Introducing the 10 Taite Music Prize finalists 2026
It's that time again to anoint the next name on Aotearoa's independent music roll of honour — The Taite Music Prize. Introduced in 2010 – and affectionately and colloquially known as ‘The Taite’ – the Taite Music Prize is named after the late Dylan Taite, an innovative and passionate music journalist (and a man after our own heart). New Zealand has other music awards with more elaborate ceremonies (see: Aotearoa Music Awards) or with even richer histories (see: APRA Silver Scrolls EST.1965), but the Taite Music Prize might be the most coveted. For good reason too, the list of previous winners is a who’s who of NZ indie darlings. Since its inception, Independent Music New Zealand have branched out into awarding the Best Independent Debut and Outstanding Music Journalism, along with acknowledging the Independent Spirit Award and Classic Record — but it’s the main prize that stands alone as the ultimate battle royale of independent music.
Unlike the Silver Scroll, which is awarded to a singular song, the Taite Music Prize recognises the Best Album (quantified as 6 songs or 25 minutes). Last year’s winner was Mokotron with WAEREA. It was an album that defined a moment, a confluence of Māori electronic music that had been humming below the surface, only for WAEREA to smash through and bring Māōri electronica to the masses. The Album went on to win the Aotearoa Music Award for Best Electronic Artist (It's not clear to me why this was awarded to the album, not an artist), and Mokotron claim a spot on the country’s most envied music festival lineup, Laneway Festival 2026. It’s important to note that this award is pointedly local; the recording must be owned by a New Zealand-owned company or company with a New Zealand-based office, so don’t expect 2013 winner Lorde to sweep with Virgin – this is independent music after all.
In the very un-New-Zealand-like tradition of competitive speculation, we have decided to preview each of the ten finalists, in an attempt to bring a speculative gossip to the New Zealand music awards circuit, à la the Golden Globes and Oscars*. The shortlist of 10 Finalists (down from the 83 album longlist) is the result of a first round of judging by over 1,200 APRA musicians, music industry professionals, and IMNZ members. Who knows if the final judges will have the same proclivities as the general public at large? We make some goddamn great music, and I don’t envy the panel who have to make such a subjective judgment call. All I know is whoever wins, it's a bloody good album.
*Unfortunately our awards don’t seem to have such an aligned run. The Silver Scrolls were hosted in October 2025, the SRN Alternative Awards in November 2025, and the Aotearoa Music Awards are set for 28 May 2026 (so no time for voting to be impacted).Dick Move — Dream, Believe, Achieve
1:12 Records & Flying Nun Records
Having been nominated for Best Independent Debut in 2021 for CHOP! and a previous main prize nominee with Wet, Dick Move are genuine contenders to take the crown this year for Dream, Believe, Achieve. A band with strong roots in the Tāmaki Makaurau scene, with bassist Macrae being a co-owner of iconic K’ Road venue Whammy Bar, their most recent effort is effervescent with political angst. It’s a fiery but sharp 24 minutes that vocalist Lucy Suttor uses as a canvas to paint a picture of a post-pandemic, post-me too, post-coalition-government age, that is anxiety-inducing and deeply frustrating. A win for Dream, Believe, Achieve would be a win for expression over repression.
Geneva AM — PIKIPIKI
Independent
Photo by Tasha Tziakis
2025 was the year that threw Geneva Alexander-Marsters into the spotlight. If you managed to miss Geneva AM’s debut LP, PIKIPIKI, you must have been living under a rock, or maybe in the South Island. The album made our picks of 2025 list, and Geneva was featured in Issue 4 of Newzician Magazine. Safe to say we are big fans of Geneva. If PIKIPIKI were to win The Taite, it would be a strong thematic follow up to last year’s winner WAEREA, as a bold interpretation of waiata māori within contemporary Aotearoa music. It isn’t the only album in contention to tackle a contemporary take on waiata māori, but it sure could be the boldest.
Jazmine Mary — I Want to Rock and Roll
Flying Nun Records
Despite a rock’n’roll title, Jazmine Mary is forlorn on their latest record. If their debut Dog was an enigmatic breath of fresh air, then I Want To Rock And Roll is much more of what we have come to expect from Mary, if only sonically. Mary is deeply questioning and uncertain on an album that continues to push their star. A win for Jazmine Mary would be a graduation of sorts for the 2022 Independent Debut Winner, the first time that a winner of the Best Debut has gone on to win the whole shabang.
