Who gets your vote? @SAYaward public vote is open now! https://t.co/ITwVkQWw3g https://t.co/BVLJfcj4uy

— Fruitmarket (@fruitmarket) October 3, 2022

On October 6th, the SAY Award shortlist will be revealed. The Modern Scottish Classic Award winner, a Scottish record of enduring impact selected by the longlisted artists, will also be announced, along with the five Sound of Young Scotland Award nominees. In order to reduce barriers to entry, the SAY Award does not ask artists to pay participation fees and accepts albums that have at least 6 tracks and/or 30 minutes in length as qualifying albums. The SAY Award winner will earn one of the most generous prize amounts in the UK: £20,000. The nine runners-up will also get customised art prizes made through The SAY Design Commission. The winner will be revealed during the final event on Thursday, October 20^th, at The Albert Halls in Stirling.

The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) created and organised the SAY Award, placing accessibility, inclusion, and diversity at the centre of their flagship initiative. Creative Scotland, Stirling Council, Stirling Alive With Scotland, YouTube Music, Go Forth, Ticketmaster, Spotify, PPL, Youth Music Initiative, Youth Music, Brewgooder, Stirling Distillery, and Music Declares Emergency are some of the additional partners for 2022.

According to Robert Kilpatrick, the Scottish Music Industry Association’s (SMIA) and The SAY Award’s creative director, “The SAY Award public vote is the chance for music fans to have their SAY in the determination of the Shortlist. From the 20 outstanding Scottish albums that made up this year’s Longlist, the public’s choice will automatically be guaranteed a place in the 10-strong Shortlist along with a minimum prize of £1,000.”

He continued,“In any year prize money is significant for artists, but in the face of the current financial crisis, this support will make an instrumental difference. Now’s the time to get behind your favourite record, and we look forward to revealing and then championing 10 of the best Scottish albums of the last year in the lead up to 2022’s SAY Award Ceremony on Thursday, 20 October.”

Tickets for the SAY Award Ceremony on Thursday, 20^th October are available here.

SAY AWARD CEREMONY:

20/10/2022 – The Albert Halls – Stirling

The SAY Award Longlist for 2022 is:

AiiTee – Better Days
Andrew Wasylyk – Balgay Hill: Morning In Magnolia
Annie Booth – Lazybody
Bemz – M4
C Duncan – Alluvium
Callum Easter – System
Constant Follower – Neither Is, Nor Ever Was
Declan Welsh and the Decadent West – It’s Been A Year
Duncan Lyall – Milestone
Fergus McCreadie – Forest Floor
Hamish Hawk – Heavy Elevator
Hen Hoose – Equaliser
Kathryn Joseph – For You Who Are The Wronged
Kobi Onyame – Don’t Drink The Poison
The Ninth Wave – Heavy Like a Headache
Niteworks – A’Ghrian
Proc Fiskal – Siren Spine Sysex
Rebecca Vasmant – With Love, From Glasgow
Seonaid Aitken Ensemble – Chasing Sakura
Walt Disco – Unlearning

An important message regarding the planned upcoming tour dates. pic.twitter.com/iuZcxGWtrk

— Dead Can Dance (@DCDmusic) September 6, 2022

Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry planned to play 12 shows across Europe this coming October and then head to Canada and the US to play 17 shows in 2023, including stops in Washington DC, Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York. These north American dates would have been their first in over a decade, their only performance on the continent coming at 2013’s Coachella festival when they were on tour supporting their eighth album, Anastasis.

The band last played in Europe in the spring of 2019, playing a triumphant sold-out two-legged European tour, which ended with a spectacular show at Athens’ beautiful Odeon of Herodes Atticus Amphitheatre. The pair had initially wanted to return to tour the US and Canada sooner, but the pandemic forced them to change their plans. The ‘Celebration of Life & Works 1980 -2021’ tours were meant to celebrate the Aussies’ three-decade discography. The set list included “The Host Of Seraphim”, “The Carnival Is Over”, and “Yulunga”, some of their most famous and loved songs, up to tracks from 2018’s Dionysus.

