Browsing Tag r&b
L.A. Rochelle – No More (Encore)
L.A. Rochelle is a London-based, French-born artist, and No More (Encore) is only his debut single. A moving pop song full of heartbreak, the track is dedicated to the loss of someone whose memory is forever haunting. There’s a tragic story behind this song…
The stage name L.A. Rochelle came about, after he desperately tried to escape his flat in Paris, where his best friend took the life of his other best friend. The two of them had been in a secret gay relationship. Dealing with the trauma and grief, L.A. Rochelle immersed himself in his music. He bought time and saved to travel to L.A. from La Rochelle. Through his music he has redefined his perspective of love, friendship and loss.
In 2012, L.A. Rochelle moved to London. There, he perfected his own musical style, often incorporating layered vocals, a bed of sub-heavy urban beats, home-made instruments, prepared pianos, orchestral string ensembles, baritone horns sextets, typewriter sections, washing mashing laments and other sound ambiances.
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 29)
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:
- Frank Turner – Sister Rosetta (Wildcard this week)
- Miki Núñez – Celébrate (Wildcard last week)
- Imani Coppola – Lying To My Therapist
- Lizzo (feat. Gucci Mane) – Exactly How I Feel
- Pyro – F.O.M.O.
- Skunk Anansie – What You Do For Love
- Wyke van Weelden – Make You Mine
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 Brand New Heavies feat. N’Dea Davenport, Emeli Sandé, K.Flay, New Order, The Rembrandts, 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.
Lizzo (feat. Gucci Mane) – Exactly How I Feel
Born Melissa Jefferson, Lizzo lived in Detroit until she was nine, when she and her family moved to Houston. While growing up, she listened to gospel at home, took flute lessons, and played in her school’s marching band. She began rapping when she was 14. In recent years, she grew out to be a Carte Blanche Music favourite, scoring Wildcards with her singles Boys and Juice.
Lizzo’s third album Cuz I Love You is her major label debut. It sees her combining her musical roots with issues of race, sexuality, and body positivity, always displayed with humour and charisma. One of my favourite tracks on the album is Exactly How I Feel (featuring Gucci Mane). I’d love to see and hear this one pop up on playlists all over streaming services and radio stations!
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.
Liss – Talk To Me
Sophisticated pop outfit Liss emerged in the mid-‘10s under a cloud of buzz with their acclaimed singles Try and Always (2015), and EP First (2016). Then, all went quiet… But luckily, the Danish four-piece are now back after a hiatus with a new, self-produced track.
As bassist Villads Tyrrestrup says, Talk To Me is about ‘the ups and downs of being a young adult in this world; sexuality, being in and out of relationships, and self-care’. The tracks is built around a gentle bassline, soft synths and a slightly experimental beat; a perfect fit in today’s pop scene. If you like The 1975, for instance, do try Liss.
Talk To Me is the first single off Liss’s new EP Second, to be released on 18 June.
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 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Radikal Rat feat. Kes Kross – Friends With Benefits
If 80’s (influenced) music is your thing, you should listen to this. Radikal Rat is performed, produced and mixed by Sweden-based Lukas Nathanson and John Hårleman. Combining pop, electro, R&B and more, they create a world that is both modern and nostalgic.
Though much of their work is instrumental, Radikal Rat have worked on several collaborations with other artists. Their new single Friends With Benefits features LA artist Kes Kross. His R&B tinged vocals turn the track into 80’s nostalgia for the post-genre generation.
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 35)
In my Carte Blanche Music playlist I keep you up to speed with the best new music that was released this year, so far. Mind you: it doesn’t pretend to give you a full overview of all new releases. On the contrary, I only present you with great new songs. In other words: following my list saves you a lot of time browsing numerous other playlists and listening to songs you probably don’t like… #tipoftheweek 😉
Last week, I added the likes of Dubstar, Plain White T’s, Rea Garvey, Smallpools & The Aces, and Villagers to my container playlist. But if 14 additions are too much for you (no offence), below you’ll find Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. If you’re only looking for the best of the best, here they are, alphabetically ordered and preceded by the two latest Wildcards:
- Say Lou Lou – Golden Child (Wildcard this week)
- Cookin’ On 3 Burners feat. Kaiit – Warning (Wildcard last week)
- Áine Cahill – Beauty Is A Lie
- Ed Struijlaart (feat. The Hornaments) – Guitar
- Romes – Out Of It
- Sam Fender – Dead Boys
- Yonaka – Fired Up
As usual, clicking the links provides you with extra information (both serious and fun facts), and you can listen to all seven of the songs via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. Enjoy!
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 34)
What’s the similarity between the brand-new songs by Christine & The Queens, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Janet Jackson & Daddy Yankee, Ladytron, Paul McCartney, The Mowgli’s, Novastar and Suede? The were all added to my constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist, which features only the best new tracks of the year so far. Of course, it features many younger artists as well, like Blossoms, Pale Waves, and a few I’ll introduce to you in the coming week.
But on Mondays, we look back upon last week. Below, you’ll fine the highlights of recent releases in Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. If you can spare 23 minutes, you’ll be able to check them all in full through the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. But you can also perform the gentle art of cherry picking by clicking some of the links below:
- Cookin’ On 3 Burners feat. Kaiit – Warning (Wildcard this week)
- Jade Bird – Uh Huh (Wildcard last week)
- Arcade Hearts – Humble
- Broods – Peach
- Sean OB – Trouble
- Sir Notch – Gimme That Sunshine
- The Struts – Primadonna Like 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 33):
Cookin’ On 3 Burners feat. Kaiit – Warning
Australian Hammond organ trio Cookin’ On 3 Burners formed in 1997, but got worldwide recognition in 2016, after French DJ Kungs remixed their classic soul track This Girl into a global hit.
Two years later, Cookin’ On 3 Burners release the lead single from their upcoming album Lab Experiments Vol. 2. Warning, which features vocals by 20-year-old Ozzy talent Kaiit, is a funky affair, somewhere halfway The JB’s and The Brand New Heavies. A punchy, hard hitting vocal banger with a great groove, that’s only one mouse click away for a whole week, as it’s the new Wildcard on this blog. You can find of the Carte Blanche Music Wildcards of the year so far in this playlist.
By the way: the instrumental B-side The Jump Off is a treat 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