MĀ — Blame It On The Weather
Independent
Photo by Vanessa Cone
Blame it on the Weather, released by Te Whanganui-a-tara artist and conservationist Mā is an album deeply rooted in the whenua. Aided by strong jazz-hip-hop arrangements, it’s an exploration of te taiao brought together with an envious array of features from the likes of Romi Wrights and Jordynwithawhy. Mā has long shown their versatility across a range of sounds and themes, but Blame it on the Weather is an album that doubles down and sticks the landing. There may be no other album on the shortlist with such a strong core message and dedicated messenger.
Marlon Williams — Te Whare Tīwekaweka
Marlon Williams Music
Photo by Ian Laidlaw
There may be no artist who defines Aotearoa today more than Marlon Williams. Only just coming up on 35, it seems Marlon Williams has already spent a lifetime in New Zealand music. There is an explorative nature to Williams; each of his albums has pushed his sound forward, leading to a sound so refined yet exceedingly surprising. Te Whare Tīwekaweka is easily Marlon’s largest leap yet. It is an album that stretched 4 years, and journeys a friendship (with co-writer Kommi) and a rekindling (to his home in Ōhinehou, and to his reo). Three previous nominations without a win, and already having taken out 2025’s Silver Scroll, the winds of fate seem to gust behind this album.
Phoebe Rings — Aseurai
Carpark Records
Photo by Yuriko Ota
I first interviewed Phoebe Rings in 2021, in the afterglow of their eponymous EP. It was actually my first time interviewing anyone for Newzician magazine. Speaking with Crystal (vocals, keys) and Simeon (Guitar), it was evident from the first moments they were a band mature beyond their years. Their debut Album, ‘Aseurai’, is more than fully formed; it is melodically deep, thematically dense, and stylistically refined. The band are also becoming one of the country’s most sort after exports, playing the Going Global showcase and SXSW Sydney in 2024, and most recently touring Japan and Korea in 2025 (which you can read about here!).
Ringlets — The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies)
Flying Nun Records
Photo by Léa Taillefer
Ringlets are leading the pack of indie bands, heralding a new sound on the streets of Tāmaki. Taking the reigns on vocals, Leith Towers’ observational lyrics can jump from sardonic to sincere all while never losing his signature wit. The rest of the band brings an equally uncompromising energy that fuels the restless nature of their album, The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies). It’s only their second album, but there is a maturity to their sound, and especially their performance, that leads you to believe that this is a band ready to climb the next rungs on the ladder of success — whatever that means to them.
Tom Scott — ANITYA
Years Gone By (YGB Records)
Photo by Rosa Nevison
ANYITA by Tom Scott is somehow both a bold debut and a veteran pick. Since The Taites birthed in 2010, Tom Scott has been nominated 6 times, winning in 2019 for his self-title debut effort for project ‘Avantdale Bowling Club’. But ANYITA is a debut record through and through. Scott has patiently resisted from publishing under his government name for his entire career, waiting for the right project to anoint. With Scott, all his records are personal, but ANYITA is by far and away his most intimate record. The album brings in new sides to his humour and his craft that haven’t yet been explored in his already decades long career. After his Civic show last year, Scott teased that he might be stepping away from music, or at least has considered it. Could this year’s Taite be a recognition of Scott's legacy? I doubt he cares too much, in his own words, “What do I do with another award? Give it to Lorde.” (Unfortunately for Tom, her 2025 effort Virgin is ineligible.)
Reb Fountain — How Love Bends
Fountain Records Limited
Photo by Chris Sisarich.
Speaking of past winners, celebrated alternative artist Reb Fountain will once again return on awards night in contention for the main prize. Reb’s self-titled album won the title in 2021, and her follow-up IRIS was nominated again the following year. Reb’s career has been characterised by her ability for reinvention, and on her latest record, How Love Bends, she continues to level up. However, this feels less like reinvention and more like constant evolution for an artist who has built a career out of creative perseverance and growth.
Womb — One Is Always Heading Somewhere
Flying Nun Records
Photo by Ted Black
There may be no more apt name for a decade-spanning alt-indie family band than Womb. One Is Always Heading Somewhere is the third album by the three siblings from Wellington, and easily their most consistent record. Their signature sound blends acoustic and electronic elements to build an ethereal soundscape. Hot off the heels of performing at Laneway Festival 2026 (alongside the 2025 Taite Winner Mokotron), Womb are the only act to be nominated for the Silver Scroll and Taite, other than eventual Silver Scroll Winner Marlon Williams, for the track ‘Only You’.