What's New in New Zealand Music?

Fantastic new NZ Indiepop compilation, definitely will follow up on a mess of these bands:

http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/t-e-m-p-o-r-a-r-y

Hmm this probably didn’t help – it’s mostly pretty hard to access if you don’t live here!

Eleven years later, things are a bit better! To hear about Kiwi music, Radio New Zealand's Music 101 show archive is a revelation, hours of interviews and features every Saturday, mainly NZ artists. The NZ On Air Music page on Soundcloud shares a lot of new tracks too, a bit hit-and-miss by nature. But even those two don't come close to covering everything.

Young Gifted & Broke is a music/art collective with some cool stuff on it. @Peace (At Peace) have split up now, but they left off with an album last year, @Peace & the Plutonian Noise Symphony, very woozy and spacey, got compared to Outkast a lot. They also featured on 'May 11th' with Team Dynamite. The two @Peace MCs are now in Australia as the Average Rap Band (funny interview with Tom Scott and Lui Tuiasau here). Some other tracks I like on the same label – 'Heartbeat' by Esther Stephens and the Means ft. Hone Be Good, and 'Culture Clash' by Estère. Hmm this probably didn't help.

http://urbankill.tumblr.com/post/125341800988/youre-not-invited-new-zealands-underground

This is an amazing collection of what is good in NZld underpants now and recent past.

The Stream of Nonsenseness EP's video has dropped – or in this case, five videos. This Average Rap Band is above average if you ask me. The intention was for Scott and Tuiasau to record some rap 'exercises' as a respite after their previous projects, and it shows – it's great fun.

Video playlist is here (for all the tracks except the interlude)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK2e613BYic&index=1&list=PLWNq0iKxaFQrmpSxEjg7DuF2qaT-wbikT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Ke1ccRxG4

Now for the best bit of the thread, where we see what NZ music finished 453rd in the ILM End-of-Year 2015 polls! Well, this some of it – there may be more Kiwis in there. At this point it's basically "what etc put" (hope etc doesn't mind), and omitting stuff already mentioned here.

Descriptions are from the artists/Bandcamp and other wordy people. Suffice to say, there's some cracking stuff in here...

ALBS

Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing – Scrying in Infirmary Architecture (comedy folk gothic industrial no wave post-punk religious)

Ron Gallipoli – Agrocomplex (ambient experimental industrial tropical Auckland)

She's So Rad – Tango (fuzz)

Mareko – Hong Kong Food City (all the real life shit…)

Coolies – Kaka (punk reggaeton beatmaking female mc oi)

(mine:) Caitlin Blake – Neo Tokyo EP (samamammmple-based)

TRAKES

She's So Rad – "Cool It" ("mad Brian May")

and

i.e. crazy – "You're a Stranger (to me now)" (alternative blood yodel breakups)

And with a staggering 2 votes, The Magnets with their excellent song "Lorde", well done her. Yet another prestigious award :)

Lately I've been easily impressed with:

Scuba Diva's "Marimba" (a sparse yet hooky slice of... uh... good)

A great interview with Mille Lovelock from Astro Children http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/201787465/astro-children

And a new track from these guys and girls: Stack & Piece x CampusKit - "Break Control" (feat. Diaz Grimm, LarzRanda and Samahra Eames)

^ Clearly, it's a celebration of the cricket season, through the coded messages

"I won't let it bounce away"

and LarzRanda's

"I feel less afraid and a lot more BOWLED"

http://img.cricketcb.com/i/news/fth/300x200//stories/2015/mar/28/prv_97813_1427603303.jpg defend dammit

I quite like Death And The Maiden, Fazerdaze, and Shifting Sands. All sort of neo-shoegazey indie.

Ka mau te wehi! http://thespinoff.co.nz/featured/30-07-2016/good-news-looks-like-radio-hauraki-has-figured-out-how-to-pronounce-its-own-name/

Awesome

Really enjoying what Margins is doing https://marginslabel.bandcamp.com/releases

^ Thx! Love that K2K track.

Not an entirely new song, but the new Poi E movie is really good. It's not so much a doco about the song as about the people who were involved – perhaps that's why it seems (to me) to also be a film about loss. Even as the song endures, some key players are no longer around to talk about it, and a question is asked in the movie, "what if Poi E hadn't existed?". It's still well worth remembering how unlikely a hit it was.

