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Australian Music Prize Finalists: Here's What You Need To Know

Dance records for a year without dancing, an album recorded five years ago, a rare country nominee and more – they’re all up for this year’s AMP.

Perennially miffed about the ARIA Awards? The Australian Music Prize is your annual remedy to that sense of local music injustice – awarded on the basis of "creative excellence" rather than commercial consideration. It's been running for 16 years now, and is judged by a panel of 41 industry figures including musicians, music writers, record store owners and radio presenters.

The closest analogue is the Mercury Prize in the UK, but there's something that feels a little more homely and unpredictable about the AMP. Sampa The Great won it last year for The Return – making her the first person ever to win it twice, after Birds And The BEE9 was the surprise winner in 2017.

This year, there are nine finalists from a heady expanse of genres. The winner, set to go home with a $20,000 cash prize, will be announced in March. Here's a quick guide to each of the worthy records, with a prediction of their chances.

The Avalanches We Will Always Love You

The Avalanches are no longer the band they were when they made the almost-entirely-sample-based 2000 opus Since I Left You – and that's a good thing. Their giddy, third album We Will Always Love You treats its star-studded features (Johnny Marr, Denzel Curry, MGMT, Karen O, Jamie xx – just to start) like samples instead, using them to illustrate twenty years of loss and love in a cosmic metaphor. Released in December last year, it missed out on much end-of-year-listicle critical glory. An AMP could be their chance to solidify its legacy.

Alice Ivy Don't Sleep

Alice Ivy released a dance album predicated on community and collaboration in a time when we couldn't feel more alone. There are 22 guests on Don't Sleep, and Ivy's spirit comes through on the pulsating collage of hip-hop, soul, bubbling electronica, plunderphonics and ultimately, joy. The project has elevated her to the status of one of Australia's pre-eminent curators and producers, and an AMP win would be recognition of that fact.

Blake Scott Niscitam

You might recognise Blake Scott's nails-for-breakfast-voice from his band The Peep Tempel, and their rampaging single "Carol" – but his solo debut album is a much more sinister beast. It exorciates colonial Australian culture, masculinity and himself in a frame of swaggering, blues-funk-punk-whatever. The arrangements are experimental and sprawling, while the lyrics are obliquely poetic in a way that feels deeply tied to the idiosyncrasies of the land it was recorded on. Niscitam would have flourished on stage if it weren't for COVID, and it's great that the AMP recognised its abnormal genius.

Fanny Lumsden Fallow

Country rarely gets a look-in at the AMP, or in popular music in Australia at large – but Fanny Lumsden's Fallow has an almost inexplicable crossover appeal. Released almost simultaneously with the first COVID lockdowns in Australia, its winsome, bucolic sentiments struck a chord with an isolated country. It's breaking new ground for an old genre locally.

Gordon Koang Unity

In South Sudan, Gordon Koang was known as the 'King of Music' after 10 albums – but after civil conflict broke out in his home country, he sought asylum in Australia with his cousin and collaborator Paul Biel. Unity was Koang's Australian debut, and is a summation of his pure, wholesome belief in peace beyond barriers of race, religion or culture – recorded on the traditional Nuer stringed instrument thom. The uplifting album's possible win in the AMP would see Koang crowned King of Music in his new home.

Miiesha Nyaaringu

Pitjantjatjara and Torres Strait Islander woman Miiesha is the increasingly rare instance of a real fully-formed artist on debut – not an artist who has simply deleted their past projects. The 21-year old is a contemporary R&B storyteller that uses the shifting, pop forms of Solange and local neo-soul to speak on cultural identity, family and truth. Nyaaringu has an impressive intentionality – its spoken word segments from Elders and samples of racist politicians are chosen sparingly and powerfully. It is a very strong contender for the AMP.

Tame Impala The Slow Rush

Tame Impala have been nominated for the AMP with every record they have ever released; The Slow Rush is no exception. It saw the psych-pop juggernaut distill the dancier direction of 2015's Currents into something more sprawling – the songs felt closer to mutating beats than band instrumentals. Tame's mastermind Kevin Parker used those arrangements to pen some of the most melancholic, and nakedly personal lyrics of his whole career. It is difficult to see him win the AMP gong however, after already winning four ARIA awards and notching Grammy nominations for the same record.

Ziggy Ramo Black Thoughts

The myth behind Ziggy Ramo's debut album is crucial to understanding it – he recorded it five years ago while hospitalised as "an obituary", then decided not to release it because he believed non-Indigenous Australians weren't ready to hear it. Then, the cusp of the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement around the world last June triggered its immediate release. It's cerebral, furious, and steeped in a variety of different voices – Ramo relates samples to Indigenous songlines, guiding its musical direction. It's hard to identify an album more incisive in last year's national discussion.

Written by Josh Martin, a Melbourne-based freelance music and media writer with words in MTV Australia, NME, Junkee, Crikey, etc. Follow him on Twitter @joshmartjourn.

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