Browsing Tag rock
Wildcard (week 32):
The Howl & The Hum – Human Contact
The inspirations of The Howl & The Hum range from Leonard Cohen and Phoebe Bridgers to Lizzo and Kendrick Lamar, and they have also been likened to Massive Attack, Radiohead and Alt-J. To be honest, I hear neither of these influences shine through in their own music, and that is meant to be a compliment. The Howl & The Hum created their own style, while playing live, a lot.
Hot on the heels of recent single Hall Of Fame, the band unleash the furious follow-up track Human Contact. A damn tight piece of music! “Human Contact is a fast-paced miserable disco touching on mental health and what it means to be alone in a digital age,” frontman Sam Griffiths explains. “The lyric deals with the idea of alienation vs. technology. When there’s so much communication going on around us at all times, can we ever feel a true connection?”
A great song with an important message. Does is get any better? Yes it does. Human Contact by The Howl & The Hum is this week’s 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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Marika Hackman – All Night
After their break-up, both Amber Bain (a.k.a. The Japanese House) and Marika Hackman dedicated their new albums to documenting the relationship. Bain’s debut full length Good At Falling is a beautiful, but painfully personal collection of songs. We’ll only know what Hackman’s third album Any Human Friend sounds like once it’s released on 8 August.
However, some previews are already available. Following recent singles I’m Not Where You Are and The One, she just put out a third one: All Night. A sexually charged song.
Hackman explains: “I thought it would be exciting to write a really overtly sexual song about a woman from the perspective of a woman. You don’t hear much about sex between women in music, or if you do its usually from a fetishized male perspective. I thought I’d reclaim a bit of that power.”
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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 32)
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:
- Tape Toy – Sad Girl (Wildcard this week)
- Baker Grace – Sad Summer (Wildcard last week)
- Kesha – Best Day [Angry Birds 2 Remix]
- Lola Marsh – Echoes
- Prince – Holly Rock
- Sheppard – Kiss My Fat Ass
- Wallis Bird – Salve!
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: Haim, Nouvelle Vague feat. Julie Delpy, MisterWives, 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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Wildcard (week 31):
Tape Toy – Sad Girl
Two years ago, Roos van Tuil (vocals, guitar), Wesley Fransen (guitar, vocals), Maurice van de Graaf (bass) and Marc van Dongen (drums) were put together by their teacher at the Amsterdam school of music. The assignment: “Just show us what you’ve got.” Well, they did.
The quartet clicked and the school project turned into a real band, with quite a bunch of catchy, up-beat songs in their bag. All of them guitar-driven, with great synth melodies and smart lyrics. Tape Toy call their music ‘bubble-grunge’. Within a year after forming, the band amassed an agenda full of festival gigs, and recently supported Skunk Anansie.
Sad Girl is the band’s most recent single. It was released alongside new track 020, which is the area code of their hometown Amsterdam. Following the funky opening riff, dreamy verses alternate with energetic choruses. Near the end, trippy synths build up to the ‘grande finale’, where the huge singalong chorus shines one more time.
This whole week, Sad Girl by Tape Toy will shine at the top of the Carte Blanche Music blog 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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Penelope Isles – Leipzig
There is something in the water in Brighton. Yonaka, Knife Club, Creeping Jean, Lume, Yumi & The Weather and Demob Happy are all fine examples of new artists from the city. And Fatboy Slim, The Kooks, Royal Blood and Black Honey call Brighton home as well. Today, I’d like to add Penelope Isles to that list.
The quartet is led by siblings and dual songwriters Jack and Lily Wolter, and completed by Jack Sowton and Becky Redford. They released their debut album Until The Tide Creeps In only two weeks ago. Leipzig is the third single off it.
The video was filmed in Berlin, Munich, Hannover, Diest and Luxembourg while the band were on tour in Europe last year. The Wolters say about it: “We would constantly be on the lookout for perfect spots along the way and would keep our jeans and white t shirts folded up in a pile in the van ready to go. It’s funny that we actually forgot to shoot anything whilst in Leipzig!”
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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 31)
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:
- Baker Grace – Sad Summer (Wildcard this week)
- Call Me Loop – Self Love (Wildcard last week)
- Bishop Briggs – Champion
- Charli XCX feat. Christine & The Queens – Gone
- Corine – Je Danse Le Mia
- Hemliga Klubben – Asshole
- Striking Matches – Boring
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: Feeder, Liam Gallagher, Tegan & Sara, 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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Striking Matches – Boring
American singer-songwriters/guitarists Sarah Zimmermann and Justin Davis form Striking Matches. They leaped to fame after the music supervisor for the television series ‘Nashville’ used nine of their songs in the show’s first four seasons. Two of those were featured on their T-Bone Burnett-produced debut album Nothing but the Silence.
Combining their blues and roots based guitar riffs with pop melodies, their music has been dubbed ‘blues-pop’. New single Boring, with its percussive rhythms and infectious call-and-response chorus, is a great example.
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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Amber Run – Neon Circus
Joshua Keogh, Tomas Sperring and Henry Wyeth met at Nottingham University, where they studied Humanities and Law. In second year, they decided to abandon their studies to focus on the band. Following three EP’s, Amber Run released their debut album 5AM in 2015, a collection of emotive, anthemic rock tracks.
The trio’s upcoming album, Philophobia (set for a 27 September release) will be their third, and Neon Circus is its new single. A track that comes to the point straight away with a heavy guitar riff and an up-tempo drum beat. After two minutes, however, the pace slows down for the second half. A song with two faces.
Explaining the lyrics, frontman Joe Keough says: “Neon Circus is about getting the fuck off your phone. Nothing meaningful happens with your head tilted downwards towards your black mirror.”
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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 30)
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:
- Call Me Loop – Self Love (Wildcard this week)
- Frank Turner – Sister Rosetta (Wildcard last week)
- Casey Lowry – Boyfriend
- Inspired & The Sleep – Getting Through
- Lily Moore – Over You
- Nix Dadry (feat. Julie Claire) – Station Street East
- The Bird & The Bee (feat. Beck) – Hot For Teacher
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: Angèle, Jonas Brothers, Kraak & Smaak, The Pale White, Rita Ora, 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. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Isaac Dunbar – ferrari
Isaac Dunbar is an only 16-year-old singer-songwriter and producer from Barnstable, Massachusetts. He debuted last year with the single freshman year, and put out five more singles since then. All of these now appear on his 8-track debut EP balloons don’t float here (apparently, he’s not a big fan of capital letters).
With ferrari, Dunbar releases a sixth single off his EP. A tune with distorted vocals, grungy guitars, hard-hitting beats, and quiet melodies that build into an anthemic chorus. “Ferrari is about friends in your life who spread your secrets around after your friendship ends,” Dunbar explains.
I know this is a dangerous thing to say, and I don’t want to raise too many expectations for this talented young man, but to me, he sounds like a male Billie Eilish. There, I said 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 Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
