Browsing Tag pop
Charly Bliss – Chatroom
Although indebted to the catchy alt-rock of ’90s bands like Weezer and Veruca Salt, Charly Bliss produce pop music. Pop music with an edge, that is.
Singer/guitarist Eva Hendricks and guitarist Spencer Fox met as high school students in Westport, Connecticut. After starting out as a cover band, they soon enlisted Eva’s brother Sam Hendricks to play drums and Dan Shure to play bass. Their first offerings, like EP A Lot To Say and debut album Guppy, were full of grungy rock. However, for their next album (Young Enough, 19 May), they shifted the balance toward pop.
New single Chatroom is a great example of their new approach, combining an energetic delivery with memorable melodies and meaningful lyrics. This song, for instance, deals with Hendricks’ unjust feeling of guilt after suffering sexual abuse.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Neo Minor – Run
On 1 March, Belgian foursome Neo Minor released their eponymous debut EP, where the band adopt a sound they describe as ‘melodical sound-pop music with some subtle sound-scaping elements’. After first single The More (I Try), it’s now time for the follow-up.
Run is an up-tempo track with a galloping, Running Up That Hill-like drum beat, and a wonderful piano melody. A song about hope and striving for the unreachable. Despite this theme however, I’m confident that Run will bring mainstream success nearer for the band.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Kakkmaddafakka – Sin
When Kakkmaddafakka released their album KMF, back in 2016, I was afraid they were about to shorten their ‘controversial’ band name. Luckily, they didn’t (so far…).
The Norwegian band’s new album is called Diplomacy. Ahead of its release, the tracks Naked Blue, Runaway Girl and The Rest were put forward. Sin would be a great choice to be single #4. This catchy, up-tempo, funky number sounds a lot like On My Mind by Disciples, and would do great on the radio.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Vendredi Sur Mer – La Nuit
Vendredi Sur Mer is the stage name of Swiss singer Charline Mignot. She may be relatively new to the music scene, but she already manages to inspire other artists. For instance, if you want to know how Canadian singer Munya’s track Hotel Delmano came about, read this. And she also inspired me, for her most recent single Chewing-Gum was the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, just five weeks ago.
Last week, Vendredi Sur Mer released her first album Premiers Émois. A very, very promising debut. Sensual and seductive like a female Serge Gainsbourg, and totally convincing as such. Especially because she appears to be great live as well.
The album contains 17 tracks, four of which also appeared on her first EP Marée Basse. La Nuit, with its synth intro, deep, dark bass and Mignot’s trademark speak-sing delivery, is one of my favourite songs among the other 13.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Model Depose – Damage Control
Nicknaming Model Depose ‘Model Depeche’ is understandable, but too easy. But you’re not to blame… until now. For the Dutch electronic pop band re-invented themselves with a new sound, which is more guitar-driven. Call it indie, rock or alternative pop, but I like it!
Damage Control is Model Depose’s new single. “When an influential person or loved one is on a collision course, the best you can do is keep dancing, sing along and make the best of it”, according to the band.
Not only is Damage Control the new single, it’s also the title track off their second album. Model Depose promise ‘a full-fledged piece of music in which everything fits together like a puzzle, where grit and a soothing atmosphere always find balance through raw beats, dynamic vocals and subdued synthesizer melodies’. The long-player will be out in September. Until then, the band release a new single and video each month.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 13):
Maggie Lindemann – Friends Go
When Los Angeles singer-songwriter Maggie Lindemann released her debut single Pretty Girl in 2016, she immediately hit the bull’s eye. It was a Top 10 hit all over Europe, clocking 550 million Spotify streams to date. That’s such a huge number, that some of her other tracks, with 20 to 50 million streams, almost seem like flops (which they aren’t, obviously).
On her funky new single, Lindemann tries a new sound, incorporating ska elements. In an interview with Billboard, she says that her love of pop-punk and ska hasn’t been represented in her music before, so she wanted to create a track that offered something new to her fans. “I love No Doubt, Panic! At The Disco, but I also love my pop music. So I wanted to give all of that kinda in one, my own take on it.”
Also looking forward to a remix Blink-182’s Travis Barker made of this track. But for now, the single version of Maggie Lindemann’s Friends Go is the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard, giving it the most prominent position on this blog for a whole week.
In the Wildcards 2019 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Vant – Propaganda Machine
After forming in 2014, Mattie Vant and his band Vant appeared to be off to a good start. Great rock singles like Fly-By Alien and Karma Seeker led to the release of their debut album Dumb Blood in 2017, and that summer, they played the main stage of many a renowned festival. But then, just before the release of the EP Talk Like Thunder, the band announced they were taking an ‘indefinite hiatus’.
During that hiatus, Mattie re-invented himself and decided upon a new, more electronic musical direction. He explains: “If I had wanted to keep making straight-up ballsy rock music for the rest of my life, I could have kept that incarnation of Vant going forever. But once I stumbled upon the song Propaganda Machine, I knew there was no turning back, I’d have to start from the bottom and prove myself once again.”
This pivotal song, Propaganda Machine, is the new single of the new Vant. A self-released track (on Mattie’s own imprint Dumb Blood Records), which showcases the man’s new course. If you like what you hear, you’ll be glad to know a new album, Conceived In The Sky, it 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Swimming Tapes – Pyrenees
London-based five-piece Swimming Tapes produce charming and summery indie-pop, Their debut album Morningside (24 May) will be full of it. This explains any comparisons with bands like Real Estate and Belle & Sebastian.
Pyrenees is the long-player’s first single. The band explain: “Pyrenees is a sweet little bop of a pop song. It might only clock in at two-and-a-half minutes but we still managed to get two different guitar solos in there. The song’s about what follows an argument with a loved one, that middle of the night feeling when you realise actually you’re the one in the wrong.”
The song makes me think of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle in Frente!’s delicate version.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Werner’s Weekly (week 13)
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:
- Shanguy – Toukassé (Wildcard this week)
- Sam Fender – Hypersonic Missiles (Wildcard last week)
- Hot Like Sushi – Go Anywhere
- Jonas Brøg – All Across The Sky
- Nasty Cherry – Win
- Pi Ja Ma – I Oh I
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: Broken Social Scene, Panic! At The Disco, Rat Boy, Roosevelt, Tame Impala, Two Door Cinema Club, and many more.
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.
Hot Like Sushi – Go Anywhere
Somehow, Swiss band Hot Like Sushi had the feeling that they couldn’t shake their booties as much to their own music as with their role models Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak and Prince. They found the solution to that observation by flying to Los Angeles, where they immersed themselves in the local music scene and soaked up the West Coast swag. Together with producer Benny Steele (Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, Nile Rodgers, David Guetta) they recorded five new songs, which they describe as ‘swag pop’.
Go Anywhere has just that. It’s direct, funky and a whole lotta fun. I agree with this review I once read, which stated they’re ‘the best thing to come out of Switzerland since chocolate’!
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
