Irish artists have featured strongly in the nominations for this year's prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Electronic diva and queen of all things cool, Roisín Murphy, has been shortlisted for her critically received album Hairless Toys while teenage Derry singer SOAK also received a nod for her debut album Before We Forgot How to Dream.
Remarkably it's the first Mercury nomination for Wicklow woman Murphy, whose latest album - a mix of downbeat disco and haunting future pop- was her first proper release since 2007's Overpowered.
The singer-songwriter took to Twitter to express her delight and later told BBC 6 Music that she's working on a new album which she said is "more loose, more raw" than Hairless Toys.
I'VE BEEN NOMINATED FOR @MercuryPrize !!!!!!!!
— Roisin Murphy (@roisinmurphy) October 16, 2015
The nomination for SOAK (real name Bridie Monds-Watson) caps a remarkable year for the young Derry singer whose debut album - which she started writing aged 14- has received widespread acclaim. Before the album's release earlier this year she told TEN she was worried that the album would disappoint.
"The idea of disappointing people in any way kind of scares me," she said. Little fear of that now.
Rising indie star SOAK
Other Irish interest in today's nominations includes a nod for Limerick-born Aphex Twin, aka Richard D James, who was shortlisted for his Grammy Award winning album Syro. The album, his first release in thirteen years, was also previously nominated here for the Meteor Choice Music Prize.
Aphex Twin on the decks
There were also nods for debut artist, C Duncan, a Scottish musician whose entire debut album, Architect, was recorded solo in his bedroom last year, Florence + The Machine for the chart topping album How Big How Blue How Beautiful, Wolf Alice for My Love is Cool and British-Zimbabwean singer Eska for her self titled album.
There's also nominations for Jamie xx for his debut album In Colour, former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes for Matador, rock group Slaves for Are You Satisfied, spoken word artist, Ghostpoet, for the album Shedding Skin and Benjamin Clementine for his album At Least for Now.
The winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize will be announced on November 20.
