The AIR Awards, which are put on by the Australian Independent Record Labels Association, recognise the best of Australian independent recording artists across several genre and format subcategories. After taking a year off in 2016, the event came to Adelaide for the first time, thanks to funding from the South Australian government’s Live Music Event Fund, and was held at the Queen Theatre.
Other winners included Violent Soho for their third album WACO, Julia Jacklin for her debut Don’t Let The Kids Win and Friendships for Nullabor 1988-1989. See the full list below.
BEST INDEPENDENT LABEL
Pieater
BREAKTHROUGH INDEPENDENT ARTIST OF THE YEAR
AB Original (Golden Era Records)
BEST INDEPENDENT ARTIST
AB Original (Golden Era Records)
BEST INDEPENDENT SINGLE
AB Original – ‘January 26’ feat Dan Sultan (Golden Era Records)
BEST INDEPENDENT ALBUM OR EP
AB Original – Reclaim Australia (Golden Era Records)
BEST INDEPENDENT HARD ROCK, HEAVY OR PUNK ALBUM
Violent Soho – WACO (I OH YOU)
BEST INDEPENDENT DANCE, ELECTRONICA OR CLUB SINGLE
Nick Murphy – ‘Stop Me (Stop You)’ (Future Classic)
BEST INDEPENDENT DANCE/ELECTRONICA ALBUM
Friendships – Nullabor 1988-1989 (Dot Dash/Remote Control)
BEST INDEPENDENT HIP HOP ALBUM
AB Original – Reclaim Australia (Golden Era Records)
BEST INDEPENDENT BLUES AND ROOTS ALBUM
Julia Jacklin – Don’t Let The Kids Win (Liberation Music)
BEST INDEPENDENT COUNTRY ALBUM
Henry Wagons – After What I Did Last Night (ABC Music)
BEST INDEPENDENT JAZZ ALBUM
James Morrison & Don Burrows – In Good Company (ABC Jazz)
BEST INDEPENDENT CLASSICAL ALBUM
Slava Grigoryan – Bach Cello Suites Vol 1 (ABC Classics)
