Avant-garde rapper Backxwash has won the 2020 Polaris Music Prize for her album 'God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It'. Backxwash, the stage name of performer Ashanti Mutinta, blends gothic elements of rap and metal music with her own personal experiences with faith, family and her queer identity. Also nominated were Caribou, Junia-T, Kaytranada, nêhiyawak, Pantayo, Lido Pimienta, Jessie Reyez, U.S. Girls, and Witch Prophet.

The 2020 short list for the Polaris Music Prize has been officially unveiled, with 10 albums for the Canadian music prize whittled down from a 40 albums list. One grand prize of $50,000 will be awarded on October 19. The other short list contenders will receive prizes of $3,000 each.

The nominees are:

Backxwash - 'God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It'
Caribou - 'Suddenly'
Junia-T - 'Studio Monk'
Kaytranada - 'Bubba'
nêhiyawak - 'nipiy'
Pantayo - 'Pantayo'
Lido Pimienta - 'Miss Colombia'
Jessie Reyez - 'Before Love Came to Kill Us'
U.S. Girls - 'Heavy Light'
Witch Prophet - 'DNA Activation'

"'Suddenly' is drenched in wonderful melodies – behind the bedroom-bound sonic boffin image, Snaith is a really good songwriter – and packed with moments more obviously pop-facing than anything previously released" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis writes about Caribou's new album (gave it 5 of 5 stars). He especially likes the way Dan Snaith sings - "You don’t realise how accustomed your ears have become to Auto-Tuned perfection until you hear someone who actually sounds like a human being rather than a cyborg programmed to perform vocal calisthenics: it hits you emotionally in a way that melismatic feats of strength and endurance simply don’t". Listen to the album in full at Bandcamp.

Brooklyn Vegan made a good choice of new songs of the week. There are Petbrick, new industrial project from former Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera and Big Lad’s Wayne Adams, with guest vocals by Laima Leyton; Texas collective Golden Dawn Arkestra with their French pop-post-punk-krautrock-tropicalia project; first new Caribou song in five years; Sebastian give us pulsating new […]