The Maui Dalvanius Prime documentary on NZ on Screen covers slightly different ground, but it tells some of the same story.

Silver Scrolls awards are on just now - http://www.radionz.co.nz/collections/silver-scrolls/silver-scrolls-2016, with live video on RNZ.

Not quite a "best of 2016", but Loop's mixtape from May was pruddy good. Featuring Bailey Wiley, Miloux and Yoko-Zuka:

https://soundcloud.com/loopcrew/lpmt007

But the year belonged to Aaradhna:

http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/refusing-award-aaradhna-stays-true-to-brown-girl

http://thespinoff.co.nz/music/18-11-2016/repost-the-spinoffs-july-2016-aaradhna-interview-on-racism-and-the-music-industry/

A previous NZ Music Awards event had inspired her to pen ‘Brown Girl’, she said. “There was this guy and my friend heard him shout so many racist things, and that’s what pushed me to write this song.”

“I have always dealt with those moments ever since I was young.”

In solidarity with Aaradhna's courage, we at ILM have decided to place a bunch of bands in the category of white people, or something

Thinking of making a thread on this subject (not only for NZ):

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/201853309/apra-aim-for-gender-equity

I wonder if that's a result of the Equalise My Vocals & assoc panels/agitation? Fingers crossed, eh.

Like what I've heard from the new SWIDT album, Stoneyhunga.

Glad Kings & Alien Weaponry made the Silver Scrolls longlist but I suspect/dread it's gonna go to one of the alt-folk-y types this year.

k2k's got a new EP out on Margins if you haven't heard it, sbahhof.

I thought the k2k ep was getting a 7" vinyl release but I can't seem to find it..

What's been new in 2017?

TELL ME

Apart from

Estère, who's on fire rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-h2dS2GUlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUbtgDsVmoE

So far she's released half the album, My Design, also including "Ambition" https://youtu.be/zJdyRmg5n1s

So Below in club banger mode

https://soundcloud.com/sobelowsound/ruin-sombear-remix-1

Indi (Indira Force) is having a good year – a solo album Precipice (title track here) and an astonishing ambient collaboration with violinist Anita Clark, The Dying Light:

https://newdawn1.bandcamp.com/album/the-dying-light

And K2K's extremely chill EP, as mentioned [NOT VINYLED YET]

https://marginslabel.bandcamp.com/album/mar-003-k2k-sugar-ep

Has anyone mentioned Surf City? They're almost a Flying Nun circa early 90s pastiche but with some great songs. If the Flying Nun roster were like the Premier League table, I'd have the Chills, the Bats, the Clean and Straitjacket Fits occupying the Champions League spots, Surf City would be somewhere towards the bottom of table with Garageland.

Hey Grantman, you may like Search & Destroy: Flying Nun &
Flying Nun 25th Anniversary box set

Surf City got mentioned in the Arch Hill records thread – some stuff is on Bandcamp/Spotify, but the Kudos album isn't available to stream apparently.

2017 NZ albums, what are yours?

A posse of ILMers are losing their shit over Thread of Aldous Harding - eccentric 'gothic folk' NZ singer songwriter so that's good.

The NZMA awards on Thursday, several awards went to Lorde obv - also two for SWIDT's Welcome to Stoneyhunga as mentioned by etc. This was their performance:

- http://www.maifm.co.nz/home/vids/2017/swidt-perform--player-of-the-day--at-the-vnzmas-2017.html

- http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/lorde-and-jacinda-ardern-gave-us-the-defining-moment-of-the-nz-music-awards

Apparently Maisey Rika withdrew herself from the Māori Artist award, in order to support the younger musicians. It was won by Teeks' smooth soul EP, The Grapefruit Skies.
'

A few more albums...

Ria Hall makes a play for history with Rules of Engagement, an album years in the making, and which should have appeal well beyond 2017:

- https://riahall.bandcamp.com/album/rules-of-engagement

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0638701128_7.jpg

The key inspiration for this work is the letter scripted by Henare Taratoa (Ngāi Te Rangi) in March 1864 to the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey. This letter outlined the way in which both Māori and British should conduct themselves during war, namely the battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pa) in my tribal area of Tauranga Moana. This code of conduct was known as the Rules of Engagement, and is where this album takes its name from.

