In a time of resistance and protest around the world, the Australian Music Prize has been awarded to an indigenous duo whose album is a raised middle finger to a complacent middle Australia. Reclaim Australia, by hip hop duo A.B Original - Yorta Yorta man Briggs and Ngarrindjeri man Trials - is an angry, funny, plainspoken and brutal take on racism, police behaviour, political doublespeak and what it means to be something other than white, safe and in power. Taking its name b

An album forged from grief by an internationally renowned songwriter, a record made for $1000 by self-described “scummy little punks”, and a sonically complex hip-hop album more than 15 years in the making will compete for this year’s prestigious Australian Music Prize. The Shortlist for the 12th AMP, whose prize of $30,000 makes it the country’s richest cash reward for an album, features nine acts almost as diverse as the Australian music industry. The best known of the cont

First, but not last, end of year thing from this pen/keyboard. A summation of a year dominated by people who won't be making music again but not ruled by it because it was also a year driven by people who made music socially and politically relevant again, Also a top 10 that somehow doesn't include Nick Cave's Skeleton Tree. Still not sure how that happened. Can I have a Top 11 please? (I'll be writing about the top 10, or 11, or 20, elsewhere soon.) BLACK DAYS, BLACK STAR

Object all you like to their language, their aggression and their disdain for radio blatherers and racist mouthpieces in parliament, but one thing you can't deny about the Australian hip-hop duo A.B. Original is they won't die wondering. Their provocatively titled album, Reclaim Australia – a raised finger to the white supremacists who had assumed ownership of that term – is the most forthright, engaged and wholly committed political musical statement made here in a long time