Scribe stands up ... and up

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Scribe carved his name with pride into Kiwi pop history last night with a near clean sweep of the 2004 New Zealand Music Awards.

At Auckland's Aotea Centre, the hip-hop star born Malo Luafutu - who last year became the first New Zealand artist to have an album and single at No 1 in the local charts - won seven of the nine categories in which he was nominated in the wake of his 2003 debut album The Crusader and the hit Stand Up.

His wins included best album, single of the year, best male solo artist, best urban/hip-hop album, best songwriter (shared with P-Money, Con Psy and Savage for Not Many, the Remix) and the publicly voted people's choice award.

The only categories where Scribe was a non-winning finalist were international achievement and highest selling album (predictably won by classical-pop teen star Hayley Westenra) and highest selling single (won by NZ Idol Ben Lummis).

The two Tuis won by Westenra, who has sold more than 1.5 million copies of her second album, Pure, worldwide, equalled those of the night's other major winners - Brooke Fraser and Dimmer.

Singer-songwriter Fraser won best female solo artist and breakthrough artist from her six nominations.

Dimmer, alternative rock veteran Shayne Carter's solo project, cleaned up both rock categories of best album and best group.

In the other contemporary music category, Salmonella Dub again won the best electronic/dance music prize for their 2003 album One Drop East.

It was one of the night's few surprises considering the showing of fellow finalist Concord Dawn's Uprising at the b.Net awards earlier - and the fact the Concord Dawn album had as its guests vocalists Scribe and Salmonella Dub's Tiki Taane.

Salmonella Dub won the same award last year for Outside the Dub Plates.

The Chris Graham-directed live-action clip for Scribe's Stand Up won the best video award ahead of its computer-animated competition, Dimmer's Getting What You Give and Misfits of Science's Fools Love.

In other categories, John Psathas, the Wellington composer behind the opening music for the Athens Olympics, won the best classical album for his Psathas: Fragments, ahead of works by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Quartet.

Judges voted the the Rodger Fox Big Band's A Rare Connection as jazz album of the year, a 30th anniversary present for the group led by the trombonist-arranger.

Previous winner and nominee Ruia Aperahama won the best Maori album award for his fourth set, Hawaiki.

His earlier album releases, Waiata of Bob Marley Volume 1 and 2, have both received nominations for Tuis, with Volume 1 winning best mana reo album in 2002.

Globe-trotting group Te Vaka won the best Pacific music album category for its fourth album Tutuki.

* The 39th New Zealand Music Awards 2004 screens on C4 tonight, presented by Jaquie Brown and Mikey Havoc.