2013-06-20T06:00:02-04:00 Lara Baker http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=lara-baker Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Lara Baker Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2192190 2012-11-26T11:37:30-05:00 2013-01-26T05:12:01-05:00

Lara Baker http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-baker/
Perhaps it's the festive atmosphere (more likely it's the mulled wine), but one thing is for sure: before I know it I've purchased some handmade soaps, a garish Christmas jumper, some gem stones and a poncy candle or three. All so enticing in the warm glow of the little huts. Back in my living room in Wandsworth...crap presents.

It's a Christmas ritual, and I will never learn. Thankfully this year I'll be browsing the stalls at a Christmas market with a difference. For the second time, the UK's independent record labels have come together to host a Christmas Independent Label Market at East London's Spitalfields this weekend (1st and 2nd December). Billed as "a chance to buy this season's most desirable stocking-fillers from the heads of the UK's most iconic indie labels", I'll be there dishing out tea and biscuits to the participating labels, and no doubt emptying my bank account at the same time.



(Domino Records hosting their stall at the last Independent Label Market, kitted out in their trade mark boiler suits).

As someone who mostly buys music digitally nowadays, it will be a nice change to browse the stalls of rare vinyl, new albums and signed rarities with other music fans. Across the weekend 50 incredible independent labels will be setting up shop, including Domino, Bella Union, Moshi Moshi, Ninja Tune and Rough Trade to name a few.

The biggest Independent Label Market to date, this year there will be plenty of new additions including Rinse, Acid Jazz, Strut and Infectious (home to Mercury Prize winners Alt-J). There will also be a number of artist appearances across the weekend, but with these not being announced in advance, we'll have to turn up to find out if our favourite bands will be helping out on the stalls.





With the label founders manning booths and selling music directly to music fans, it's going to be a really exciting and social music buying experience. At the first Independent Label Market last year I chatted to Jarvis Cocker, acquired a Bella Union tea towel (now pride of place in my kitchen) and got my best friend a rare White Stripes vinyl, purchased from and signed by Richard Russell, founder of XL Recordings. As stocking fillers go, it was a big step up from the poncy candles.


The indies have enjoyed great critical and commercial success during 2012, with big album releases from Alt-J, The xx, Enter Shikari, Example, Jack White, Alabama Shakes, Madness, Grimes and First Aid Kit amongst many others, as well as the continued success of global superstar Adele. The labels hosting stalls this weekend are busily readying their wares and looking forward to celebrating a great year.



(Sunday Best's stall at the last Independent Label Market)


If you're a big music fan, this weekend's Independent Label Market is a must-do event. If you're not, well you probably know someone who is... So do them a favour, come down to Spitalfields and get them a decent Christmas present.

For details and updates on the Christmas Independent Label Market, visit the Official Facebook page here.


Now, who to give those poncy candles to...]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2017135 2012-10-30T11:59:43-04:00 2012-12-30T05:12:01-05:00

Lara Baker http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-baker/
Last night's proceedings were hosted by Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq (or 'the indie Ant n Dec' as we like to call them at AIM HQ), who have been long-term supporters of AIM and the independent sector, and involved in the awards from its humble beginnings in the basement of a Soho restaurant in 2011.

We've come a long way in 12 short months. This year's awards were held at Clerkenwell's The Brewery, and were attended by 650 of the music industry's finest, who assembled for a night celebrating the creative triumphs and endeavours of independent record labels, despite the fact that we rather cruelly held it on a cold Monday evening.

We were fortunate to have three great independent artists perform on the night; Frankie & the Heartstrings and recent Mute Records signings Big Deal and Land Observations, who performed in honour of Mute boss Daniel Miller, the recipient of our Pioneer Award. An iconic figure in electronic music and a widely respected member of the independent music community, Daniel wasn't expecting the performance and was suitably moved by the tribute, as well as video messages from Mute artists Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Liars and Josh T Pearson, who surprised guests with his version of 'Danny Boy'.

Guests were also visibly moved when Edwyn Collins collected his Outstanding Contribution to Music Award from Subway Sect's Vic Godard and Frankie & the Heartstrings, who's first album he produced. Edwyn overcame a life threatening stroke several years ago, and with the tireless help of his wife Grace has made an exceptional recovery, going on to make the defining album of his career and produce classic albums from The Cribs and others. Edwyn is an often-overlooked independent music hero, and there was a wonderful feeling of warmth and admiration in the room as he took to the stage.

If there's one thing to be noted about the list of AIM Awards winners (below), it's the sheer breadth of diversity and talent in the independent sector. The UK's independent labels and artists are such a hotbed of talent covering every musical genre, from underground artists through to the massive global success of Adele. Bands like Enter Shikari (winners of Independent Album of the Year) have rejected the major label model and gone on to thrive creatively and achieve huge success. It's a sector I'm incredibly proud to be part of, and a list of winners that really reflect the talent, passion and variety that independent music has to offer. Since the last British-owned major label (EMI) sold to Universal recently, the independents now are the British music industry.

Have a listen to the winners and nominees of the 2012 AIM Independent Music Awards on DrownedinSound's Spotify playlist here.


