Scottish Album of the Year Award Longlist announced

Today the Scottish Music Industry announced its Longlist for the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award. Selected from a comprehensive list of 2011's homegrown releases, which encompassed any and all musical genres, a diverse panel of 100 judges representing all quarters of the industry whittled the master list down to 20.    

Weighing in on the significance of the initiative, nominee Aidan Moffat commented: "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."

The Longlist is as follows:

6th Borough Project [website] - One Night In the Borough
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat [interview] - Everything’s Getting Older [track-by-track guide]
Bwani Junction [interview] - Fully Cocked [review]
Chris Stout’s Brazilian Theory [website] - Live In Concert
Conquering Animal Sound [interview] - Kammerspiel [review]
FOUND [interview] - factorycraft [track-by-track guide]
Fudge Fingas [soundcloud] - Now About How
Happy Particles [bandcamp] - Under Sleeping Waves
Jonny [interview] - Jonny 
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins [interview] - Diamond Mine [review]
Mogwai [interview] - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will [review]
Mungo’s Hi Fi [soundcloud] - Forward Ever
Muscles Of Joy [interview] - Muscles Of Joy
Remember Remember [interview] - The Quickening [review]
Richard Craig [website] - Inward
Rustie [interview] - Glass Swords [review]
Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell [interview] - Ghosts Outside [review]
Tommy Smith [website]  - Karma
Twin Atlantic [website] - Free
We Were Promised Jetpacks [interview] - In The Pit Of the Stomach [review]

Fellow nominee, Shetland fiddler and composer Chris Stout shared Moffat's sentiment of the award's inclusivity: "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."
 
From Monday 14th of May, the public can make its impression known on the SAY Award's website and a free interactive app (which will stream one of the albums each day from this coming Monday, 16th of April) by voting for their top choice from the above nominees.

On Thursday 17th of May, a smaller panel of judges will convene to produce a shortlist of ten, with the eventual winner of the £20,000 award being announced on Tuesday, 19 June. The nine runners-up will receive a prize of £1,000 and a piece of art inspired by their album and especially produced by a Glasgow School of Art graduate.

Who gets your vote?