The spirit of independence
Irish labels, bands and artists often face an uphill struggle to garner recognition, even on their home turf. Which is why hotpress and HMV have undertaken their own combined initiative, to coincide with the announcement of the shortlist for the first Choice Irish music prize. As a product of this initiative, all ten albums will be specially stocked and displayed in HMV stores all over Ireland on the run-in to the announcement of the winning album later this month. Here, we take a look at the list – and reflect on those that have been omitted.
Niall Stokes, 17 Feb 2006
There has been more than a lot of negative comment in various branches of the media over the past couple of years about the state of Irish music. One school of thought is that there is an endemic lack of ambition about the place – and that, especially, there is a paucity of genuinely original, distinctive, independent talent here. hotpress has seemed almost alone, at times, in disagreeing with this overbearingly cynical consensus.
Our attitude has always been based on the principle of credit where it’s due, no matter what the musical style or leaning of the protagonist(s).
The effect of this approach is that all albums, whether by a home-grown rapper like Collie, or an essentially rural rock outfit like The Saw Doctors, will be treated with the same seriousness, and given the same chance to shine as anything by U2, David Holmes or the latest guitar-slinging darlings, whether it’s Director, Humanzi or The Marshals (hopefully coming to a record shop near you, shortly). And if the Saw Doctors record is a good one, as their recently released The Cure most certainly is, then there’ll be no ignorant prejudice or musical snobbery to stand in the way of our saying so.
This is one reason why we have tended to differ from the miserabilists and the grumblers. Thing is, there’s a huge amount of activity on the recording front in Ireland, and – for sure – not all of it stands up to the most intense scrutiny. But, to look at it from the opposite perspective, a lot of really good, interesting and challenging records are being made by Irish artists and bands of widely differing shades and stripes. Which is why there is more that a passing interest in the recent announcement of the nominations for the first Choice music prize. Based on the model of the Mercury Prize in the UK, the objective here is to pick what would effectively be seen as a kind of Irish album of the year, the emphasis being on non-mainstream works, of real artistic rather than commercial importance.
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