Dead Can Dance got its start in Melbourne, forming in 1981. The following year, they moved to London. Through the years, their music has been categorised variously as, Neoclassical dark wave, world, ambient, art rock, avant-garde, gothic rock and post-punk. After splitting up in 1998, they temporarily got back together in 2005 for a global tour and then reformed in 2011 to promote their new album Anastasis.

Their eponymous debut album was released in 1981, All Music saying it was “as goth as it gets”. Their albums weren’t widely available till the early 90s, when their label 4AD made a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records. The band’s sixth album, Into the Labyrinth, sold 500,000 copies, making them 4AD’s best-selling act. The pairs concerts are legendary, and many songs were only performed live, leading to a healthy bootleg economy. The duo has released two live albums, 1998’s Toward the Within, which had chart success, and 2013’s In Concert. As of now, no other information has been provided about plans to reschedule the 2022 and 2023 dates.

Shrouded in the mystery that’s become characteristic of the band since their formation in 1985, O’Brien’s response offers little in the way of excitement for super-fans awaiting new music. However, he does offer some certainty regarding the current state of affairs, saying “There’s no Radiohead at the moment. There’s a truth to what we do, so we’re not going to be one of those bands that gets together for the big payday.”

The last Radiohead LP came back in 2016 with A Moon Shaped Pool, and was met with widespread acclaim and praise from critics worldwide. Being nominated for two Grammy Awards and the groups fifth Mercury Prize, it became not only their sixth number 1 album in the UK, but across much of the world too, claiming the top spot in Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and Sweden. You can check out A Moon Shaped Pool’s lead single “Burn The Witch” below.

Commenting on the band’s ethos surrounding the creation of their music, O’Brien went on to comment “The thing with Radiohead, we could do something in a couple years. We might not. But I think what it has to be, it has to be five people going, ‘I really want to do this again with you.’ And I think at the moment, because we’ve done it for so long, we’re all reaching out and having different experiences. And that should be allowed, and that should be encouraged”. 

The band have of course splintered into various side projects over the last decade, with every member embarking on a solo career at one point or another. Their most notable detour of recent years being Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke’s band The Smile, whom released their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention earlier this year to great critical approval.

Despite this, one shouldn’t lose hope. Radiohead have certainly not announced a split, and from the sounds of Ed’s conversation with The Line-Up, things are looking quite positive. “We’re an ongoing band and have online meetings – there was a Zoom call recently,” he said at the time. “We’re talking about stuff, but for the foreseeable future everyone is doing their own thing. When it feels right to plug back into Radiohead, then we will.” Godspeed Ed.

You can catch his whole conversation with Shaun Keaveny on The Line-Up podcast here.

Steeped in angst and effective in it’s stark use of contrast, it’s an immediately engaging piece of work that deserves your attention. You can check it out below:

The video was shot on Praia de Almagreira beach in Portugal and directed by the prolific French music video director Yoann Lemoine (Katy Perry – “Teenage Dream“, Lana Del Rey – “Born to Die“, Harry Styles – “Sign of the Times”). Speaking with NME recently Lemoine said “Twigs approached me with a beautiful treatment for “killer” that she had written about her personal story. It felt empowering and vulnerable at the same time. I said yes instantly when she asked me to direct it. It was the perfect opportunity to portray her in a way that we have not seen before, raw and intimate“. Going on he explained “The video is about the poison and the fuel that personal trauma is in art. How our experience forces us to create and how sometimes it is only inhibition and violence“.

The overall feeling stirred by the video is a powerful one, with a climactic scene that sees Twigs watch on helpless as she and her lover, now wearing a demonic mask, make love in a hellish landscape. It’s an interesting take on someones facade slipping the more you become engrossed in them, with the mask seeming to represent her partners true identity, it can be seen as a twist on the well trodden Scooby-Doo reveal that we’re all used to. It’s a vulnerable and nightmarish take on trauma and the dangerously hypnotic nature of love, with Twigs representing herself as honestly as ever.

Elsewhere FKA twigs has released a handful of music videos recently for tracks from her 2022 mixtape Caprisongs, including “Papi Bones,” “Honda,” and “Oh My Love”.