Forgot to mention Tei's mixtape from earlier in the year, OMW:

- https://teimusic.bandcamp.com/album/omw

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1715241857_7.jpg

And Yumi Zouma's latest, Willowbank, as nom'd elsewhere:

- https://yumizouma.bandcamp.com/album/willowbank

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0997252318_7.jpg

For the making of Willowbank, Yumi Zouma's members — Charlie Ryder, Josh Burgess, Christie Simpson and Sam Perry — settled on a plan to reunite for the New Zealand summer. To complete what would become their first significant work written and recorded entirely in their home country, they rented a studio in Christchurch’s semi-demolished CBD, on one of the few remaining blocks that still characterizes the city from before it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes. “It was as though there was a brief pause in all of our lives and we finally felt like a band from New Zealand,” said Burgess. “We were on home turf and creating from a place that felt fundamentally natural.”

Hey, sbahnhof, keep forgetting to thank you for boosting the Ria Hall album and Estère EPs - while I'm probably not as up on them as you are, spending more time listening to them has been great. The whole Loop Recordings / Wgtn jazz-school thing had put me off a little (early aughts PTSD), but they're both a lot richer than that. Having an Irish transplant / Erykah Badu fan asking for local recommendations was another good reason to engage, as well. Could have sworn I'd mentioned the tei. mixtape here, but must have been somewhere else.

Quite a strange choice of group name, but this came out of nowhere to pretty great effect:

Babyface - Dirty South Pacific
https://growroomakl.bandcamp.com/album/dirty-south-pacific

Looking forward to the new Coco Solid mixtape, COKES, on Waitangi Day, eh.

Under The Radar's EOY playlist and roundup are pretty catholic:

http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13685/Stream-Our-2017-End-Of-Year-Playlist.utr

http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13696/2017-End-Of-Year-Round-Up.utr

My god, with this kind of voting bloc, something Kiwi might even reach the top 777!

Thanks for your panic-nominning, Etc, it's all here

- ILM's 2017 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / NOMINATIONS THREAD

That SoccerPractice album is very good, I'd totally overlooked it:

- https://soccerpractise.bandcamp.com/album/soccerpractise

- http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018623054/soccerpractice-discuss-their-excellent-debut
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3367875804_7.jpg

Other NZ stuff in the EOY includes Lorde, Aldous Harding and SWIDT, and others?

Mermaidens' album Perfect Body

- https://mermaidens.bandcamp.com/album/perfect-body-3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP6jUTd-jfY

Nadia Reid's Preservation

- https://nadiareid.bandcamp.com/album/preservation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jN1BfSLbzg

That Nadia Reid album is so good, feel like a lot of ppl on ilm would like it?

really great recommendation, thanks! video is cool too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=67&v=0jN1BfSLbzg

Yeah, I have a soft spot for "Richard" - she's great live, too. Some surprisingly Eno/Buckley-ish textures on the album.

Meanwhile, a few days until
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DU1AoHOVoAErWBD.jpg

Don't forget Coco Solid's Aroha Bridge is coming back too. It's a cartoon and almost a documentary:

- https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/aroha-bridge-2013/series

Some great concerts are taking place for Waitangi Day 2018 in some locations...

- https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018630566/waiata-on-waitangi-day

Finally, a song to sing when someone is carrying a bag which looks heavy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQaxGJcRRg

(story of the song & video on this page)

Oh yeah also

New Zealand has an act called Jeremy Corbyn Sound System

They played this festival, and that's all we know so far

- https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13413/A-Gathering-In-The-Forest-Announces-Lineup-For-2018.utr

Astro Children's new single is more chill and less lo-fi for them. Surprisingly they've put a donk a synth on it.

And frontwoman Millie Lovelock interviews as entertainingly as ever:

- https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/09-03-2018/astro-children-the-only-dunedin-sound-i-have-ever-cared-about-is-my-own/

No one in Dunedin is safe! Also, that grafitti thing that she mentions (Chills mural defaced by a new band seeking notoriety), doesn't really make anyone look good...

