As part of triple j’s Ausmusic Month, the annual J Awards were announced in Melbourne this afternoon, with D.D Dumbo emerging supreme as winner of Australian Album of the Year for his acclaimed 2016 release Utopia Defeated.
Also crowned winners at the ceremony today were Tash Sultana (Unearthed Artist of the Year) and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, who nabbed both the Double J Australian Artist of the Year award and the J Award for Australian Music Video of the Year for “People Vultures”.
Says Richard Kingsmill of the winning record of the year, “When D.D Dumbo arrived in 2013, we immediately loved his song “Tropical Oceans”. But after that, he went very quiet. Behind the scenes, we now know what he was working up. He’s been steering his sound along a very different path to most players on the scene today. Drawing from the 70’s icons like Captain Beefheart and Joni Mitchell, he’s also fed a lot off African guitar players for inspiration. He’s created a sound that is incredibly striking. It’s strong in both its vision and quality, and in a huge year for Australian releases, it also stood out for its inventiveness.”
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