SJD Wins Taite Honours

Electro-pop soulster SJD’s Elastic Wasteland was lauded as New Zealand’s most creative album in the past 12 months, when it took out the fourth Taite Music Prize.

Sean James Donnelly wrote, produced and played every instrument on the release, out in November through Round Trip To Mars/ Universal Music NZ.

Named for late music journalist Dylan Taite, the Prize is organised by Independent Music New Zealand, and PPNZ Music Licensing. SJD receives a cash prize of NZ $10,000 (US$8422), and free recording at Red Bull Studios. SJD is part of Neil Finn’s Pajama Club.

At the invite-only Galatos Live in Auckland before 300 biz execs, also unveiled was the inaugural Independent Music NZ classic record, which went to 1980s Christchurch industrial punk trio The Gordons for their self-titled 1981 debut. It was voted album of the year by music magazine Ripitup.