SAY Award 2016: A guide to the longlist

If the average length of an album is half an hour, the 20 LPs which make up the 2016 SAY Award longlist comprise some 600 minutes of recorded music. That's a lot of tunes for even the keenest fan of the Scottish pop scene to digest. But Joe Public – that's you and us – will next week be given the chance to vote on which of these collections are most deserving of a place on the final shortlist.

From 13-15 June, aficionados will have 72 hours to pick their favourite album. The LP receiving the most votes will be guaranteed to make the cut, with the rest chosen by a 12-strong panel of judges. Only 10 records will be shortlisted, with the successful artists announced on 16 June. They'll then be invited to attend the awards night on Wednesday, 29 June at Paisley Town Hall, where the overall winner will be announced.

It's appropriate then to consider why this competition is worth all the bother. The SAY Award is not just another corporate bauble. It was established to promote the music industry's annual output north of the border – a firm reminder that bands do not need an N1 postcode to find commercial success – and offer a platform to established as well as up-and-coming artists based in the country. Of course, most groups will tell you awards don't matter when it comes to music. Integrity and art are all that count. But that doesn't mean they won't want to win.

Unlike the BRIT Award for best international male, this is not a trophy destined to become a door stop in a record executive's Hollywood condo. The inimitable Kathryn Joseph wasn't accustomed to full-page newspaper articles on her debut before she was named the 2015 winner. It boosted the songwriter's profile immeasurably and provided a handy £20,000 towards the recording of her next work. When The Skinny asked her how she felt moments after the announcement, she jumped up and down for a solid 10 seconds. It certainly beats Alex Turner nonchalantly dropping his microphone on ITV.

There's also the satisfaction of knowing your work is valued by your peers. Musos might be renowned for indulging in a spot of mutual back-slapping given the slightest opportunity, but the camaraderie on display at the SAY Award is genuine. Paolo Nutini, one of the shortlisted artists in 2015, may not be short of a bob or two but still couldn't hide his delight while attending last year's event at Glasgow's ABC. 

As you would expect from any longlist, there's a broad range of established bands, familiar faces and newer artists who work across a variety of styles – from jazz to art-rock. Some of the albums selected have prompted raised-eyebrows. But who wants to see an awards ceremony devoid of talking points?

Primal Scream's inclusion has perhaps attracted the most scorn – and not just because they've been proudly based in London for more than 20 years. Bobby Gillespie himself would be unlikely to claim Chaosmosis is the band's best effort; but then they have released 11 studio albums over a 30-year career. The LP – garish cover and all – is however another reinvention of sorts for the shape-shifting group, with a focus on upbeat synthpop rather than the hypnotic krautrock they took inspiration from around the dawn of the century. If nothing else, Bobby G and co have been banging the drum for Scottish music longer than most of the other bands longlisted have been alive.

When the Scottish Album of the Year Award was launched in 2012, few could have predicted that one day it would include the Mael brothers – Los Angeles' finest purveyors of art-rock for more than 40 years. But when Sparks teamed up with Franz Ferdinand, the FFS supergroup was born. Their self-titled debut remains one of 2015's most intriguing releases. If FFS do make the eventual shortlist, their presence at the awards night could bring some pop royalty glamour to proceedings. And there's no doubting Franz frontman Alex Kapranos would want to win. "I have an ego the size of the Greek national debt, as do all musicians I've ever met," he told The Skinny last year.

The SAY Award wasn't around when The Delgados were still releasing music. But Emma Pollock, once the linchpin of the Glasgow group, is on the longlist for In Search of Harperfield – probably her best solo work to date. It's among the early favourites for the title, and with stand-out tracks like Parks & Recreation, it's easy to see why. "The fact is I've been doing this 20 years and people are still willing to listen to me," she told us back in April. "It's reaffirming to know you can be a bit older in the industry, and a female, and still put a record out and have people want to listen."

Electronic music is also well represented. A longlist nomination has capped a stellar 12 months for Brian D'Souza, aka Auntie Flo. The Glaswegian producer's latest work, Theory of Flo, was recorded over two years in Havana, Glasgow and London, with musicians from the likes of Ghana as well as Cuba. Consequently, this is a record with a global sound and reach. Like FFS, it's a rich example of the benefits collaboration can bring to artists looking for new paths to explore.

Skinny regulars CHVRCHES, Steve Mason and 2014 winners Young Fathers are also on the longlist and likely to feature in the final 10. But the award is as much about promoting the work of up-and-coming artists as established players. Hoping to go one better than his 2015 Mercury Prize nomination will be Glaswegian virtuoso C Duncan – an artist who few people had heard of this time last year. The multi-instrumentalist's debut, Architect, won praise across the board – not bad for something he recorded on his tod over 12 months. "It was me just using whatever stuff I had in my bedroom," he revealed to us last September. "All my spare time I just spent doing that; I had real highs and lows, because obviously I was kind of isolated for a year."

Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based electronic composer Anna Meredith only released her debut album – the genre-bending Varmints – in March but already stands on the brink of winning national exposure if she makes the shortlist. Her live show, which we recently rated as "a fusion of classical stylings with glowing, electronic pulses... with an added sense of maximalist discipline," is sure to win her new fans regardless.

One notable stand-out on the longlist is Dunedin Consort, an Edinburgh-based Baroque ensemble. Their recording of J.S. Bach's Magnificat won rave reviews in the classical world for placing the work in its original liturgical context. Cut from very different cloth, but just as open to tackling difficult compositions, are Hector Bizerk. The hip-hop duo wrote The Waltz Of Modern Psychiatry as an original score for Nicola McCartney's play Crazy Jane.

Former BBC Young Folk Award winner Jarlath Henderson is in the running for his first solo album Hearts Broken, Heads Turned, while the fourth full-length release from folk group Lau has already proved popular among residents of Scotland's largest city. The Bell That Never Rang borrows its title from the story behind Glasgow's coat of arms.

Producer Miaoux Miaoux displayed his growing songwriting skills on School Of Velocity – which claimed a full 5/5 review from this very publication. The electro-pop maestro, aka Julian Corrie, is known for his work with other artists but his solo efforts could see him make the top 10 cut.

With this being a Scottish album award, it would be strange not to see the traditional music made famous in our country represented. Iain Morrison – once a member of indie band Crash My Model Car – was inspired by the melodies of traditional Highland piping for his sixth solo album, Eas. It was named album of the year by Roddy Hart's BBC radio show and could enjoy more success in Paisley.

Graeme 'The Revenge' Clark makes the longlist for Love That Will Not Die, a serious collection of original house compositions, while singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni will be able to call on her sizable online following to ensure her album of folk-noir ballads, Tied to the Moon, stands a chance of winning the popular vote.

With the likes of folk-pop veterans Admiral Fallow, Kanye-collaborating producer Hudson Mohawke and art-rock masters Django Django also in the running, cutting this longlist down to size will be a difficult task. But you can play your part in this fiendishly hard task by casting your vote online from 13 June. As any cliché-ridden football manager will tell you – you've got to be in it to win it.