NEWS
EVENTS
Mercury Awards End The Week In Style with Top Nominees
Indie | Wednesday 18th November 2015 | Kat
This Friday we have the announcement of that coveted prize in the world of ‘muso’ music from across the UK and Ireland. The result of the winner of the Mercury Music awards will be broadcast live on Radio 4, with a subsequent series of studio sessions to beguile the attendees of the live event.
With such extreme ends of the spectrum within the 12 nominated albums, in terms of genre and longitude within the music business and previous album sales, it is fair to say that it really is anyone’s guess as to who will get to go home with the gong.
Whatever anyone thinks of the authenticity of modern-day music awards, one slight nod has to be given to the fact that the Mercury still lives up to its reputation of bringing such a range of musical formations under the one roof.
The more ambient sounds of an act such as C Duncan (who would most certainly be in the ‘dreampop’ category if this was the Brit Awards!) amongst the synths of rave-generation extraordinaire Aphex Twin will make for the evening to be an exceptional showcase of rare talent.
Lesser-known talents such as Eska, who after 17 years in the music business released her debut album this year and Benjamin Clementine who has credited his content largely to his life experience of busking on the streets of Paris are present amongst the nominees. Ultimately without the Mercury, acts such as these may have been revered by the radio business one week only to be disposed in favour of the latest electro pop act from the downs of Hackney by the next.
In such an era when nostalgia is competing for such a major slice of the musical action, Gaz Coombes is given a mention, almost seeming miles away from his Supergrass days. The perhaps more familiar sounds of the awards emerge from SOAK (sounding and writing like she has lived through a fair few generations already on the Emerald Isle despite her tender age of 19).
Ghostpoet brings a touch of real-life ‘TimeOutism’ in his lyrics, if it were to concern people’s actual problems and issues in their daily lives, whilst Roisin Murphy arises with her unmistakable tones and the light echoes of disco which resonate within her previous solo albums as well as her work with Moloko.
Slaves have perhaps been the surprise of the contenders, some questioning their originality when compared to earlier punk-rock, with others jubilant in their addition. Their willingness to express anger and their own values at a time of such politically instability can surely be seen as only a positive thing in the inspiring of musical expression which The Mercury Awards stand for.
And of course the commercial twist is never to be forgotten even in the most avant-garde of handouts. with Florence revealing her second hand in a move, which if successful, would merely go to credit her even further in a land in which she has been already been crowned many times over. Stepping into Dave Grohl’s shoes at Glastonbury earlier in the year is the highlight of even the biggest of music stars careers and if she won this honour, we are sure that this would still be accepted in her usual gracious manner. Jamie XX being the musical innovator that he is in the land of electronica gains some merit, so let’s hope that his dance music (that even hipsters proclaim to love) is in with a good chance!
It all lies in the hands of the judges - there is no biased coming from the lines of Guestlist! Good luck to all the nominees and we can’t wait to hear the live sessions from the fantastic contributors to a musical world which uplifts all of our souls on such a daily basis!
