Another year down, another selection of ICM Award winners. Lo and Behold the legends of 2017!
Track Of The Year
Marsicans – Too Good
This year we let you decide the winner. The votes are in, they’ve been counted and verified and we can now announce that Marsicans are crowned Track Of The Year winners with their single ‘Too Good’.
Released in July this year, the lads from Leeds are so interchangeable in the vocal department with James, Oli, Rob and Cale all having a go at singing and the three frontmen can play guitar, bass and keys with elegance.
Marsicans have had their busiest year to date; signed to LAB Records, released three singles, tweeted by Coldplay, two support tours and a tour of their own. These lads won’t stop and why should they with the number of people supporting them.
Packing their retired Royal Mail van, Marsicans head out on another UK headline tour in March 2018. They are seriously going places and it’s been a joy to watch them grow.
Album Of The Year
Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?
Oh Royal Blood, what an album you’ve produced. One of our writers said they would ‘shag’ it! The boys have gone back to school on this one. No silly tricks, no added features, simply them. Big riffs, even big choruses and that signature sound that oozes that sexual Queens of The Stone Age sound along with that mysterious filthy bass. They’ve certainly put a bit of a lid on the majority of their songs. Supporting Queens Of The Stone Age this year, Royal Blood have firmly set their mark as a world-class rock band.
Best Live Performance
Sundara Karma – Dot To Dot Festival, Nottingham
What a performance! Sensitive lyrics and groovy riffs yet truly explosive in every single way. It’s hard to sum up this performance due to simply being speechless at the time. Throughout Sundara Karma’s entire musical journey, we at ICM like to think we were there relatively early, and we’re so grateful to have been introduced to their music at such a time. So to witness them grow, develop, expand and ultimately flourish into this incredibly captivating musical ensemble that raises its audience to a state which is simply indescribable, truly is a speechless moment.
Best International Act
Hippo Campus
Hippo Campus have secured that classically dreamy indie-band sound under their belts. Their previous EP, ‘Bashful Creatures’, is safe and easy going; a mixture of cool evening vibes and summery guitar melodies. First impressions of their debut album, ‘landmark’, take us back to when we first found this band during the last few hazy days of summer.
Speaking of their album, they said “we had to go through a process of asking ourselves mundane and stereotypically “sufferable” questions like, “What do we want to write about? Who are we writing for? What’s the point of writing? etc.” Then we figured out that all we had to do was write. Plain and simple. Ask questions later/never.”.
It is this attitude that gave the 2017. Just be the band they want to be, ask questions later/never.
Greatest Discovery
Ten Tonnes
Being tipped as one of the best new coming singer/songwriters of your generation is a heavy burden to bare. 21 year old Hertford bred Ten Tonnes has absolutely no issue with this. In 2017 we saw the release of his debut EP ‘Born To Lose’ which gave witness to the key album track that would give him the traction he needed to be highlighted and playlisted on both BBC Introducing and Spotify. Ten Tonnes is the gift that keeps on giving and he absolutely deserves to be on this list.
Soloist Of The Year
Declan McKenna
Have you ever come across a more talented young individual in the music world? Possibly, but they are in no way on Declan McKenna’s level. This young lad is extraordinary in the way he composes himself in the studio and on stage. Performing for the masses at multiple UK festivals whilst also travelling the states and gracing more with his musical presence, Declan McKenna has certainly grabbed life with a tight grip and taken 2017 as his own. Deservedly so too, his debut album, ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’, dropped earlier this year and proved to one of the many highlights of the year.
