Taite Music Prize 2013 Finalists Announced

The finalists for this years Taite Music Prize have been announced with the first ever winner of the award, Lawrence Arabia, nominated for the second time for his latest album The Sparrow. He goes up against Home Brew for their already award winning self-titled debut, Collapsing Cities for their sophomore album Strangers Again, Opossom for their debut album Electric Hawaii, @Peace for their selft-titled debut, SJD for his sixth album Elastic Wasteland and last but not least Aaradhna for her debut album Treble & Reverb.

The winner will be announced on Wednesday 17th April at a ceremony to be held at Galatos Live in Auckland.

Press Release:

The finalists for the Taite Music Prize 2013 have now been confirmed. Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of the country’s most highly respected music journalists, this will be the fourth year for the award. The Taite Music Prize’s purpose is to recognise outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one album. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, to be spent as they wish. The cash prize is kindly supplied by PPNZ Music Licensing.The winner will also receive recording time at the Red Bull Studios and a year’s supply of Red Bull.

This year’s finalists, from a lengthy list of nominations submitted by record labels both independent and major from across the country, are:

@Peace – @Peace (Frequency Media Group)
Aaradhna – Treble & Reverb (Frequency Media Group)
Collapsing Cities – Strangers Again (Pastel Pistol)
Home Brew – Home Brew (Young Gifted & Broke / Frequency Media Group)
Lawrence Arabia – The Sparrow (Honorary Bedouin)
OPOSSOM – Electric Hawaii (CRS Records)
SJD – Elastic Wasteland (Round Trip Mars)

The voting panel to determine the finalists was made up of a broad section of music media/industry specialists alongside all current members of Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ). There will be a second round of judging by a selected music panel to decide the eventual winner. The judges will make their decision based entirely on the artistic merit of the album(s). Sales, genres, artist recognition or popularity are not contributing factors in their decision-making process.

The selected music panel for 2013 is made up of the following persons:

Finalist Judging Panel for Taite Music Prize 2013

- Gary Steel (writer, editor, journalist at large)
- Grant Smithies (Sunday Star Times)
- Jan Hellriegel (IMNZ member / Native Tongue Music Publishing)
- Lydia Jenkin (NZ Herald Entertainment)
- Damian Vaughan (NZ Licensing Manager, APRA)
- Leonie Hayden (Editor, RipItUp)
- Murray Cammick (freelance DJ / music doyen)
- Nick Atkinson (The Music Mix / Radio NZ)
- Ren Kirk (Editor, theaudience.co.nz)
- Sandra Hopping (IMNZ member/ Ode Records)
- John Taite (BBC America)

Dylan Pellett, Business Development Manager at IMNZ says, “it has been another proud year for local album releases with 75 nominations to this year’s event. This proves that our culture and our identity is quite healthy and represented across all music genres – and that is something to be celebrated. I’ve enjoyed discovering interesting new gems that had passed me by throughout the year – I’d urge any music fan to bend an ear to the full list of albums nominated”.

The overall award winner will be announced on the 17th of April at an invitation-only event at Galatos Live in Auckland’s central city. The event will include live performances from previous nominee Julia Deans and another artist who is yet-to-be-announced.

The Taite Music Prize 2013:

Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of the country’s most highly respected music journalists, this will be the fourth year for the award. In a similar vein to several international awards, The Taite Music Prize’s purpose is to recognise outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one album. The winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, to be spent as they wish. The cash prize is kindly supplied by PPNZ Music Licensing.The winner will also receive recording time at the Red Bull Studios and a year’s supply of Red Bull.

Acknowledging originality, creativity and musicianship regardless of sales figures or genre, The Taite Music Prize was established to champion the finest release by a New Zealand artist or group – the previous winners have all been excellent albums that demonstrate these criteria well.

The finalist albums will be selected by votes from all IMNZ members and a selected judging group - comprising musicians, record label representatives, music journalists and radio staff. There will then be a secondary group of ten music judges that will decide the overall winner.

The judges will make their decision based entirely on the music on the finalist albums. Sales, genres, artist recognition or popularity are not contributing factors in their decision making process. The winner will then be announced at a presentation in Auckland on 17th April 2013. The event will be live-streamed to the public via NZ Herald Online.