After literally three people demanded it, we have been blown into a low geo-stationary orbit by the explosive need for the return of the Jovian Bow Shock Awards. (Whether this demand was from people who work in the Quietus offices or not, is simply neither here nor there.)
The Foxtons Mercury Prize (formerly the Cillit Bang Mercury Prize and before that the Mmmm Danone Mercury Prize) was set up in 1992 as an alternative to the Brits, in the same way that myxomatosis was set up in the Australian outback in 1950 as an alternative to rabbits. It is an annual honour which is bestowed on the UK/Irish group with the best album and designed to stop them from ever having critical or commercial success ever again. The winner is selected from a shortlist of a dozen long players which are supposed to represent the health and vitality of the UK music industry.
And when they say the "best", they mean the best! Past nominees include Sting, Take That, Spice Girls, Propellorheads, Stereophonics, Mumford & Sons, Richard Ashcroft, The Turin Breaks, The Thrills, Snow Patrol, Maximo Park, Hard-Fi, The View, Nurse With Wound, Massive Bereavement and The Guillemots. So they know what they’re talking about.
With all the cultural intensity of a blancmange left on a park bench in Bingley, the Mercury Prize really knows what’s what. So there’s literally no way we’d just throw together a list in the office in ten minutes flat and then claim it was loads better than the real thing. Yep. There’s literally no way we’d claim that ours was superior in every way, shape and form.
So, without further ado, here’s the shortlist for the Quietus Jovian Bow Shock Award 2013, listed in alphabetical order. Please let us know in the comments below what your shortlist would contain, what you reckon we’ve missed out, and who you’d like to see win.
The actual Mercury Prize shortlist is also announced today.
Matt Berry – Kill The Wolf
(Acid Jazz Records)
Dean Blunt – The Redeemer
(World Music / Hippos In Tanks)
Tim Burgess – Oh No I Love You
(O Genesis)
Factory Floor – Factory Floor
(DFA)
Fat White Family – Champagne Holocaust
(Trashmouth Records)
Click here to read our interview with Fat White Family
Grumbling Fur – Glynnaestra
(Thrill Jockey)
Heterotic – Love & Devotion
(Planet Mu)
Hey Colossus – Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo
(MIE)
Holden – The Inheritors
(Border Community)
Pet Shop Boys – Electric
(x2)
Rolo Tomassi – Astraea
(Destination Moon)
Young Echo – Nexus
(Ramp)
The winner of the prize – a curry in Stoke Newington – will be announced on Wed October 30