Dear BBC 6 Music listeners – sorry & you're welcome for The New Radiohead, NZ band Groeni (pronounced...."Groany"?), who may not have realized they were such a tribute act. But hey, it's working for them. Even got played on Radio 3's Late Junkshop, so they're def doing very well. Luv u Groany.

(The R3 host calls them "Groiny", in fact)

And now

IT'S REGGAE O'CLOCK
once an hour :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAGqGgsYup8

Etc's linking of this interview-article about Tomorrow People is a good reminder that reggae is really popular in NZ, so it probably needs a mention itt :-) Or is it just Six60 dominating the NZ-only singles chart?

https://s26.postimg.org/yhum4fx2x/NZ-top-six60-singles-19mar2018.png

Imagine five months of that with a 6-track EP - they controlled the NZ-only chart even more with a full album, though their sound is less reggae-ish now. Bands like that might be the Kiwi music with the most long-running appeal in NZ – helped by reggae's prominence in movies like Mt Zion starring Stan Walker, and The Pā Boys. It can't only be people at BBQs listening to it...

Sort've wished the interview had teased out things re, say, their popularity vs Ria Hall's rather than putting all NZ reggae / Aotearoa roots / dub / whatevs stuff in the same basket. (etc)

Well, Rules of Engagement got to number 6, but maybe it's a simple case of being more 'challenging' thematically that it didn't become more popular? Dunno if interludes in Te Reo from the '60s are what the kids are streaming these days. I hope they are, but not at all sure. BTW, don't reggae and roots mean the same something similar? Obv Tomorrow People are playing a very poppy variant of those. Reggae is usually best imo when it's political and extremely pissed-off, like Herbs, or, uh, Sons of Zion? (For bemused ILMers, the music's popularity here goes back to the Māori rights and Pacific anti-nuclear protest movements of the 1980s.)

https://s26.postimg.org/eie004hm1/whats.jpg

In pop atm, the solo musician October is on a run of four decent-to-great singles, but might win the Unpopular Populism star prize without some urgent Spotify fixing. New song "1000 Eyes" is her most polished, but maybe least distinctive https://youtu.be/dPtzNAoI1OU ... The previous one "All She Does Is Stare" was more representative of, as one writer cautiously called it, "a zero f***s approach". She don't give a fly*** eff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVfUKiKrww

nm, "1000 Eyes" is just great

Hamish Kilgour of The Clean Has A New Solo Album Coming Out This Summer

Ba Da Bing will be releasing Finklestein, on July 6th

It’s our second record with Hamish, and we’re happy to brag we’re the only label who has ever released a Hamish Kilgour solo record! Take that Cleano Productions!

The Clean member Hamish Kilgour's second-ever solo album, Finklestein, flips the singer/guitarist/drummer's path taken on All of It and Nothing. Having previously gone for intimate, minimalistic performances, Finklestein displays a chock-full production quality akin to a fairytale. It's a fitting change, seeing as the songs are based around a children's story Kilgour conceived for his son about a kingdom that invents a way of dealing with their depleting gold resources. The songs include organ, saxophone, pedal steel, piano, vibraphone, harmonica, even footsteps (Hamish is renowned for his stepping), most of it performed by Kilgour and his producer/collaborator Gary Olsen at Olsen's studio, Marlborough Farms in Brooklyn. Originally conceived as being a children's book as well as album, Finklestein rides roughshod through this fairytale world with grace.

Finklestein took a year to record, as Hamish's involvement with a large part of the Brooklyn music scene, as well as dates with recent New Zealand Music Hall of Fame inductees The Clean, split his time. His songs benefit from this elongated recording period, as each track creates its own space within the Finklestein world, mixing instruments and melodies in a rainbow of ways. Yet it's Kilgour's songwriting sensibilities that hold the album together, his charismatic and loose arrangements within a congenial environment of musical play.

For more information, please write Ben and Katie at press at badabingrecords.com

Thought there was a thread all about The Clean and/or their kind of music, but couldn't find one.

