Arabia's night at the indies

The inaugural Taite Music Prize, presented by Independent Music NZ, has appropriately gone to the very independent James Milne, aka Lawrence Arabia, for his album ‘Chant Darling’. In a short, neatly packaged ceremony, held (under a blue moon) in downtown Auckland on the last evening of March, Milne added a new perspex trophy and $10,000 to the 2009 Silver Scroll Award which he won last September for the album’s most pop-py track Apple Pie Bed.

And it was indeed a win for Kiwi indie pop, with Milne’s fellow finalists happening to cover off four other indie genres: The Checks (‘Alice By The Moon’); Shapeshifter (‘System Is A Vampire’), Kerretta (‘Vilayer’) and David Dallas (‘Something Awesome’).

The idea of this new IMNZ award is to provide a focus on artistic and creative excellence, the finest release by a NZ act, with nominations taken from IMNZ’s indie label membership. It was named after the late Dylan Taite, who was, for many years one of NZ’s most respected and creative music journalists. Funding for the cash prize came from PPNZ, and the organisation’s MD Kristen Bowman introduced Dylan’s wife Jackie Taite.

Following a brief video montage of vintage Taite on-screen antics and an introduction to the five nominees (of whom only The Checks were in the country and the room), the award was presented by Jackie Taite. With Milne currently in the US starting on a lengthy tour, the award was accepted on Milne’s behalf by publicist Charlotte Ryan.

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