Gorillaz
Photo: Virgin

Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Gorillaz and Basement Jaxx are among the artists nominated for this year's Technics Mercury Music Prize, Britain's most prestigious annual music award. The prize is presented, along with £20,000 (approximately $28,000), to the English or Irish act whose album is voted the best of the year by an independent panel of music industry judges. The winner will be announced on September 11 in London.

Gorillaz, the cartoon-band brainchild of "Tank Girl" creator Jamie Hewlett and Blur frontman Damon Albarn, declined their nomination on Tuesday (July 24) with a press statement credited to their menacing (yet fictional) bassist, Murdoc, who called the prize "heavy ... like carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity." The band's Virgin Records rep confirmed that the refusal to accept the nomination was — unlike Gorillaz themselves — entirely real.

U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, expected by many to be in the running for the award, was not nominated.

Last year's prize went to Badly Drawn Boy, a.k.a. Damon Gough, whose experimental folk-pop record The Hour of Bewilderbeast beat out efforts by Coldplay, Death in Vegas and Richard Ashcroft, among others (see "Badly Drawn Boy Wins Prestigious Mercury Music Prize"). Other past winners include Talvin Singh (for OK in 1999), Gomez (Bring It On, 1998), Roni Size/Reprazent (New Forms, 1997) and Pulp (Different Class, 1996).

The complete list of nominees for the 2001 Technics Mercury Music Prize:

• Basement Jaxx - Rooty
• Elbow - Asleep in the Back
• Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
• Gorillaz - Gorillaz
• Ed Harcourt - Here Be Monsters
• PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
• Tom McRae - Tom McRae
• Radiohead - Amnesiac
• Susheela Raman - Salt Rain
• Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World
• Turin Brakes - The Optimist LP
• Zero 7 - Simple Things

• Gorillaz
• Radiohead
• Goldfrapp
• Super Furry Animals
• Basement Jaxx

Alison Goldfrapp
Photo: Mute Records

NEW YORK — If her U.S. live debut Wednesday at Bowery Ballroom is any indication, Alison Goldfrapp's got all kinds of vocal tricks up her sleeve, and she's not in the least bit afraid to use them. With the aid of her Goldfrapp bandmate Will Gregory and more than a few new-age gadgets at her beck and call, Goldfrapp's performance was at once retro and futuristic, otherworldly and rooted in American jazz. In all, the duo — whose 2000 album, Felt Mountain, has garnered favorable comparisons to trip-hoppers Portishead and Massive Attack — managed to make a cohesive whole out of some very disparate parts. Following a set by knob-twiddlers Plaid ("They're not really entertainers," remarked one attendee), the capacity crowd patiently waited for Goldfrapp to take the stage. Posters bearing the frontwoman's millennial flapper-girl visage stared in from every corner. Laid back, ethereal beats bumped from the house speakers while Moby chatted up his manager atop the VIP balcony and chin-scratching critics milled about the floor. Goldfrapp made her grand entrance following a noir instrumental courtesy of Gregory and their touring band. Outfitted in of-the-moment military chic, the former vocal muse for Tricky and Orbital stood her ground in red stilettos, firmly planted. When the frontwoman began singing through one of three awaiting microphones, her vocals evoked another time and place. Equal parts Billie Holiday, Björk, Shirley Bassey, Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell and a classically trained opera singer, Goldfrapp's small frame served as a medium for multiple, multifarious voices.

After the moody, calliope-infused "Paper Bag," Goldfrapp belted out the slow-burn diatribe of Felt Mountain's latest single, "Human." "Are you human/ Or a dud?" she snarled at the responsive and equally vocal audience. Punctuated with dissonant scratches and Bond-movie symphonics, the song worked the crowd into a hot, swirling frenzy.

For the next two numbers ("Felt Mountain," "Lovely Head") the singer bounced from one effects-processed mic to the next, sounding like a vocal theremin one moment, a golden-throated, modern Madame Butterfly the next. Retreating into a more demure landscape for "Deer Stop," Goldfrapp revealed yet another face as the frontwoman crooned her way through the sad, Sarah Vaughan-esque song in a hushed, almost shy voice.

The surprise of the night came in the band's encore, a Casio-driven take on Olivia Newton-John's "Physical." As if to prove Goldfrapp's not all about gloom and doom and lost love, the band showed its sense of humor with a trip-hopped take on the early-'80s hit. At the end of the brief, emotional roller coaster ride — the set lasted less than an hour — the band showcased an as-yet-untitled new song. Whether or not Goldfrapp will be taking the piece into the studio remains to be seen, according to a spokesperson for their label. Though they will only be making a handful of Stateside stops this time around (see "Goldfrapp Come Down Felt Mountain For Tour"), Goldfrapp are planning another U.S. tour for the fall, their spokesperson said.

• Goldfrapp
• Plaid

Alison Goldfrapp
Photo: Mute Records

Buoyed by the critical success of their debut LP, Felt Mountain, Goldfrapp — former Tricky singer Alison Goldfrapp and composer Will Gregory — will visit North America for the first time in May.

The Bath, England, duo's brief jaunt begins May 2 in New York at the Bowery Ballroom and wraps up at Chicago's annual Noise Pop festival on May 10.

Alison Goldfrapp appeared on outspoken trip-hop pioneer Tricky's 1995 album Maxinquaye, as well as on U.K. techno outfit Orbital's Snivilisation in 1994.

Goldfrapp, currently touring Europe, blends melancholy vocals, ambient atmospherics and classical music on Felt Mountain, garnering her comparisons to Icelandic electro-songstress Bjork.

Goldfrapp tour dates according to Mute Records:

• 5/2 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
• 5/4 - Montreal, Quebec @ Le Spectrum
• 5/5 - Toronto, Ontario @ Lee's Palace
• 5/8 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
• 5/9 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
• 5/10 - Chicago, IL @ Schuba's (Noise Pop Festival)

• Goldfrapp

MTV.com Exclusive: Goldfrapp Photos 12.07.2005

• Goldfrapp