Browsing Tag rock
Kasador – High Rise
Kasador is a Canadian indie-rock band. The quartet was formed in 2012 as the Will Hunter Band, until the group’s name was changed in early 2015. Members as of March 2019 are Will Hunter, Cam Wyatt, Boris Baker, and Stephen Abudofuor.
The band is currently getting ready for the fall release of their debut album Brood And Bloom, produced in part by Graham Walsh (Sam Roberts, Lights, Wintersleep) and by Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair of The Tragically Hip. The long-player will feature the two tracks Kasador released in 2017 (Come Get Yer Money and Skeleton Park), title track Brood And Bloom from earlier this year, as well as brand-new single High Rise.
“This song came out of a few middle-of-the-night writing sessions, where my mind could not sleep and would race until morning. My only relief was to get up and write,” the band explain. “High Rise is written from the perspective of feeling pressure, self-doubt, and questioning your future through that wave of midnight anxiety.”
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 25):
K.Flay – Sister
K.Flay is an Illinois born-and-raised, hip hop-inspired alt-pop artist. After two independently released albums in 2009 and 2014, she broke through with her 2017 major label debut Every Where Is Some Where. It received two Grammy nominations. So, the bar has been set high for her next album Solutions, due out 12 July.
If her new single is anything to go by, K.Flay is about to live up to the expectations. Sister is a genre-blurring song, incorporating analogue synths along with live bass and guitar, while shifting between pop, rock, hip hop, and electronic moods. This is the kind of track the word ‘banger’ is made for.
K.Flay’s new single Sister will feature prominently on the Carte Blanche Music blog for one whole week as the new Wildcard.
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.
Friedberg – Go Wild
Anna Wappel uses Anna F. (short for the Austrian town of Friedberg, where she was born) as her artist name. In 2009, she was discovered by Lenny Kravitz, who asked her to open for him on his European tour. Signed by Universal Music, she released two commercially successful and award-winning solo albums: For Real (2010) and King In The Mirror (2014). Nevertheless, she decided to break away from the major label and take the indie road.
This road led her to London, where she formed the all-female band Friedberg with Emily Linden, Laura Williams and Cheryl Pinero. After debuting with the song Boom, their new single Go Wild is only their second offering. Despite its title, it’s a cool and relaxed tune.
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.
Akiva – Broken Ships
Akiva is a Bedfordshire (UK)-based band, comprising youth friends Malcolm Carter (guitar, vox), Rob Mercel (bass) and Dave Mercel (drums), alongside singer, guitarist and synth programmer Dave MacKenzie. 11 months ago, I wrote about their single Ammunition. A song with a strong message, just like any of this band’s tunes. “We’ve always believed music should stand for something and carry a message,” the band explain. “There’s a lot to shout about in the world today, and we’ve got a lot to say.”
Their new single is no exception to that rule. It’s nothing less than an angry takedown of the forces behind Brexit Britain. “Broken Ship is about the importance of consequences for actions, and how quickly things start to fall apart when these get lost,“ says MacKenzie, whose rhythmic lyricism is one of the ear-catching elements in this song. The video adds an eye-catching element to the already impressive song.
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 25)
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:
- Jay Som – Superbike (Wildcard this week)
- Rammstein – Ausländer (Wildcard last week)
- Altered By Mom – Hear That Sound
- Jesse Merineau – She Knows
- Flay – Sister
- Sløtface – Telepathetic
- Sorcha Richardson – Don’t Talk About It
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: Black Honey, Eckhardt & The House feat. Bella Hay, Kaiser Chiefs, Volbeat, 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.
K.Flay – Sister
K.Flay is an Illinois born-and-raised, hip hop-inspired alt-pop artist. After two independently released albums in 2009 and 2014, she broke through with her 2017 major label debut Every Where Is Some Where. It received two Grammy nominations. So, the bar has been set high for her next album Solutions, due out 12 July.
If her new single is anything to go by, K.Flay is about to live up to the expectations. Sister is a genre-blurring song, incorporating analogue synths along with live bass and guitar, while shifting between pop, rock, hip hop, and electronic moods. This is the kind of track the word ‘banger’ is made for.
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.
Sløtface – Telepathetic
In 2017, Norway four-piece Sløtface released their debut album Try Not To Freak Out, which featured great singles like Magazine and Backyard. They just broke a two-year silence with a brand-new offering.
The band’s brilliantly titled new single Telepathetic sees the band sharing production duties for the first time with Odd Martin Skålnes, who worked with fellow-Norwegians like Sigrid and Aurora before. The collaboration results in one of Sløtface’s most infectious, energetic and exciting songs so far.
Speaking about the new track, bassist Lasse Lokøy says: “It was written in approximately 2 hours, at 11 in the evening, after a full day of recording. Most of us don’t remember any of it because we were so tired.” Singer Haley Shea adds: “It’s pretty much just about feeling you’re in the wrong place, like a small town or a job you don’t like, and thinking ‘there must be something else.”
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 24):
Jay Som – Superbike
One to look forward to: on 23 August, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Melina Dutertre releases her new album Anak Ko, which means ‘my child’ in the Filipino language. It’s the 25-year-old’s third full length since recording as Jay Som. As always, she produced and engineered it all herself.
Let’s be honest: what can go wrong when an artist cites acts like Prefab Sprout, The Cure and Cocteau Twins as her main influences? As a consequence, Jay Som’s new single Superbike sounds familiar from the first note on. About this song, Duterte says she wrote it ‘aiming for a combination of Cocteau Twins and Alanis Morissette’. To me, it sounds as if Natalie Imbruglia were into shoegaze. It’s indie music, drenched in Californian sunshine.
This week, Superbike by Jay Som is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard!
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.
Altered By Mom – Hear That Sound
Altered By Mom started as an excuse for producer/songwriter Devon Lougheed to play with some of his favourite musicians from all across Canada, but really took shape with the permanent addition of Gina Kennedy (bass/vocals) and Jamie Williamson (drums).
Ahead of their new album Trapped In An MP3 (due later this year) the Toronto-based pop-rock band have a new single out. Hear That Sound showcases their knack for classic song-writing with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. And the way the male and female vocals are juxtaposed is just lovely. Boy, would this have been a radio hit when radio was still about smart and catchy pop songs!
The band says about the track: “Hear That Sound is about making someone else cry. It’s such a universal yet specific moment – because people cry all the time, but when it happens, nothing feels more deeply personal. In the audio world, we talk about crossfades where one bit of audio blends seamlessly into another, and sometimes relationships end and begin like that too. This song encompasses the sound of artefacts from a previous relationship fading out while a new one begins.”
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.
Kidsmoke – She Takes You Under
North Wales band Kidsmoke cite Real Estate, Wild Nothing, The Smiths and Kate Bush among their influences, but I’m sure they are fans of New Order and The Cure as well. The latter’s band’s frontman Robert Smith already invited the quarter (Lance – vocals/guitar, James – bass/vocals, Sophie – guitar/vocals, and Ash – drums) to play his Meltdown Festival.
The band spent last summer in the studio with long-time producer Russ Hayes, working on their forthcoming debut album, due in the summer. She Takes You Under has just been put forward as Kidsmoke’s new single. Bringing a dreamy edge to melodic indie-pop, their sound will certainly appeal to fans of Pale Waves.
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.
