Rustie, Mogwai, Moffat and more for Scotland's first Mercury-esque Music Prize

Rumoured to originally have been titled, Scottish Music Will Never Die, But You Will, the SAY Award is set to underscore how much terrific comes out of Scotland.

Here's the skinny:

The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award is an ambitious new national prize established to reward and promote the diversity and creativity of music and art in Scotland. Developed by the Scottish Music Industry Association, in partnership with Creative Scotland, the award recognises the most outstanding albums released by Scottish artists in 2011. The SAY Award will place its focus on artistic merit rather than sales history, genre or label affiliation, offering £20,000 to the winning album and £1,000 to each of the nine runners-up.

Employing a progressive format and a clear commitment to engage with all sectors of the music industry, the award will provide a unique platform from which Scotland’s finest albums can be championed. The relationship between music and art is recognised too, with a £20,000 art commission offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools. The successful graduate will produce a unique artwork for each of the shortlisted finalists.

This inaugural award features a long list of twenty records, including DiS favourites Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat, Found, Rustie, Remember Remember and Mogwai. To see the full list and to find out more visit sayaward.com. And yeah, if you look under the list of judges you'll see some familiar names.