The final selection of Australian artists and their albums nominated for the coveted Australian Music Prize (AMP) has been revealed as details of an Australia Day concert to honour the winner is announced.
Entries for the 9th Coopers AMP, which recognises the Australian Album of the Year, have officially closed and the ‘Longlist’ of 33 nominees in the running for the $30,000 cash prize already lives up to its name, but today a final 10 nominees are added to the pool.
Steadily working their ears through 2013′s best Australian LPs, the AMP judging panel have already ushered four rounds of bands into the Longlist – the first giving nods to The Drones, Big Scary, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, before adding the likes of PVT, Kirin J Callinan, Dick Diver, Pikelet, Jagwar Ma, Paul Kelly, Cloud Control, and more.
Today’s new additions bring Melbourne songbird Gossling for her “distinctly cinematic” debut album Harvest of Gold, her AMP nod arriving shortly after signing international label deals and scoring an invite to SXSW 2014.
Another Melbourne melodist cutting into the AMP ranks with her debut LP is Ainslie Wills, for You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine (proudly named among Tone Deaf’s Top 15 list of the year’s most critically underrated releases).
In fact, debut records seems to be the running theme of the newest AMP additions, which also includes first-ever full-lengths from electro-dance connoisseurs World’s End Press, the Thomas Calder-led The Trouble With Templeton’s Rookie, plus Open Season by New York based Aussie duo High Highs, and The Loving Gaze from soft-focus solo project Montero. In fact, debut records seems to be the running theme of the newest AMP additions…
Breaking the trend are releases from Melanie Horsnell, Sara Storer, Dog Trumpet, and Malabar, the latest from Sydney-via-Auckland outfit, Songs.
Along with the final list of nominees, the Coopers AMP judges have put together a consolation list of 25 ‘Highly Regarded’ albums that “narrowly miss inclusion on the Longlist” and therefore any chance at the $30k Australian Music Prize.
Featuring releases from the chart-topping Bliss N Eso, the recently defunct Hungry Kids Of Hungary, and the AIR Award-winning King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, think of it less as a negative ‘sorry, you’re not good enough’ and more as a positive ‘Top 25 Aussie Albums Of 2013 You Might Have Missed’ (view the full ‘Highly Regarded’ list below).
As for the final shortlist of the 9th Coopers AMP, they will be unveiled in a special Australia Day concert called ‘Shortlisted!’, a free two-hour public event at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Sunday 26th January 2014, headlined by 2012 AMP winners, funk hop duo Hermitude, ahead of the 2013 winner being announced in march.
The Australia Day concert-come-awards ceremony will follow in the vein of this year’s AMP Alive event, where Hermitude and a selection of AMP nominees performed live between hosting duties from Clare Bowditch and Kevin Mitchell (of Jebediah/Bob Evans fame), before unveiling the AMP winner.
The 2012 Longlist consisted of a final pool of 71 albums from over 332 submissions, with Hermitude’s HyperParadise beating out finalists Urthboy, Tame Impala, Flume, the Presets,and more to join the list of previous AMP winners: The Jezabels (2011), Cloud Control (2010), Lisa Mitchell (2009), Eddie Current Suppression Ring (2008), The Mess Hall (2007), Augie March (2006), and inaugural winners The Drones (2005).
Our Tone Deaf writer certainly hopes that Melbourne indie twosome Big Scary joins that hallowed list of AMP winners, putting forward the Top 6 reasons that Big Scary deserve to win for their second album Not Art.
The 9th Coopers AMP Longlist Selections
Gossling – Harvest Of Gold
Ainslie Wills – You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine
World’s End Press – World’s End Press
The Trouble With Templeton – Rookie
High Highs – Open Season
Montero – The Loving Gaze
Melanie Horsnell – The Cloud Appreciation Society
Sara Storer – Lovegrass
Songs – Malabar
Dog Trumpet – Medicated Spirits
Joining the previously announced AMP nominees:
Adalita – All Day Venus
Cloud Control – Dream Cave
Palms – Step Brothers
Boy & Bear – Harlequin Dream
Fluent Form – Flu Season
Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
Josh Pyke – The Beginning And The End Of Everything
Machine Translations – The Bright Door
Paul Kelly with James Ledger, Genevieve Lacy & ANAMlly – Conversations With Ghosts
Heath Cullen – The Still And The Steep
Jimblah – Phoenix
Jimmy Tait – Golden
New Gods – Beloved
Ross McClennan – The Night Deeds Are Vapour
Dick Diver – Calendar Days
Brighter Later – The Wolves
Sam Buckingham – I’m A Bird
Luke Howard – Sun, Cloud
Pikelet – Calluses
Horrorshow – King Amongst Many
Kirin J. Callinan – Embracism
PVT – Homosapien
Jen Cloher – In Blood Memory
Beaches – She Beats
The Tongue – Surrender To Victory
The Delta Riggs – Hex.Lover.Killer
Standish/Carlyon – Deleted Scenes
The Drones – I See Seaweed
Bob Evans – Familiar Stranger
Abbe May – Kiss My Apocalypse
Big Scary – Not Art
Dialectrix – The Cold Light Of Day
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
The 9th Coopers AMP Highly Regarded List
Alex Hahn & The Blue Riders – ‘The Wallflower’
Bliss N Eso – ‘Circus In The Sky’
Cash Savage & The Last Drinks – ‘The Hypnotiser’
Crystal Mercy – ‘The Fisherman’s Daughter’
Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier – ‘Stories Of Ghosts’
Emma Louise – ‘Vs. Head Vs. Heart’
The Grapes – ‘Western Sun’
Hungry Kids Of Hungary – ‘You’re A Shadow’
Jinja Safari – ‘Jinja Safari’
King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard – Float Along – Fill Your Lungs’
Major Chord – ‘Transition’
Mantra – ‘Telling Scenes’
Melody Pool – ‘The Hurting Scene’
Mr. Grevis – ‘My Escape’
Monique diMattina – ‘Nola’s Ark’
Ngaiire – ‘Lamentations’
RUFUS – ‘Atlas’
Seja – ‘All Our Wires’
Snakadaktal – ‘Sleep In The Water’
Sticky Fingers – ‘Caress Your Soul’
Stolen Violin – ‘Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears’
Suburban Dark – ‘Second Front’
Sweet Jean – ‘Dear Departure’
Underground Lovers – ‘Weekend’
Unity Floors – ‘Exotic Goldfish Blues’
The 9th Coopers AMP nominees will be revealed at ‘Shortlisted!’
Sunday 26th January, 2014 @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
feat. live performances from:
Hermitude
+ more TBA