“Late Night Talking” is currently floating at No.14 in the UK Singles Charts, having previously peaked at No.2, and is Harry’s latest single following his record breaker “As It Was” that stayed at No.1 for a staggering 10 weeks. His new album Harry’s House has been a huge success and the biggest of the year for a British artist so far. With 4 songs concurrently in the top 10 of Billboards Hot 100 at one point (“As It Was“, “Late Night Talking“, “Music For A Sushi Restaurant“, and “Matilda“) he became the first British artist to ever achieve the feat, catapulting Harry’s House into the annuls of history and further cementing Styles’s star power.

In this video, Harry can be seen to wake up confused by the absence of his sleepover compadre to then search for them beneath the sheets in an Alice In Wonderland-esque sequence. The video then darts between various different sets and locations with multiple different partners enjoying Harry’s company in bed. It’s all very tasteful and fun, with the tone of the visuals complimenting the fizzy pop nature of the song nicely. Some particularly memorable sequences involve Harry bombing it down a busy road near Buckingham Palace on a king sized bed with his bandmates, or an incredibly extra spoonathon where 20+ people happily roll around in bed together. The undercurrent is all quite saucy, with many different actors and extras coming together to pull off the free-living sentiment of the video. It’s nice to see people of all different shapes and sizes, genders and ethnicities getting their spotlight too, for a pop video that could have so easily fallen into the glorification of unobtainable standards, there’s a nice level of grounding to the production.

It’s a stellar addition to Harry’s latest album campaign and an obvious reminder as to why he’s such a golden goose at the moment. As for what’s next for the star, the rest of the year already looks pretty filled out, with his world tour taking him across Europe, America, and Australia only finishing up in March 2023, the boy wonder from Cheshire looks to be a busy bee for the foreseeable future. No more UK show dates in as it stands though unfortunately, but as soon as we know, you’ll know.

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A post shared by Paolo Nutini (@paolonutini)

The shows will see him play Glasgow’s OVO Hydro Arena on the 13th, 14th, 16th, and 17th of December this year at the end of his UK tour. The tour will begin in October with two back to back shows at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse on the 22nd and 23rd, before heading to London for two shows at Alexandra Palace on the 25th and 26th, and then heading all over the country through Birmingham (28th), Hull (29th), Edinburgh (31st), and Aberdeen (1st November). You can find all the details and tickets here.

With a name that belies his origins, Paolo has come a long way from the small town of Paisley in Scotland where he grew up. Despite now being a chart-topping troubadour and national favourite, the singer was once expected to follow his fathers footsteps into the family fish and chip shop business, before being encouraged to sing by his music loving grandfather and a teacher from his school who recognised his gift.

4 albums later and Paolo is somewhat of a national treasure in the UK, particularly in Scotland where he enjoys icon like status. However the 8 years it’s taken to make and release his latest effort hasn’t been without adversity, at times it’s been fraught with difficult self reflection and turbulence, with it’s title Last Night In The Bittersweet being an ode to his desire to escape those periods. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Paolo explained: “There was a long period of life for me that could have been defined as bittersweet. The juxtaposition between the ups and the downs was really quick. It wasn’t in terms of my career, just emotionally”, he continued: “I think I became very content in that rhythm and I guess there was a point where I sought to move out of that and become a happier person. I’m still in the process, but it was a conscious attempt to figure out what was causing that and to try and conquer that“.

Now he seems more content, having recharged his batteries and gained some perspective, he seems delighted and grateful to be returning to the stage. Speaking of the lockdown and the liberation being unleashed on the world once again, Paulo said “the past two years, watching how it’s affected everybody, that social shutdown, it made me think that it is a real privilege to go out and communicate with people on such a scale. And to have the outlet of release that performing on a stage can give. I get the tunes out there and I already feel a bit lighter, but it’s not just that; you’re giving other people a good buzz and a good kick. It’s a good feeling. It makes you feel like you’re doing something right.”

