In what amounts to a shocking development in the music webzine arena, Tiny Mix Tapes was today chosen as the official online host announcer of the UK's Canada's semi-prestigious Mercury Music Prize Polaris Music Prize winner, above many other apparently worthy music sites who have in fact sold their souls to Satan.
The Mercury Polaris organisers felt that TMT displayed "the elusive sense of style and variety which has come to be synonymous with the Mercury Polaris Prize, effortlessly combining explorations of different genres and textures with a lightness of touch unmatched by any other music-related online journal or magazine" "the wanton desire for attention and, mathematically speaking, more internet exposure, which warranted the sop which we are now throwing their way. We could easily have given this opportunity to another website, but we feel that TMT's craven attempts at humor show, to some extent, an innocence that is heart-warming in the current climate of fierce battles for exclusives and one-upmanship between popular online music journals and zines."
TMT is happy to reveal, exclusively, the first list of the nominees Polaris prize winner for the year 2006. We feel that this list winner epitomizes the shallow worthy eclecticism of the Mercury Polaris Prize and its propensity to hedge its bets promote artists based on artistic merit. Final Fantasy completely deserves this marvelous accolade, especially for having the artistic courage balls to name its album He Poos Clouds. The list contains several albums by artists who could be said to have never released better work, the usual token encouraging nods to rap, electronica and post-punk, and some really awful sensational bands that have sadly become too famous important to ignore.
Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene (Arts and Crafts)
Cadence Weapon, Breaking Kayfabe (Upper Class)
The Deadly Snakes, Porcella (Paperbag)
Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (Blocks Recording Club)
Sarah Harmer, I’m A Mountain (Cold Snap)
K*Naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher (Track and Field)
Malajube, Trompe L’Oeil (Dare to Care Records)
Metric, Live It Out (Last Gang)
The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Mint Records)
Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary (Sub Pop)