24-HOUR PUBLIC VOTE FOR SCOTTISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR NOW OPEN (Monday 14 May)

VOTE NOW – http://sayaward.com/public-vote

Last month, The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) unveiled the Longlist for the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award, and over the next 24 hours today, Monday 14th May, the public will be able to have their say by voting for their favourite Scottish album of 2011. The record receiving the highest number of public votes will earn a guaranteed slot on the Shortlist, which will be revealed this Thursday 17th May.

Over the past four weeks, music fans have been able to listen to all twenty Longlisted albums online and via a specially designed app. The Longlist represents an exhilaratingly eclectic snapshot of Scotland’s musical landscape, and fans can vote for their favourite album today via http://www.sayaward.com and the Scottish Album of the Year Award app.

The SAY Award Longlist was compiled following an extensive nomination process involving 100 nominators from across the Scottish music and arts industries. The award is one of the UK’s most exciting and progressive arts prizes, with the richly diverse Longlist featuring everything from jazz to reggae soundsystems via folk, electronica, house, rock, dub, modern classical (and everything in between).

The Scottish Album of the Year Longlist is (in alphabetical order):

· 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”

· 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”

· Richard Craig “Inward”

· 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”

The winning album will be announced at a prestigious ceremony in Glasgow Film City on Tuesday 19th June, earning a grand prize of £20,000. The nine runners-up will each receive £1,000. All ten shortlisted finalists will receive an artwork from the winner of a unique SAY Award art commission which celebrates the enduring links that exist between music and art. The commission, valued at £20,000, will be offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools with the winning graduate (selected, in this pilot year, from Glasgow’s School of Art) producing ten artworks to be donated as prizes for the shortlisted finalists.

Quotes from Nominated Artists

“We’re extremely honoured and proud to have made the long list for the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award. There is an abundance of great music being produced in Scotland every year and I hope that this new award helps us celebrate it and share it.” Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

“Jon Hopkins and I are proud as punch to end up on the long list for the newest and coolest of prizes, the SAY Award. Of all the awards ‘Diamond Mine’ has been nominated for and subsequently lost, losing this one will smart most.” King Creosote

“I am delighted to have made the long list of this exciting new award for Scottish Album of the year. To have an award which represents all music types equally is a great step forward in the way our music is presented to the wider public. I hope and believe this award will go from strength to strength and continue to bring more awareness of the huge wealth of music we have in this country” Chris Stout

“We are completely astounded that we managed to make this list at all, considering we put the album out ourselves on bandcamp and had little publicity surrounding it. I think it goes to show the SAY award is not just another ‘pat on the back for the lads’ type award.” Steven Kane, Happy Particles

“To be nominated is both an accolade and a much appreciated recognition of my work on INWARD. The longlist will be a vital juncture allowing artists to reach a wider audience and bringing attention to the independents like myself who work in Scotland.” Richard Craig

“Super happy to be considered for this award, recognition is always nice but this is particularly special as it’s from my homeland.” Rustie

“FOUND are truly flattered that ‘factorycraft’ has been long listed and is keeping company with some albums from 2011 that we personally consider to be absolute belters. We’re also delighted to be part of an initiative that will help advance the value of music in Scotland.” Ziggy Campbell, FOUND

“The nomination was a real surprise for us to be honest. I’ve never considered the impact of our music in Scotland as we tend to get more interest elsewhere, so it’s really nice to feel that something has clicked at home too.” Graeme Clark, 6th Borough Project

“With ‘Kammerspiel’ coming out at the start of 2011, it’s really cool that the judges have remembered it, and nominated us for this award. Scotland is a small place, but is home to a wealth of artistic talent, it is exciting to see this award come to life, celebrating musical and artistic talent in this country. We’re really pleased to be nominated for the first award, hopefully the first of many!” James Scott, Conquering Animal Sound

“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.” Aidan Moffat

“I am so very honoured and flabbergasted to be considered for the long list. This recognition will go a long way to cradling the miniscule and spontaneous genre I represent. Many congratulations to the SMIA for supporting Scotland with this brave new initiative. I wish everyone great success and many thanks for the vote of confidence.” Tommy Smith

“We are extremely honoured to be on the long list of contenders for the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award. This is a fantastic platform for Scottish artists who are sometimes overlooked for more UK wide accolades. We hope this award that will grow to rival the UK’s more established awards.” Ross McNae, Twin Atlantic

“We have generally shunned the music industry establishment as much as it has ignored us. So we were surprised and pleased to hear that we had been nominated for Scottish Album of the Year. At a time when Scotland is becoming known for its vibrant reggae scene and given how Jamaica has been largely overlooked in the great homecoming, it is a great opportunity to celebrate our rich cultural links with the Caribbean.” Doug Paine, Mungo’s Hi Fi

“That our latest collection of cosmic jams is considered to be amongst the best Scottish albums of the year is a quite unexpected bolt from the blue but we are all thrilled and excited to have been included in the Long List.” Remember Remember

“Great for Scottish music and chuffed that ‘Fully Cocked’ measured up against a formidable longlist.” Bwani Junction

“Muscles of Joy are delighted to be on the long list of the new SAY Award, and we are very appreciative of the platform and support that an award like this has been established to provide. Thanks to Dep Downie for pushing us to make the record! There is an amazing amount of original music happening in Scotland right now. We made our LP on our own terms with no idea of how it would be received, which is an ideal scenario, it would be great if more people could get the chance to do that. We were lucky to get a small but essential amount of funding from Creative Scotland.” Muscles of Joy

For the latest Scottish Album of the Year Awards news, check out www.sayaward.com, www.facebook.com/SAYaward and follow on Twitter @SAYaward

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