Apparently there are nine threads for them O_O They win ILM! Most recent two you could use are The Clean - Compilation + The Clean Anthlogy and there other material

NZ Music Month, or is it?

http://thewireless.co.nz/system/production/content_images/images/000/003/471/full/NZMM-01-v2.gif?1462220757

Pop musician October has released her album, Ultra Red. A set of beautiful pop songs disguised as ugly industrial fuzz:

- https://open.spotify.com/album/3sLYZtrcfagCOYEv8L1IBa

https://www.muzic.net.nz/images/news/7501.jpg

Rei has unveiled his Māori-language hip hop EP, Rangatira:

- https://musicbyrei.bandcamp.com/album/rangatira

- http://musicnation.co.nz/rei-releases-groundbreaking-te-reo-maori-ep-rangatira

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1739189705_7.jpg

JessB is a possible new hip hop star – she brought out the EP Bloom in March. Latest video is "Set It Off", with cameos :)

- https://basefm.co.nz/jessb-set-it-off

- https://soundcloud.com/ogjessb/sets/bloom-ep

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music118/v4/c6/86/31/c686310b-ef52-e39d-95ac-26c73c83a710/192562225240.jpg/200x0w.jpg

Estère's two-part album is done now, My Design, On Others' Lives:

- https://estere.bandcamp.com/album/my-design-on-others-lives

Also recently, the new album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food ... Metal band Alien Weaponry's bilingual debut album, Tū, is out tomorrow ... New Zealand's fourth most popular independent music award, the Taite Music Prize, was criticized for an exclusionary voting system, and during the ceremony the ashes of the Headless Chickens' Grant Fell (Ngāpuhi) were scattered onto the stage, a major no-no in Māori culture due to the sanctity of human remains ... Coco Solid was unimpressed with NZ music's response to the gender equality campaign Equalise My Vocals: "Now what? The industry needs to use it's resources and platforms for better & not leave it to 2 tired queer women of colour with a crowdfunded 5k to do all the fucking work".

David Dallas brought out the video to "Probably", the fourth single from the album Hood Country Club cos he's South Auckland AF

- https://youtu.be/meLtp1tYr_c

NZ Music Month coincides with comedy festival month, and some talented comedians have invented the genre of Centrist Reggae:

- https://twoheartsnz.bandcamp.com/track/legalise-it (warning, extreme content)

And the top Kiwi song of the moment: those angry reggae punks Sons Of Zion, with the furious "Drift Away":

- https://youtu.be/tq4adoBJCU8

As RMNZ has introduced a second NZ top 20 for the week's fastest-rising songs, here are some things that are bubbling under the charts under the charts:

Hi-Nes and Krisy Erin join the elite with "Never Get Me Back":

- https://youtu.be/IAVixrS8UuA

Raiza Biza brings the chill beats in "Marco Polo" ft. Bobandii:

- https://open.spotify.com/track/6WQC0R3sDNSIp4yIFcHUS3

Country-folk artist Emily Fairlight released her heartbreaking album Mother of Gloom. It's a bit sad...

- https://emilyfairlight.bandcamp.com/track/drag-the-night-in
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2172066623_7.jpg

(Recommended if you liked Like Splitting the Head From the Body by Womb, from earlier in 2018)
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0584207770_7.jpg

-

On a much sunnier note, pop band Drax Project dropped their Noon EP, but their single "Woke Up Late" has been on the NZ chart forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4LgdcDdVc

And for maximum tonal whiplash, metal band Alien Weaponry bring the opposite of chill on their debut album Tū, in Māori and English, an LP that hit the top 5:

- https://youtu.be/5kwIkF6LFDc
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0321818772_7.jpg

TBH, all I really want to do is post episodes of Aroha Bridge and The Māori Side Steps to confuse our non-Kiwi viewers until the thread reaches 100 posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOe67mNhWc4

i love the Chelsea Jade record which was released yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s-koCm9INw

SO GOOD!

"Laugh It Off" is one of the 20 songs that might win the Silver Scroll, the prestigious "artists' choice" award. All nominees are here:

- https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018652990/the-apra-silver-scroll-award-2018-top-20-announced

...Chelsea Jade and 19 indie songs :-) Well, not quite, and there's a lot of really nice music on the list, but it isn't as "diverse" as they claim – it was selected by only nine people, and it shows. In the whole list there's one rap song, lots of downtempo/MOR stuff, no female Māori artists, no songs fully in Māori... (Songs in Māori have the Maioha Award, but that gets much less publicity.) At least they didn't nominate Groany, but it's all very "Music 101 on a Saturday afternoon". I'm not a big SWIDT fan, but "Conquer" leaps out of the speakers against this field.

