The first 26 albums that have been officially invited as official entrants to The 8th Australian Music Prize (AMP), including Alpine, DZ Deathrays, Pond, and Xavier Rudd are now being joined by another 21 entrants to fill out the ‘Long List’ (as it’s colloquially known) to recognise an Australian artist with a cash prize based on the decision of a judging panel charged with selecting the Australian Album of the Year.
Backed by Coopers, the AMP has added 21 more entrants, bringing the total to 47 Official Entrants, identified from over 230 Australian artist album releases for 2012 and a third round of nominations are expected ahead of the final announcement which is due in early March 2013, with the winner receiving the $30,000 cash prize money courtesy of PPCA.
The new list of nominees includes folk rock troubadour Angus Stone, and his sister Julia Stone, for their respective solo albums Broken Brights and By The Horns. Other artists getting a nod are world-beating electronic act The Presets for their ‘mature’ third album Pacifica (read the Tone Deaf review here), Melbourne’s certified-soul collective Saskwatch for their debut Leave It All Behind (review here), Collarbones’ fragile electronica in Die Young (review here), along with The Rubens, Clare Bowditch, Ball Park Music, and more.
The AMP organisers has already shaken things up this year by removing the entry fee and automatically considering ALL Australian releases for the prize, while setting up a new platform for digital submissions rather than the previously restrictive ‘CDs only’ policy.
The inaugural AMP winner was The Drones, for Wait Long By The River And The Bodies of You Enemies Will Float By in 2005. Other previous prize recipients include Augie March (for Moo, You Bloody Choir in 2006), Lisa Mitchell (for Wonder in 2009) and The Jezabels, who took home $30,000 donated by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited (PPCA). A win that split public opinion so fiercely that The Jezabels felt it necessary to issue a statement with their acceptance of the 2010 prize for Prisoner.
This year, the judges include Chris Berkley, Deborah Conway, Dave Faulkner, Tim Freedman, Mike Glynn, Chris Johnston, Shannon Logan, Christopher Powell and Bernard Zuel – together with first time judge, Sam Lockwood, a member of last year’s winners, The Jezabels.
The additional 21 entrants to the Coopers AMP list are:
Angus Stone – Broken Brights
Archie Roach – Into The Bloodstream
Ball Park Music – Museum
Catherine Britt – Always Never Enough
Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes – Baby Caught The Bus
Clare Bowditch – The Winter I Chose Happiness
Collarbones – Die Young
Daily Meds – Happy Daze
Julia Stone – By The Horns
Knievel – Emerald City
Max Crumbs – Maidenhair
Oh Mercy – Deep Heat
Saskwatch – Leave It All Behind
Steve Lane And The Autocrats – The Romance Of Communication
The Presets – Pacifica
The Rubens – The Rubens
Tim Rogers – Rogers Sings Rogerstein
TZU – Millions of Moments
Urthboy – Smokey’s Haunt
We All Want To – Come Up Invisible
Winter People – A Year At Sea
They join the already officially selected entrants announced last month:
Alpine – A Is For Alpine
Bearhug – Bill, Dance, Shiner
Bushwalking – First Time
Catcall – The Warmest Place
Charge Group – Charge Group
Children Collide – Monument
Deep Sea Arcade – Outlands
Dirty Three – Toward The Sun
DZ Deathrays – Bloodstreams
Emma Russack – Sounds Of Our City
Forty Thousand Sisters – Goodbye Broken Sled
Grand Salvo – Slay Me In My Sleep
Hermitude – Hyper-Paradise
Hilltop Hoods – Drinking From The Sun
House Vs Hurricane – Crooked Teeth
Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collectors – My Little River
Liz Stringer – Warm In The Darkness
Made In Japan – Sights & Sounds
Missy Higgins – The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle
Ollo – Ape Delay
Pond – Beard, Wives, Denim
The Bamboos – Medicine Man
The Hello Morning – The Hello Morning
The Maple Trail – Cable Mount Warning
Tim Hart – Milling The Wind
Xavier Rudd – Spirit Bird
