Today has been a weird day! I woke up to the striking and bizarre news that Donald Trump is advocating doctors to trial his idea of injecting disinfectant, to treat COVID19. We all would be forgiven for lying back down, putting the covers over our heads and praying for better times. It really is a remarkable moment to be alive at the minute. Yesterday, a wonderful man who lives next door to me sadly succumbed to the virus. That is the second neighbor, in a week, to have fallen foul of the disease. That is the reality!
I saw a lovely thing being shared around this morning, it got me thinking in the right way again. It was a photo shopped image of Bill Clinton sitting down holding a few records. You can add in four of your own favourite albums into the photo and nominate your mates to do the same. A lot of my friends have been sharing their album choices via this thread and it is very refreshing to see. In tough times, music (and talking about music) seems to be a great way for people to escape and parachute themselves into a better head space. I have been sharing my tunes around for years and am very proud to see the arts prospering lately and helping people along.
I won’t get in on the topic of artists getting fair pay and support, that would be a long paragraph. Musicians are not to be taken for granted and should be paid properly for the service they provide. This is something that will have to be addressed soon as the fall-out from this lockdown will have a huge impact on the industry in future. Who is going to bail out the artists? Are Spotify going to increase artist streaming pay from £0.0000003 per stream to £0.0000004? (joking, but you catch my drift) – Will small music venues be still around to help emerging acts?
Today I wanted to write something a little more thoughtful than just sharing my new music today. Apologies if I have been a bit too intense. Moving onto the music, I have a few songs that I hadn’t got a chance to share around in recent weeks that I would love to share now.
Isola & Insa Rudolph – Splinter
Track of the Week
This is absolutely spellbinding!! One of the best songs I’ve come across since I started receiving submissions on SubmitHub. Being a member of the SubmitHub community is a mixed experience – especially for a one man blog like this. The site is full of amazing and ridiculously talented musicians all bustling for a slice of a bloggers time. The problem that arises for me, is that sometimes I can open my inbox to forty or fifty tunes a DAY. This is a ridiculous amount of music to go through and I sometimes completely rabbit hole myself by accepting too many. Isola sent me this one about a month ago – I loved it instantly! It has taken me this long to find a suitable article to place this work of sheer art!
Based in Hamburg, Germany – the duo, consisting of Martin Glos and Christian Ziegler are movie and TV soundtrack producers. Their latest project ‘Splinter‘ featuring the tremendous vocal power of Insa Rudolph is totally enchanting and haunting. This actually reminds me a lot of Sia’s mesmerizing early single ‘Breathe Me’. I remember being down in myself years ago and taking solace in that tune.
The duo composed the soundtrack for German Crime documentary Eistalte Spur. Splinter is used for the opening and closing credits of the show! A top tune!
Niall Summerton – All I Know Is That I Don’t Know
Niall Summerton comes to us with a real summery bedroom indie tune that is both super chilled-out and pleasant. The North Yorkshire native has produced a song of the highest quality with ‘All I Know is That I don’t Know‘. As soon as I heard the little glistening electric guitar flutters, I was sold. This track has already been shared by Josh at BIRP FM, which is the highest compliment in my book.
This is a nice addition to today’s musical picks.
James Cherry – Come Around
I saved ‘Come Around‘ by James Cherry to my personal playlist last week. When I first heard it, I knew it was an outstanding song but feared it was just a little too commercially oriented for my usual liking. As the week wore on and I shuffled through the playlist on my daily walks, I found myself singing along. My god, this is a total ear-worm of a thing. Cherry is a really talented new musician on the U.K music scene. His music has that, ‘he must be signed to Warner Music’, feel to it. I usually hate anything commercial but this one has really opened me up to exploring more of this style of folk.
Funnily enough, in James’s artist bio – he takes a dig at the unfavorable industry model too. Listen to Come Around below and buy some merch!
We The Same & Angles Jackson – Earthbound
Some electronic mood music here from two collaborating Canadian artists. Earthbound has some really entertaining elements thrown into it. I love the vocal effects, which is something I say very seldom. The rippling double bass arpeggio’s that litter the piece are so effective too. The last time i heard a double bass like that was in Ollie Chanin‘s single ‘At Home During the Day‘. This is a tune to ease into as you read the paper and sip on a cup of tea.
Check out Earthbound – all will be ok!
Tigerpunsh – Shade
Before you ask, it’s not a typo. London duo Tigerpunsh have just released their debut single called ‘Shade‘ and I’m liking the initial feel of their work. This track was sent to me last week and I really had a good head-nod to it. The brooding synths, the vocals and instrumental finale are all spot-on. As debut’s go – this is definitely a solid start. I may be a little too intense and noisy for some ears, I certainly enjoyed it though!
Have a twist and a little shuffle to this below.
Check out last week’s interview with Billy Nomates here.
I caught up with New York’s Ollie Chanin recently too. He is fresh off a collaboration with Eminem. If you still have some reading left in your eyes, check that one here.
Interviews on the way – Callum Pitt / Quinn Christopherson / LANKS / Baiyou
About ‘The Sound Sniffer’
The Sound Sniffer is a music blog which is still only a baby – Founded and run by Kevin Coakley in early 2019. He is a music writer and ghostwriter. ‘The Sound Sniffer’ also runs gigs and showcases in London since Oct 2019. The showcases are picked from artists we find in our submissions inbox.
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