THE FINAL album by Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison has been nominated for one of the biggest prizes in Scottish music.
Dance Music by the supergroup side-project, Mastersystem by Hutchison is one of 20 records to make the longlist for the 2019 Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award.
Other acts to be in with a chance of winning the £20,000 prize include global popstars CHVRCHES and the Scottish music legend, Edwyn Collins (pictured below).
Previous winners Aidan Moffat, RM Hubbert, and Kathryn Joseph have also been nominated.
The release of the longlist comes just day after it was revealed that no Scot made the Mercury Music Prize’s shortlist.
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It’s the fourth year in row that no Scottish act has been considered in the final round of what is the UK’s biggest music prize.
Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite tweeted: “Sadly predictable absence of Scottish artists on the @MercuryPrize short list. Ho hum.”
Robert Kilpatrick from the Scottish Music Industry Association, which organises the SAY Award, said the longlist showed that music being made north of the border was in rude health.
He said the albums nominated should allow Scots to “feel proud of our cultural identity as a nation”.
He added: “It gives us a chance to both shout about and reflect on who we are, as well as celebrate the passion, creativity and vibrancy of Scottish music; in all its incredible diversity and glory.
“With the longlist having been selected from the votes of 100 impartial music industry nominators, it truly is the product of an extraordinary nationwide consultation and showcases 20 incredible Scottish records to the world that are both important and valued artistic works.”
It’s now up to 11 judges to narrow down the longlist to a shortlist of nine. A tenth title will be chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online public vote.
READ MORE: Frightened Rabbit on life after Scott Hutchison
That shortlist will appear in mid-August, with the winner announced at a ceremony on September 7.
It’s been 14 months since Hutchison died.
The singer, whose lyrics would at times painfully detail his struggles with depression, disappeared from a hotel in South Queensferry last May.
His body was found in the Firth of Forth just a few days later. It all happened just four weeks after he released Dance Music.
Hutchison formed Mastersystem (pictured below) with brother Grant, and Editors and former Yourcodenameis:milo guitarist Justin Lockey, and his brother and Minor Victories bandmate James.
Grant Hutchison said it was great to make it on to the SAY Award Longlist.
“This album was so much fun to make and even more fun to tour,” he said. “I think we all felt like teenage versions of ourselves just making noise and having a laugh”.
Other albums on the longlist include the first volume of Aidan O’Rourke’s 365.
Between March 2016 and February 2017, the fiddler, best known for his work with folk band Lau, wrote a piece of music every single day. They were responses to stories told by James Robertson, who in 2013, wrote a story every day for a year, with each one exactly 365 words long. “It began as an exercise but soon it became an essential ritual,” O’Rourke said.
There’s also nods for the Twilight Sad and their latest album, It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, and Carla J Easton (above), for her Impossible Stuff.
There’s a healthy representation from Skye on the longlist with nominations for Reeling by Scottish smallpipe virtuoso Brìghde Chaimbeul and Air Fàir an Là, by Gaelic electronica troupe, Niteworks.
There are also nominations for Jazz albums from Graham Costello’s Strata, and the Fergus McCreadie Trio.
THE LIST IN FULL
- Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert – Here Lies The Body
- Aidan O’Rourke – 365: Vol 1
- Andrew Wasylyk – The Paralian
- Auntie Flo – Radio Highlife
- Brìghde Chaimbeul – The Reeling
- C Duncan – Health
- Carla J Easton – Impossible Stuff
- CHVRCHES – Love Is Dead
- Edwyn Collins – Badbea
- Fatherson – Sum Of All Your Parts
- Fergus McCreadie Trio – Turas
- Free Love – Luxury Hits
- Graham Costello’s Strata – Obelisk
- Karine Polwart with Steven
- Polwart and Inge Thomson– Laws of Motion
- Kathryn Joseph – From When I Wake The Want Is
- Kinnaris Quintet – Free One
- Mastersystem – Dance Music
- Niteworks – Air Fàir an Là
- Sean Shibe – softLOUD
- The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All Of The Time
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