IMNZ Independent Album Chart

Independent Music New Zealand
“The future of music today”

Email: info@indies.co.nz
Web: www.indies.co.nz

IMNZ Independent Album Chart

Sales for August 2003

Rank Title Artist Label Distributor
1 White Sunday Mareko Dawnraid Universal
2 Horsepower Phoenix Foundation Capital
Recordings BMG
3 Slowpoke Phelps & Munro Round Trip Mars Flavour
4 Bass Player Rhombus MOKO FMR
5 Green Room 002 - Wahine Various LOOP Recordings Border Music
6 Mystical Soul Twinset LOOP Recordings Border Music
7 Disturbance Concord Dawn Kog Transmissions Universal
8 Bigger Than Both Of Us Various Propeller FMR
9 Return of the Booom Shwack Various Kog Transmissions Universal
10 Big Things P Money Kog Transmissions Universal
11 Keep On Pushing The Black Seeds LOOP Recordings Border Music
12 Mefasolate Conray Turbine In Music
13 Special The Managers Flaming Pearl Global Routes
14 Give It A Whirl! Various Propellor Universal
15 Somewhere Out There Fang Arch Hill FMR
16 Think About It Later Jet Jaguar Capital Recordings BMG
17 Syds Pink Wiring System The Clean Cleano Records In Music
18 Big Things Instrumentals P Money Kog Transmissions Universal
19 The Warratahs Collection Warratahs Pagan EMI
20 The Strip Soundtrack Various LOOP Recordings Border Music

We’ve been busy lately - the IMNZ headquarters have shifted from Parnell to Ponsonby, and the IMNZ website has had an overhaul too, so pay a visit to www.indies.co.nz. Some of our members have been busy with the Music Industry Export Development Group so we’re very keen to see what emerges from these sessions. In other moving news, Tardus Music will shortly be operating out of the Global Routes office.

Independent music is reverberating around some of our major sporting grounds. Eden Park, the home of Auckland rugby, is also the stage for New Zealand
music over this NPC season. The Auckland team run out to the Dub Asylum (Antenna) track “R U Ready”. And, courtesy of King Music, Lapi Mariner is booming out the big voice for the Vodafone Warriors.

On more of a cultural tip, Te Papa is starting a new exhibition called “The PlaNet Pasifika Discovery centre”. It’s a free area designed for 7-12 year olds and it will be playing King Music’s entire Pacific DVD catalogue.

There are some great travel tales being told at the moment. fABEL has recently returned from America and Europe where they were part of the Urban Music Collective that attended Popkomm in Cologne, alongside fellow IMNZ members LOOP and Capital Recordings. The New Zealand stand was a huge success (thanks to Cath and the NZMIC), and fABEL are currently following up a number of European distributors and other contacts as a result.

George Nepia and Brannigan Kaa (MOKO) arrived back from Beijing in mid-September. Brannigan performed a track from his forthcoming album on Beijing TV to a viewing audience of 200 million people and also performed on the top of the Beijing Hotel to an audience of V.I.P.s and Chinese music industry superstars. As a result of the trip George has been asked to take back more NZ contemporary artists to perform in China, and Bran will be travelling with George in December to do a 26-day tour of China.

In other news of Kiwis making noise internationally, Max Stowers (King Music), one of New Zealand's premier bass players, has strongly rumoured upcoming live appearances which include the Rippon Festival, tours of Australia’s Gold Coast and Melbourne, and jazz festivals in Germany. Maorimusic.com has a stand at the 2003 Womex Trade Show and will finalise deals with a number of independent Europe-based companies for catalogue distribution in various territories. Moana's new album “Toru” has been receiving great reviews, and she is off to Womex to book another lengthy European tour for 2004. Also, check out the updated Maorimusic.com website; from April - June 2003, www.maorimusic.com was ranked #10 in Hitwise New Zealand “Shopping & Classifieds – Music Industry” based on the number of visits.

Kog's resident breaks stars Baitercell vs Timmy Schumacher have just completed remixes of Supergroove's tracks “Can't Get Enough” and “Scorpio Girls” for the upcoming best-of Supergroove release “Postage”. Following on from the success of this, Kog have just licensed their track 'What's down Low' to prestigious U.K. breaks label Passenger for worldwide release in December – this will also include a remix of the track by Aquasky. “What's Down Low” is also being featured on Annie Nightingale's show on the BBC's Radio1.

It’s a frenetic time of year for all of the IMNZ crew – a whole heap of earworthy New Zealand music is being released right now. In the crop currently available, Damien Binder's album “Til Now” (Muse) is into a third print run; watch out for details of a national tour in November. There are release shows for the Arch Hill compilation “The Hill Is Alive” in Christchurch and Dunedin on October 10 and 11.

From Global Routes, the Woodenhead film soundtrack is out now, as is the Maori language compilation "Tangiwai"; and check out the Managers tour dates on the Global Routes website, the record is about to sell out the first printing. "Frozen Fears", the debut album from Pacific Heights, was released in August
through fABEL Reserve Recordings, and the release tour in September touched down everywhere from Auckland to New Plymouth to Wanaka to Sydney.

In October look out for Auckland band One Million Dollars’ debut album “Energy State” (Sugarlicks, October 6) and the debut album "Painkillers" from Stylus (Wildside, October 17). Stylus mastered the album at Sydney's Studio 301 mid September. The band is doing an Auckland Secondary Schools tour followed by a national tour of licensed venues. The eagerly awaited 8ft Sativa (Intergalactic) second album “Season For Assault” will be in stores October 14, and their album launch is October 17 at the St James. Battle Of The Bands winners 2001 Stoods are releasing their first EP “Redlight” in early October, while this year’s national final of the New Zealand Battle of the Bands is Saturday 27th September at Galatos. Also coming is the 70s soul compilation “Soul Food” (Huh, October 15) and Pacific Soul’s (King Music) second album; the first single is “Don’t Be Shy”. On Joy, the 3 The Hard Way Album will be released on November 10 (their first single "Its On" is released in NZ and Australia in October). On MOKO, Odessa’s next single is “Bring The Money Back!” and producer 50Hz has been editing and mixing on the Ruia album for Tangata.

© Scoop Media