Polaris Prize
[Event] TONIGHT in Toronto: Zaki Ibrahim Live at Adelaide Hall with Brendan Philip
Fresh off her Polaris short list nomination, where as a Grand Jury member I was rooting for her to win (to no avail unfortunately, Zaki Ibrahim takes the shine from that accolade to bring her live show to the people with friend of the Kitchen, underground soul phenom (and an award winner in his own right), Brendan Philip opening. Should be a good one! Not knowing? Then check out some music by both artists:
Sold?? Then CLICK HERE for more info if you don’t have already plans tonight and enjoy good music
Watch Tonight’s 2013 Polaris Music Prize Award Show Live on AUX-TV
How you ask? Via the live stream embed player above courtesy AUX-TV.
Can’t wait? Or wanna get psyched up for tonight’s event? Watch AUX-TV’s ‘Road to Polaris’ series of video shorts with (most of) the Shortlisted artists HERE.
In the meantime, as you can see above, I’m gonna be busy! I can’t ‘kiss and tell’ but if you want a some sense of how I might be voting tonight, you can CLICK HERE.
My Predictions for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize Short List
Inspired by the homie, Stu, here’s my best guess of what albums will be short-listed for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize. This is based on nothing more than intuition, wild supposition and (a lot of) wishful thinking so don’t pillory me if I am way the f-ck off from the actual list which will be announced today (July 17) on Sirius channel 152 on SiriusXM and CBC Radio 3:
01. A Tribe Called Red – A Tribe Called Red
02. Azari & III – Azari & III
03. Cadence Weapon – Hope in Dirt City
04. Cold Specks – I Predict A Graceful Expulsion
05. Drake – Take Care
06. Feist – Metals
07. Grimes – Visions
08. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
09. The Slakadeliqs – The Other Side of Tomorrow
10. Patrick Watson – Adventures in Your Own Backyard
Wild cards: Cœur de Pirate, Leonard Cohen, Mares of Thrace, Sandro Perri, PS I Love You and The Weeknd.
My best guess is that Feist will take the grand prize although the dark horse (no racism intended) are the two hip hop albums by Cadence Weapon and Drake and maybe Cold Specks. Wanna know how I actually voted though? Then hit the jump. In the meantime, if you don’t have time to go through all forty albums again (or, tsk tsk, for the first time), then enjoy this handy 2012 Polaris Prize Long List I created via Rdio. (As always, only snippets will play for non-subscribers so sign up to hear the full tracks and a gazillion other tracks.)
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 35. The Slakadeliqs – The Other Side of Tomorrow
Yup, definitely saving the best ’til last. If you read this blog regularly, you already know I’m a major, major supporter of this album. It was #1 on my long list ballot and #1 on my short list ballot and I shout it out every chance I can including at the Long List Salon earlier this month.
Slakah has created an album of sublime yet ambitious, epic beauty. Lead single, “Keep Breathing” feat. Justin Nozuka is just the beginning of the album and of what is going here: soul, rock, psychedelia, pop, hip-hop and reggae have all been mashed up into a delicious stew that is at once vintage & organic yet still modern and fresh-sounding at the same time. Lazy pundits have dismissed this as Lenny Kravitz redux. Yes, that influence can be felt and has been acknowledged by Slakah himself but this feels like far more than just that and I truly feel sorry for those who don’t see/hear that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: no disrespect to 40, Boi-1da, T-Minus or any of the other young producers from Canada that are running the music charts right now, but Slakah is the best, most underrated producer in Canada today, bar none. If I know my business, and at one point I did, that will not stay the case for very much longer though.
The fact that The Slakadeliqs The Other Side of Tomorrow was long-listed was truly a surprise to me despite what i just said and my love & wholehearted endorsement of the album. Now I pray that some new converts to the cause were made during the short list voting period that can carry him through to the next round when the short list is announced tomorrow. Fingers crossed. And speaking of the short list….
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 36. Patrick Watson – Adventures In Your Own Backyard
Guess I was saving the best ’til last? This was another really good record. I shouldn’t have been too surprised really though given that Patrick Watson was a prior Polaris Music Prize winner in 2007. However, I’ve never actually heard that album and was only vaguely aware of his past success which frankly didn’t really factor into my appraisal of his current album.
All I do know is that this was another crackin’ good listen. Great songs, and vocals of such delicate, fragile beauty they feel this.close to collapsing. But they don’t and this wonderful album is what we get instead, thankfully.
If I was going to use a crude benchmark (and it’s mostly crude because my frames of reference are somewhat limited in this area of music), think the best, most affecting ballads Chris Martin and Coldplay ever did and you get a sense of what you’re in store for here. Opening track, “Lighthouse”, “The Things You Do”, “Strange Crooked Road”, “Noisy Sunday” and “Swimming Pools” are just a few of the songs that blew my mind.
Dig the two track sampler above or intrigued by my rave review? Then hit the jump to listen to the whole album via Rdio (non-subscribers will hears snippets only. Sick of that being the case, then ak right and subscribe)