she also loves hip hop and pop, citing DJ Premier as an influence. Her new, more poppy single Last To Know, shows she likes Fleetwood Mac as well. It looks like Nona is an all-round artist to reckon with.
Can’t wait to hear her debut album, that she recorded in the United States. When it comes out, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know!
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.
Eckhardt & The House – Funeral
For those who grew up in the 1980s (like me), the current eighties revival must be music to their ears. Thanks to the use of vintage instruments and sounds, many contemporary songs have something instantly recognizable.
Take Eckhardt & The House, for instance, who’s If She Cannot Talk and Put Me In A Cape I recommended here before. They just released their twelfth single Funeral and I can’t help but hearing a mash-up of Falco’s Der Kommissar and Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood in it. Which were brilliant and revolutionary songs, by the way.
Funeral is another slickly produced funk pop tune. At the same time however, lyrics like “Let’s have a funeral for all the sad news, let’s bury it all” and “We read the papers, read the facts, they bomb the desert, we pay tax” show social engagement (and even cynicism) as well.
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 45):
Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before
Ever since her debut single Cathedral, I’ve been a Jade Bird fan. She started her career singing covers of songs by the likes of Pixies, Beyoncé and Drake, but switched to originals upon the release of her debut EP Something American, in the summer of 2017.
Last August, her single Uh Huh was a Carte Blanche Music Wildcard and later that month, I witnessed her live with only her guitar and great voice at the Lowlands festival. She came, saw and conquered. Alas, Dutch radio was probably looking the other way at the moment, but thanks to support from radio stations in northern Europe, Uh Huh is currently a well-deserved Top 3 hit in the European Border Breakers Charts.
Without further ado, Jade Bird just released her new single Love Has All Been Done Before, a tune that goes down well at her concerts as well. The song starts off sweet enough, but already after a few lines, there’s no more holding back and the track builds up to an explosive chorus. Sounding like she ate a handful of gravel, Love Has All Been Done Before is easily her most energetic and rocky single to date.
While we’re eagerly awaiting Bird’s debut album to land early in 2019, we give her new single wings by making it her second Carte Blanche Music Wildcard in a row.
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.
Aviator Stash – Shot Song
Music is a medicine. Heartache? Loss? Bad mood? Music makes it more bearable and helps to heal the wounds. How appropriate then, that San Diego based indie band Aviator Stash named their upcoming second album Prescribed (out on 16 November).
Singer/guitarist Greg Kellogg explains: “It has a strong theme about loved ones and friends losing themselves to mental health problems. The tone of most of the album is very bright and happy which is the metaphor of so many people trying to hide behind what’s really happening in their heads and portrays everything is fun and one big party!”
Shot Song is the album’s new single. The recipe: a feel good funky guitar riff, catchy lyrics and a little sarcasm. Kellogg: “Shot song is the ultimate bar/party anthem that highlights a time when a friend conducts a party foul and takes her shot before you take yours.”
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.
Sophie & The Giants – Waste My Air
Glad you guys like Sophie & The Giants as much as I do! Last week, I could reveal that my recommendation of their single Bulldog was the most read Carte Blanche Music blog in October. In the meantime, the band also managed to enter the European Border Breakers Chart with the song.
Last week, singer Sophie Scott, guitarist Toby Holmes, bass player Bailey Stapledon and drummer Chris Hill released their first EP Adolescence. In a week and a half, opening track Waste My Air has developed into the band’s most popular track on Spotify. Four tracks into their career, it is indeed their most accessible track so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if (radio) playlist curators would pick it up, enabling Sophie & The Giants’s well-deserved definitive break-through.
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.