AIM INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS:

Best Live Act (voted for by visitors to the-fly.co.uk): The Prodigy

Independent Breakthrough Of The Year (in association with 7Digital): Alt - J

Hardest Working Band Or Artist: 65daysofstatic

Best Difficult Second Album: First Aid Kit - 'The Lion's Roar'

Independent Album Of The Year (In association with Bird & Bird): Enter Shikari - 'A Flash Flood Of Colour'

Best Small Label (in association with Sound Performance): Black Butter Records

Genre Spotlight Award: Wiley - 'Evolve Or Be Extinct'

Independent Entrepreneur Of The Year (in association with The Orchard): Simon Raymonde - Bella Union

PPL Award For Most Played Independent Act: Adele

Special Catalogue Release Of The Year: The 13th Floor Elevators - 'Music Of The Spheres'

Independent Label Of The Year (in association with EDC): 4AD

Indie Champion Award: Ian Evans - IME Music

Best Independent Festival (voted for by visitors to thisisfakediy.com): LeeFest

Outstanding Contribution to Music (in association with eMusic): Edwyn Collins

Pioneer Award (in association with Nokia Music): Daniel Miller, Mute]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1915491 2012-09-26T12:41:46-04:00 2012-11-26T05:12:02-05:00

Lara Baker http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-baker/
That said, music award shows like The Brits, The Mercurys, and hopefully in time the AIM Awards, do an important job in helping to shine a spotlight on the artists and releases nominated, providing a platform for those artists to gain more fans, more coverage and ultimately more sales of their music.

Several weeks ago, the AIM Awards judging panel met for a full day to select the nominees for this year's awards, which we can now reveal (below). From the outset it has always been our goal for the AIM Awards nominees and winners to be fully representative of the vast range of musical styles and genres that make up the independent music community. The word independent is often shortened to 'indie' and presumed to refer to "jingly jangly" guitar bands, but the independent music world has much more to offer. AIM's members are independent labels of all sizes, all music genres, from every corner of the UK. They are world leaders in drum & bass, jazz, metal, folk, grime, classical, dubstep and everything in between. The one thing they and their artists all have in common is independent spirit, which our judge Sean Adams of DrownedInSound wrote a great blog about, here.


(Renowned beatboxer Beardyman performs at the 2011 AIM Awards)

I have often looked at lists of award nominees and wondered how the list was selected, and by whom. We have assembled what we think is a great judging panel for the AIM Awards, with the likes of Pete Paphides, Ras Kwame, The Independent's Music Editor Elisa Bray, BBC 6Music presenter Tom Robinson and Metro's Music Editor Arwa Haidar amongst the radio producers, festival promoters, music journalists, DJs and bloggers on board. They specialise in many different areas of music, cover a vast range of ages and come from all over the UK.


(AIM judging panel Chair Tom Robinson, with Adele's Manager Jonathan Dickens at the 2011 AIM Awards)

Of course, with such a diverse collection of passionate people involved, the judging process saw its fair share of disagreement and debate, but it also saw a surprising amount of open-mindedness and willingness to listen. Egos and personal allegiances were left outside the room, and the judges worked as a group to ensure the best possible list of nominees was created.

Much of the judging day debate focused on defining the categories. How big is a 'small label'? Is an 'independent breakthrough' a new artist who has got the critics and music fans excited, or the artist who has sold the biggest numbers on their debut? Does relentless touring make you the 'hardest working band or artist', or is an artist running their own label more deserving of this accolade?

You won't agree with all the nominees. There will be some omissions that seem obvious, some nominees that you really don't think should be there. That's fine. In fact, please use the comments below to let us know what you think. But hopefully overall the list below is interesting, diverse, at times surprising, and anything but obvious or safe, just like the independent sector itself.

(For more about the AIM Awards, visit the AIM website, follow the AIM Awards on Twitter, like us on Facebook or check out my personal Twitter account.)



AIM INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES:

Best Live Act (voted for by visitors to thefly.co.uk)
The Cribs
Dub Pistols
Enter Shikari
The Prodigy
Frank Turner

Independent Breakthrough Of The Year (in association with 7Digital)
Alabama Shakes
Alt - J
Django Django
Grimes
Poliça

Hardest Working Band Or Artist
65daysofstatic
Cancer Bats
Enter Shikari
Frank Turner
Skinny Lister

Best Difficult Second Album
Admiral Fallow - Tree Bursts In Snow
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
Speech Debelle - Freedom Of Speech
The Invisible - Rispah
The Skints - Part & Parcel

Best Small Label (in association with Sound Performance)
Alcopop! Records
Black Butter Records
Brainfeeder
Pink Mist
Xtra Mile Recordings


Genre Spotlight Award
Broadcaster Ft Peggy Seeger - Folksploitation
Lorn - Ask The Dust
Neil Cowley Trio - The Face Of Mount Molehill
Netsky - 2
Wiley - Evolve Or Be Extinct

