The Scottish Music Industry Association has announced the longlist for The Scottish Album of the Year Award, proving that the Scottish music scene has what it takes to hold its own on the international stage. The inaugural list is an extraordinarily diverse affair featuring the 20 highest scoring titles to emerge from the award’s nomination process, and ranges from jazz to reggae sound systems via folk, electronica, house, rock, dub and modern classical.
Aidan Moffat said of the awards:
“Scotland’s not very good at blowing its own trumpet, but it’s about time we had our own award to celebrate the overabundance of brilliant and diverse music we make every year.
“For such a small country we produce an inordinate amount of great – and very successful – music, and hopefully this award means that we can be unashamedly proud about it for a few weeks every year.”
As well as featuring critically lauded albums such as from King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, the long list also features the likes of The Happy Particles, whose album was previously only available as a download from their Bandcamp page, while Muscles of Joy’s eponymous debut was released on vinyl only.
Both artists’ albums will now be awarded CD manufacturing runs with production costs covered (in the short-term) by the SAY Award, to help them capitalise on any heightened profile – and have their CDs racked alongside other nominated titles.
On May 14 the public will be vote for their favourite album from the long list to earn a guaranteed slot on the short list, and three days later the long list will be whittled down to a short list of ten by a panel of judges.
The winning album will be announced on June 19, earning a grand prize of £20,000, while the nine runners-up each receive £1,000.
All 10 short listed finalists will receive an artwork from the winner of a unique SAY Award art commission: celebrating the enduring links that exist between music and art through the provision of a £20,000 art commission offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools. The winning graduate (selected, in this pilot year, from Glasgow’s School of Art) will produce ten artworks to be donated as prizes for the short-listed finalists.
Who do you think should win the award?
6th Borough Project – “One Night In the Borough”
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – “Everything’s Getting Older”
Bwani Junction – “Fully Cocked”
Chris Stout’s Brazilian Theory – “Live In Concert”
Conquering Animal Sound – “Kammerspiel”
FOUND – “factorycraft”
Fudge Fingas – “Now About How”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-sv3NekUPU
Happy Particles – “Under Sleeping Waves”
Jonny – “Jonny”
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – “Diamond Mine”
Mogwai – “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will”
Mungo’s Hi Fi – “Forward Ever”
Muscles Of Joy – “Muscles Of Joy”
Remember Remember – “The Quickening”
Rustie – “Glass Swords”
Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell – “Ghosts Outside”
Tommy Smith – “Karma”
Twin Atlantic – “Free”
We Were Promised Jetpacks – “In The Pit Of the Stomach”
Ross Colquhoun
National Collective