Well we can only hope (and expect) that he will be giving those lucky enough to catch him at Glasgow’s Ovo Hyrdo Arena later in the year a good buzz too. Welcome back Paolo.

October 22nd, 23rd 2022 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester

October 25th, 26th – Alexandra Palace – London

October 28th – O2 ACADEMY 1 – Birmingham

October 29th – Bonus Arena – Hull

October 31st – O2 Academy – Edinburgh

November 1st – Music Hall – Aberdeen

December 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th – OVO Hydro Arena – Glasgow

The 2021 recording of the 1962 classic was produced by T Bone Burnett in Los Angeles and recorded directly onto an acetate record, called an Ionic Recording, which is considered to produce the most superior sound money can buy on a typical record player.

T Bone Burnett has stressed the exclusivity of the pressing and insisted it’s purpose as a rejection of mass consumerism, recently telling Variety “I think it is important to know for people who are concerned about the exclusivity of what we are doing. An Ionic Original is not a ‘copy.’ It is an original recording. We are not contriving scarcity. This is actually scarce. It is a unique, handmade, original recording. We have all been conditioned to accept the terms of and react to things from the frame of mass production. This is not that.”

Burnett has also commented on how highly he prides this particular recording, going as far as to describe it as the “the best record I’ve ever made in my life“, a pretty wild statement considering the renowned producers previous feats. He has won multiple Grammy’s and accolades in his illustrious career so far, writing and producing scores for films like “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, “Cold Mountain”, “Walk the Line”, and “Crazy Heart”, as well as contributing to the work of artists such as Robert Plant, Counting Crows, Sam Phillips, and Roy Orbison. So to put this to the top of his list of achievements is quite something and a mark of how passionately he stands by the project and it’s extraordinary price tag.

“This is a full rebellion against mass consumerism,” Burnett concluded with Variety. “It’s not that I don’t want people to hear it. I think this is the best record I’ve ever made in my life, so I want everybody to hear it. For my ego and my sense of ‘I would like everybody to like me,’ this is a sacrifice. I mean, you heard it. Bob sounds good. The band sounds good. The song’s great. And I have to say, I think it’s the best thing that I’ve ever been involved in. It’s the best singer, the best song, great musicians, the sound is killer. I’ll say this: I’ve never done anything better, to be sure.”

One lucky, and apparently very wealthy, listener has walked away with the pressing, being the only person bar a few members of the press granted access to listen to it, it is now down to he or she, their identity being undisclosed, whether they will ever let anyone else tune in. Being a big Dylan fan myself, I hope for a leak one day, it feels inevitable in this day and age, but the purist in me also hopes that it will forever hang on the mystery buyers wall, a temptation to whomever gazes upon it.

It’s a bold and typically impassioned number from the South London songwriter who continues to push boundaries with every release. With fierce breakbeat percussion chopping in and out of the intro’s choral backing vocals like an impatient middle school drummer, there’s an immediate sense of bottled rage on the track that finally sets into it’s fiery rhythm with Loyles opening line “Let me tell you what I hate, everything I ain’t
Everything I’ve done, everything I break“.

Genius Lyrics notes that “Hate” is a “powerful and rage-filled track”, that “offers insight into what it is to be black, and the loves, seductions and hatreds of Loyle’s life. Loyle grittily exposes the experience of being trapped in racial profiling and the fears he faces“. In the video above, self directed by Carner and his co-director Greg Hackett, this sentiment is keenly felt. A tour de force performance sees the rapper become increasingly irate with a driver pulling up beside him until all hell breaks loose when multiple versions of himself appear in the car and begin to overwhelm him. It makes for moving viewing, a reflects the songs feeling of oppression well. Carner hasn’t said a great deal about the track as yet, but ultimately the mystique works in his favour. An obvious and bold side step from the often care-free and chill feeling on a lot of his previous work, the boy wonder from Croyden is back with a loud and abrasive boom that indicates an exciting new direction.