Independent Entrepreneur Of The Year (in association with The Orchard)
Alex Di Savoia - Aardvark Records
Chris Goss / Tony Colman / Tom Kelsey - Hospital Records
Louis Barabbas - Debt Records
Sam Dyson - Distiller Records
Simon Raymonde - Bella Union

Special Catalogue Release Of The Year
Amon Tobin - Amon Tobin
Madness - A Guided Tour Of Madness
Can - The Lost Tapes
The 13th Floor Elevators - Music Of The Spheres
Various Artists - The Original Sound Of Cumbia

Indie Champion Award
Olli Dutton - Obscene Strategies
Ian Evans - IME Music
Steve Lamacq - BBC 6music
Katie Parsons - Kerrang!
Shell Zenner - Amazing Radio

Best Independent Festival (voted for by visitors to thisisfakediy.com)
Bearded Theory
In The Woods Festival
Leefest
Truck Festival
Y Not Festival

PPL Award For Most Played Independent Act
Adele
Arctic Monkeys
Caro Emerald
Madness
Travis

Independent Album Of The Year (In association with Bird & Bird)
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour
Liars - Wixiw
Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
Rustie - Glass Swords

Independent Label Of The Year (in association with EDC)
4ad
Bella Union
Hospital Records
Hyperdub
Ninja Tune

Outstanding Contribution to Music (in association with eMusic): Recipient = Edwyn Collins

Pioneer Award (in association with Nokia): Recipient = Daniel Miller, Mute Records]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1839489 2012-08-30T19:00:00-04:00 2012-10-30T05:12:01-04:00

Lara Baker http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-baker/
Ivors, Brits, Grammys, Mercurys, Mobos, MITs, DMAs... the list of music industry awards shows really is as long as my arm, and then some. I'll admit, sometimes it seems not a week goes by without another list of nominees being announced and some pop star stumbling inebriated from an afterparty.

So why would AIM, the body looking after the UK's independent labels and their artists, decide to shoehorn one more awards show into the already full-to-bursting calendar? Surely the glitterati of the music world have more than enough rubber chicken dinners and bottles of bubbly, and plenty of trophies to line the shelves as it is?

I think that, perhaps, is how people view the music industry, and in a way I can understand why. But the independent sector is a different world altogether. Independent labels are run by people driven by their passion for and belief in music. They sign artists because they love them. They develop and stick with their artists even when the first album doesn't sell. They give their artists the freedom to be creative. They take risks because they believe in the music. But you'll rarely see a trophy on their shelves.

When we launched the first AIM Independent Music Awards last year, I knew there was an important job to be done in shining a spotlight on all the unsung heroes, brilliant entrepreneurs and incredible artists in the independent sector. I watched as not a single independent artist won a trophy at the Brits (despite Adele stealing the whole show with her Someone Like You performance), and knew that we had a job to do. But it couldn't be 'just another awards show', it had to mean something.

The response was overwhelming. We could have sold out the venue we booked three times over, and every single DJ, music journalist and critic we approached for our judging panel came back with a resounding 'YES'. On the night, the labels and artists jammed into the Soho restaurant basement screamed and cheered as they watched their peers and those who inspired them take to the stage to receive their trophies. Yes it sounds a little sickening, but a night celebrating their successes and hard work was long overdue. It was also particularly timely as many labels were coming to the end of their hardest year yet, having lost all of their stock in the SONY DADC warehouse fire during the August riots.





That was back in November 2011, so fast forward to August 2012 and myself and the AIM Awards team (all two of us) are headed full throttle towards the second AIM Independent Music Awards. If our labels have to deal with the 'difficult second album', this could well be our 'difficult second awards'. Having got off to such a great start last year, we now need to grow the event, without losing any of the meaning or intimacy that made the first so popular.

I think we're off to a great start. Both Huw Stephens (Radio 1) and Steve Lamacq (6Music) are signed up to present the show again, having been excellent hosts in the first year. Huw and Steve are independent music fans through and through, they share the passion and enthusiasm for great music that independent labels have.



Our judging panel are all back on board for 2012, with a few new additions, and they have selected Edwyn Collins to receive the Outstanding Contribution to Music prize (last year bestowed on Bjork). The highly influential ex-Orange Juice frontman, solo artist and record producer has overcome two successive brain haemorrhages, and has been a huge inspiration to many independent bands and artists including Frankie & the Heartstrings, The Heartbreaks and the Cribs.

Daniel Miller of Mute Records will be the recipient of the evening's Pioneer Award, for an influential record label founder. In the field of electronic music, Daniel is the very definition of a pioneer, and will receive his award on the night from good friend Laurence Bell of Domino Recording Co, last year's Pioneer Award recipient.

Both Edwyn and Daniel work tirelessly and have contributed vastly to the musical landscape. They have inspired so many, but rarely are they under the spotlight. On 29 October we will celebrate their contribution to music, and that of many others who make the UK independent sector one of the best in the World.

And if any of them stumble out of the afterparty inebriated... well good for them, they've earned it!

(For more about the AIM Awards, visit the AIM website, follow the AIM Awards on Twitter, like us on Facebook or check out my personal Twitter account.)]]>