The voting system has some problems similar to those the Taite Music Prize was criticized for. Artists enter their own songs, and must be APRA members, which shouldn't be necessary imo, if they're truly seeking the best NZ songwriting. This year's awards come after the 2017 Silver Scroll, when APRA voters chose an all-female top 5 for the first time.

Anyway in conclusion, here's Groeni, I mean, Rob Ruha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIqQTrxc15E

The Beths, also on that Silver Scroll shortlist, have an album out too and it's the most glorious bored squally pop https://open.spotify.com/album/4NK0WVg7ZK0rIrcwFKjTIU

The new Broods single is great too!

^ These are they

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVImwSb4EYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKG1Ddm8KgE

The Beths now have a thread, imaginatively titled The Beths

Some recent-ish stuff:

Haja, an all-star album featuring current NZ artists: Aaradhna, Chelsea Jade, Estère, JessB, Kings and Raiza Biza.

As well as that, it's a fusion of musical styles from Sudan and New Zealand. Surprisingly it was put together by rock frontman Jon Toogood, of Shihad – he first heard the Gisma Group and aghani al-banat, "girls' music", when he got married in Khartoum, Sudan. The band recorded there with him, some of which is on this album years later.

- https://open.spotify.com/album/1lCMWkUACs5TaPm7Y1KABa

- https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/music/jon-toogood-married-african-roots-nz-hip-hop-new-album

https://www.noted.co.nz/media/19898/mt0718_the-adults-haja.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FrOD9st4M

Maybe for Discogs reasons, the label insisted on reviving the bad-but-good name "The Adults", which Toogood's supergroup used in 2011, although the two albums are quite different.

btw, Estère's radio Mixtape is highly ILM-friendly, but don't let that put you off. She even knows the words to "Akanamali" :D

Jazz hip-hop band Avantdale Bowling Club, fronted by Tom Scott of the influential rap group Home Brew, as he reflects on life and fatherhood. The band includes Julien Dyne (drums) and Guy Harrison (piano/trumpet).

- https://avantdalebowlingclub.bandcamp.com/album/avantdale-bowling-club

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4203606936_7.jpg

And one of the sleeper hits of the year by a New Zealander, Robinson's "Nothing to Regret", it's for the young people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dICTrWgBp_U

After streaming success in NZ and Australia, the song is one of the nominees at the New Zealand Music Awards 2018.

"Our culture is your culture"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4sN1etmws8

Who won the Silver Scroll, you don't wanna barely know, but Ria Hall won the Maioha Award with her song "Te Ahi Kai Po" from Rules of Engagement.

‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’ is about healing after war, and trying to find hope in times of despair. It draws on Ria’s own family history, telling the story of the Battle of Te Ranga (just south of Tauranga), where, in June 1864 the British Army took retaliation for the earlier battle at Gate Pā. Over a hundred Māori died there, some buried where they fell.

At the ceremony, local soul singer Teeks delivered a moving performance of ‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’, supported by Nick Dow and Ngā Tumanako kapa haka group. – (RNZ)

The Scrolls' main award went to Marlon Williams' ballad with Aldous Harding, "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore", with its pleasingly literal video:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsJIDptF-2c

Williams' ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’, a duet with fellow Lyttelton musician Aldous Harding, explores the pair’s break-up. Williams said it was an honour to receive the award and paid homage to the other finalists. "To hear my name in your company is something that I treasure," he said.

Great tune.

And at the NZMAs in November, Williams won best album for Make Way for Love. Other highlights included JessB's medley performance featuring Rubi Du, and Upper Hutt Posse's Te Kupu, who filibustered the broadcast for 15 minutes by listing the names of everyone they'd ever worked with.

END OF 2018 is near, so if you want you can post your best of the year... perhaps using the classic "fake awards ceremony" style, such as "Best gangsta indie EP" or "Most improved DJ".

This was Chelsea Jade's debut album Personal Best, 10 tracks of VERY tight pop tunes, and one o_O title track

- https://open.spotify.com/album/05JyBFPtta56x6uBvIfnal

https://nztop40.co.nz/assets/record_covers/cover_5_1532656962.jpg