So it’s the day of The Mercury Prize awards and because I’m a very lucky boy I shall be there. And so will the group that should rightfully walk away with this year’s prize -  The XX.

Their debut album, like most genuinely brilliant albums manages to create its own unique space and sound and textures. It sounded like no one else in 2009. Yes there is a passing reference or even homage to the Young Marble Giants in The XX’s minimalist, almost restrained instrumentation and arrangements. But their apparent complete inability to play even one unnecessary note or sing one word that doesn’t absolutely need to be there proves once again that in music less really can sometimes be more – and that they are the current masters in this very special art.

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Tricky’s becoming one of those Great British musical anomalies/geniuses. After rapping with Massive Attack on their first album in 1991 he could easily have become a bit-part player in their success. Instead he’s released a string of albums and singles that are characterised by dense, layered music and his unique whispering-style singing and an almost pathological desire to take risks. Continually pushing the boat out into unchartered waters that most successful musicians wouldn’t dream off. It doesn’t always work but when it does he produces breathtakingly powerful pieces that sound like no one else. And he now looks like one of the most significant artists to emerge from the Massive Attack/Portishead/’Bristol Sound’ phenomenon.

The original ‘C’Mon Baby’ is from ‘Knowle West Boy’ which is another album that was inexplicably (unless I’m missing something?) left off the 2010 Mercury Prize short-list.

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The first artists to feature twice on ABON, here with a second track from ‘The Glare’ album, which is my album of 2009. But clearly not one of the Mercury Prize jury’s as it’s mysteriously absent from their short-list.

Like all the tracks on the album - and like ABON 0021 - David McAlmont used a real news story as inspiration for the lyrics which he sings over music written and previously recorded in instrumental form by Michael Nyman. In this case the story concerns a couple who ran a BP service station in New Zealand, applied for a $10,000 overdraft and found that the bank had deposited $10,000,000 into their account by mistake. They then took the money and ran. To China I think.

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The Mercury Prize always throws up some weird stuff.

Usually in the shape of a bizarre short-list – ‘bizarre’ as in neglecting many deserving but less well-known albums rather than ‘bizarre’ as in full of esoteric music. Admittedly they always seem to short-list a couple of more ‘esoteric’ albums but something about their selection process means they always, ALWAYS get the outliers completely wrong.

This year is no exception with some very strange inclusions and omissions on the weirder side. Over the next 2 weeks I’ll make some suggestions for what should have been.

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