Music Awards: From inspired to the mystifying

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Every year the New Zealand music industry gathers for an event which in part resembles a lavish pub quiz. There is usually much alcohol but one basic question: which song was that? For it is the tradition at the annual Apra (Australasian Performing Right Association) Silver Scroll for song of the year that the nominated tunes are performed by acts other than those who wrote, performed and played them in the first place.

Usually, the performers are a music genre or two away from the one from which the song came. Over the years this has resulted in versions ranging from the inspired to the downright mystifying.

You can't keep a good song down apparently, but some of the renditions in past events showed you sure can leave it dazed and confused and wanting to go home to Mum.

It's all part of the peculiar fun on the Silver Scroll, another chance for the New Zealand music industry to celebrate its continuing boom in a year of local albums and singles clogging up the top 10.

Each year New Zealand Apra members enter about 100 songs for the award which carries a prize of a trophy and $5000. Last year's award went to Che-Fu and co-writer Godfrey de Grut for Misty Frequencies.

The ceremony tonight at the Auckland Town Hall, will also announce the Sounz Contemporary Award for best creative work in the serious music sector.

The Apra Maioha Award will recognise the best creative work incorporating the Maori language.

Awards will also be presented for Most Performed Work in New Zealand and Most Performed Work Overseas.

Finalists for the Sounz Contemporary Award are Icescape, written for orchestra by Chris Cree Brown, Cirrus, written for orchestra by Craig Utting, and Alice, a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, by Gillian Whitehead.

For the main award, it's an all-Auckland final with the nominees all coming from the region and ranging from singer-songwriter folk-rock, to hip-hop and metal.

Here's a form guide to the nominated songs:

Nesian Mystik, For the People

What: Another sun-kissed slice of hip-hop pop from the hit-heavy Polysaturated album.

For: Infectious, indelible melody. Asks the rhetorical question - Nesians are you with me? - showing possible political undercurrent.

Against: It's a Friday-night party song. It was also a Coke ad.

Blindspott, Phlex

What: Ballad track from West Auckland nu-metallers self-titled debut.

For: Delivered in a gentle reggae amble, shows the young toughies have a sensitive side and a positive message on lyrics that come from the Stand By Me school of thought.

Against: Linear structure verse and chorus pretty much the same - offers little that holds the interest. Title suffers the curse of hip-hop spellcheck.

Damien Binder (with Robert Shepheard), Til Now

What: Title track of Auckland singer-songwriter Binder's well-regarded second album.

For: Pop-rock track which moves from reflective to rousing mood delivered in a classic verse-chorus-middle-eight song structure and uses title as a pivotal lyrical hook.

Against: A bit shy and retiring.

Ill Semantics, Highway

What: Track from the South Auckland hip-hop trio's debut album Theory of Meaning.

For: Nifty mix of rampant ukulele, DJ CXL's mad scratching, funky beat and a spot of the theme to the cartoon show Fat Albert .

Against: A song with some great bits doesn't always make a great song.

Goldenhorse, Riverhead

What: Title track of the Auckland art-pop band's fine debut album.

For: Epic evocative song of possibly homicidal subject matter which provides a dark gothic flip side to the band's sunnier moments. It's also the third Silver Scroll nomination in a row for the group.

Against: A song with a body count.