Judging by the Official Charts midweeks, Nutini is set to claim his third UK number 1 album with Last Night In The Bittersweet, currently outselling his nearest rival 4:1. A recent article by the company explains “The 35-year-old Scottish singer-songwriter’s fourth studio album marks his first release in eight years and tracks to score him a hat-trick of Number 1 albums. Paolo has previously topped the Official Albums Chart with 2009’s Sunny Side Up and 2014’s record Caustic Love“.

I was lucky enough to get a preview of the new album back in May when Paolo played a run of 4 shows at London’s iconic 100 Club. It was hot ticket in town, selling out in seconds and crashing the server it was provided on, so when I say I was lucky to be there I really mean it. Aside from the maddening chatter that went on amongst the audience throughout anything that wasn’t “Iron Sky” or “Candy”, the gig was great and a real moment for me as a long time Paolo fan getting to see him in a room of only 350 people. Surprisingly he seemed incredibly happy and grateful to be back on stage, I always took him for a crippling introvert due to his complete disregard for social media and a public life, but here he seemed at home.

Bounding on stage with a grown out mop of hair and cheshire cat grin on his face, everything about his set screamed “I don’t give a f***”, tearing into songs like “Lose It” with the free abandon you’d expect from a singer that hasn’t released any music in 8 long years. The album flowed much then like it does through my speakers now, but for some reason it feels more powerful as I tune in today, perhaps sobriety is my ally, but today the richness and maturity of the record is really shining through. Classically old in its sound, from “Petrified In Love” onwards it’s almost hypnotic, fully pulling you into Nutini’s mind and experiences. The final song, “Writer“, plays everything out and is my personal highlight, in the last 20 minutes I’ve gone from never hearing it before to playing it nearly 10 times, from being fairly flat to almost being in tears. It’s a truly special song.

I’d say overall Last Night In The Bittersweet is a record that will likely benefit from multiple listens, but on the first alone I can already appreciate it as a stellar addition to Paolo’s legacy. Up the scots.

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A post shared by Barn On The Farm (@barnonthefarm)

This year, I was lucky enough to play the festival and get a chance to snoop around (I moonlight as a wannabe popstar), and to cut to the chase, was pretty blown away by what Josh and his team have managed to put together over the years. Scattered with 3 stages, Barn, Outdoor, and Main, and accommodating no more than 2000 people, the site is small but bustling with more charm and sincerity than most festivals I’ve attended. Taking advantage of it’s status as a working farm, you can find ostriches, alpacas, donkeys, enormous pigs, and horses casually walking amongst the fields whilst interested and usually inebriated festival goers look on both amused and enamoured. There are hammocks, outdoor beds, orchards, and even the curious new addition of “Grandma’s House” to enjoy as you wonder around the site, the latter being the creation of chief festival designer Harriet Lily. Grandma’s House, a tiny wooden shack with an overgrown lawn and bras and stockings hanging on a washing line, remained a mystery until it’s opening at 19.00 on the Friday night, when it soon became swarmed with people looking to enjoy the late night DJ set that went on inside. Only able to house 15 people at a time, you are allowed to enjoy an aptly designated 15 minutes of dancing before being kicked out for the next batch of clubbers, with 220 Kid even dropping by to play a surprise set this year. Elsewhere James Bay, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Vaccines, Maisie Peters, Easy Life, Maverick Sabre, and Tom Walker headlined across the various stages over the weekend, with Holly Humberstone, Beabadoobee, Griff, and many other hotly tipped rising stars playing just beneath them.

As an artist playing there, the first thing you notice is an overwhelming sense of acceptance and welcome on arrival. The green room is the same for everyone, whether you’re me or Bombay Bicycle Club, everyone is put under one big barn roof that I can only imagine houses tractors during it’s everyday running as a farm. On the first weekend of July every year though, it’s home to hundreds of creatives from around the world as they wait to get on stage. With beer, cider, food, coffee, tea, and even a very friendly man named Tom’s bake off worthy homemade brownies scattered around the room, anything you want- the wonderful green room staff have got you covered.

Unfortunately I only get 500ish words to write this article, so I’m going to have to stop prattling on, however I would highly highly recommend checking this festival out and going next year. I think it’s my favourite I’ve attended so far and can’t sing it’s praises enough. For more info click here.