IT'S almost time for the annual NI Music Prize again – and this year's shortlist for the best album by a homegrown act features some absolute doozies.
The excellent Arrow Pierce My Heart LP from Lurgan/Banbridge garage blues brawlers The Bonnevilles has been pretty much glued into the Noise Annoys mobile's CD player since it came out, while Belfast acts Sea Pinks and Girls Names released superlative slabs of indie rock throwbackery (is that a word? It is now) with their respective Soft Days and Arms Around A Vision records.
Documenta also proved themselves capable of producing more than one album of mesmerising guitar-based psychedelia with their misleadingly titled second release Drone Pop #1 and exmagician's Scan The Blue found Cashier No 9 men Danny and James back in action with a pleasingly scuzzy indiepop record that bested their former band's much-loved LP.
Derry solo artist Ryan Vail makes the cut with For Every Silence, a moody, atmospheric imaginary soundtrack inspired by a vintage piano and ideal for headphone listening, while fellow Derrymen and atmospheric indie folksters Ports must be among the favourites to take home this year's gong thanks to the impact of their acclaimed debut LP The Devil Is a Songbird.
NI music scene stalwart Michael Mormecha's first solo record LOFi LiFE is also a contender, as is previous NI Music Prize winner Foy Vance with The Wild Swan, Ciaran Lavery with Let Bad In, The Longest Day In History by David C Clements and Parma Violets by Jealous of The Birds.
All will be revealed at The Mandela Hall on November 11, which is set to include live performances by Ports (so it would be handy if they won), Jealous of The Birds and this year's Oh Yeah Legends, Ash.
Finally for this week, great news for gig hungry types in the north western wilderness: the G Sessions are set to return to Draperstown next week. A spin-off from the much missed Glasgowbury Festival, the original G Sessions were monthly music showcases that ran between 2004 and 2013 at the Cellar Bar.
On Saturday September 24 the 'new' G Sessions will kick off at their new regular home at The Loft in Draperstown's musical hub The Cornstore. Once again organised by Glasgowbury founders Paddy and Stella Glasgow, the first headliners will be indie folksters Orchid Collective, a local quartet lead by a virtual 'child of Glasgowbury', Shea Tohill.
The Magherafelt musician was nurtured by the Glasgowbury-run Rural Key Sessions, musical summer schools for eight to 18 year olds.
Now an occasional music tutor at the Cornstore himself, Tohill also enjoyed the original G Sessions as both a performer and a punter.
"I played a few G Sessions with the Wood Burning Savages and I used to go to them all the time," he recalls. "I saw And So I Watch You From Afar and Cashier No 9 back in the day when I was 17/18. It's great that they're back. Whenever I was in school you used to go and see bands that were touring England and they were coming and playing a bar in Draperstown.
"It's really encouraging whenever you're a teenager and that's been kind of missing for the last three years, so I think it's great that Paddy and Stella are running it again."
Multi-talented Co Down muso Michael Mormecha of Mojo Fury and Malojian fame will also be on the bill next Saturday as he plays material from his debut solo LP, now and forevermore to be described as "the NI Music Prize nominated LOFi LiFE".
It's a 'bring your own booze' affair (and that means 'no glass', dummy – so be sure to decant your Buckfast into an empty plastic Coke bottle) and tickets are on sale now priced £7 in from the Cornstore in person or online at Glasgowbury.com/buy-tickets.
Naturally, Noise Annoys will keep you appraised on upcoming G Sessions as and when they are announced.
