Last night saw Adelaide hosted the annual AIR Awards, highlighting Australian independent record labels, artists and releases, with 12 artists and two labels receiving recognition for their input to the music scene.
Milk! Records won the Best Independent Label award, receiving $20,000 from Moshtix to help further their mission of gaining recognition for up-and-coming artists. Along with Milk! Records, Skinnyfish Music also took out a label award, receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award and $5000 courtesy of global independent rights agency, Merlin.
As for the artists, Baker Boy took out Breakthrough Independent Artist of the Year and Milk! Records scored another win with label co-owner and signee, Jen Cloher, taking out AIR’s Best Independent Artist award while Alex Lahey scored Best Independent Single for ‘Every Day’s The Weekend’.
In a first for AIR, the category for Best Independent Album or EP saw a tie between Methyl Ethel for Everything Is Forgotten and Jungle Giants with Quiet Ferocity after both albums received the exact same number of votes.
Meanwhile King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard took out Best Independent Hard Rock, Heavy or Punk Album with Murder of the Universe while PNAU walked away with a double win for Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album with Changa and Best Independent Dance, Electronica or Club Single with ‘Go Bang’.
Other categories saw wins from BIRDZ for Train of Thought, All Our Exes Live in Texas for When We Fall, Fanny Lumsden with Real Class Act, James Morrison/BBC Concert Orchestra for The Great American Songbook and Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti for Jonny Greenwood.
