The Official Best New Sound Of 2016!
MASSIVE congratulations to The Quality Of Mercury for becoming our official BEST NEW SOUND of 2016!
The final days of our search led to an enormous amount of votes coming through, and it was great to see even those that were trailing still gained ground right up until the moment it was all over. I’d like to congratulate each and every one of the artists/bands on this year’s top-ten list…because you are truly ALL amazing…it’d be awesome to have ten winners of course…but as you know, there can only be one!
Jeremiah Rouse had a truly inspiring level of support for his debut of The Quality Of Mercury – and I’m proud to see a one-man band rise up to a win despite the odds of competing in a reader-voted situation against full-bands & their own incredible support – that’s not an easy achievement and the results certainly indicate an incredible amount of faith in the future of this project just as much as a solid-nod of approval for the first album Transmission. Blending otherworldly atmospheres and an intense mix of slick production and supreme creativity in the writing – The Quality Of Mercury delivered a fully-realized vision, without compromise and true to the exact sound he was looking to make. With an impressive 39.68% of the entire vote – clearly Jeremiah Rouse is making music that the people out there truly want to hear; serious congratulations to him for his efforts and a sincere thank-you to making this year another incredible one for the independent music-scene. Be sure to check out Transmission and the full-review of the album that propelled him to a nomination this year right here.
I’d like to also pass on a sincere thank-you to each and every person that took their time to vote for any of the bands on this year’s top-ten list of nominations…it may be a small task of clicking an icon to vote – but I know firsthand that each of these bands/artists completely appreciate your efforts. I also know for a FACT that each artist/band on this year’s list truly deserved to be there – and I’m very much looking forward to new music from every one of them over the years to follow. So while there can of course only be one winner ultimately…without sounding too cheesy…every band/artist on this list was a complete winner to me and they all deserve to be extraordinarily proud of what they’ve accomplished in this year of incredible music from the independent music-scene.
Here’s a look at how the vote shaped-up at the final count:
The Quality of Mercury – 39.68%
A Truth Called Nothing – 25.98%
Jack Of None – 12.10%
Joseph Tonelli – 8.19%
The Affectionates – 6.76%
The Hsu-nami – 4.45%
Sun.Set.Ships – 0.89%
1FM – 0.89%
Convey – 0.89%
aMBe – 0.18%
Once again, thank-you to ALL that voted in this year’s quest for our Best New Sound, to all the bands/artists on the list, and sincere congratulations to The Quality Of Mercury for claiming the top-spot. We’ll be adding our new Wall Of Fame on the site in early January to honor the achievement and past winners Count The Thief (2015) and West My Friend (2014) – and of course, you’ll be the first to know when it goes live on the site! Looking forward already to another incredible year of amazing music from the independent scene I know & love & call my home…and thank you for making this year the most memorable to-date!
