ruia

When the debut album, 100%, by Maaka McGregor and Mina Ripia (aka Wai) was released in 2000 (see here) it was hailed as a ground-breaking event for its deft blend of te reo (Maori language) and electronica. Yet in many ways the musical landscape had been laid by the likes of Dalvanius with Patea Maori, and then Moana who had also sung in te...
> music/3363/wai-ora-wai-jayrem/

Dean Hapeta was the mainman in the Upper Hutt Posse (which also included singer-songwriter Emma Paki), the group which recorded the first New Zealand rap single E Tu in 1988. It was a powerful (if thin-sounding) statement of Maori anger and unashamedly used te reo (the Maori language) to strident effect. See lyrics below. Hapeta - as Te...
> absoluteelsewhere/3376/dean-hapetas-2002-upper-hutt-posse-remixes-say-the-word-and-youll-be-freed/

For quite a while it seemed that the seminal Aotearoa/New Zealand hip-hop outfit Upper Hutt Posse might have been reduced down to Dean Hapeta, who was actually appearing under the name Te Kupu (aka The Word). But here, on an album which kicks along on the back of staccato, minimalist dubstep beats and huge reggae style bass, the Posse are...
> music/3381/upper-hutt-posse-tohe-kia-kaha/

The old wooden Methodist church in a side street in Patea isn’t used much anymore. A lot of places in Patea aren't. It's a town battered by the economic ideas of successive governments and people have had to move out. The work just isn’t there anymore. But at least once a week the cobwebs in the church rafters shake when...
> absoluteelsewhere/3153/poi-e-and-patea-maori-1988-dalvanius-man-of-passion/

Maaka McGregor has had a good day. In Auckland for a week from his home in Titahi Bay and talking up the Wai 100% album he has recorded with his partner Wai (aka Mina) Ripia, he's just come from Mai FM. His pitch met with a positive, if unpublishably enthusiastic, response from programme director Manu Taylor. A good day. McGregor is...
> absoluteelsewhere/3360/wai-interviewed-2000-one-hundred-percent-te-reo-to-the-future/

This will be brief because the original 2008 album (the third by this constantly working New Zealand reggae outfit) was reviewed at Elsewhere here, but just to note this expanded package now comes with extra tracks (two album tracks remixed and two live songs, one being Collie Herbsman off their debut album Revival, the other this album's title...
> reggae/2951/katchafire-say-what-youre-thinking-emi-cd-dvd-edition/

What set Trinity Roots (1998-2005) apart for me was their musical subtlety, the nuanced way they moved from what we might call roots folk and reggae through elements of waiata, jazz and pop to create something which was at times indefinably about this country right now, yet also possessed a timelessness, as if it could have been written and sung...
> absoluteelsewhere/3361/trinity-roots-remembered-2005-spirit-in-the-dark-and-light/

Across her previous three albums Moana Maniapoto confirmed her status as one of New Zealand's most significant voices whose sound could just as comfortably incorporate politics and culture as seduce with her flowing lyrics in te reo and her astute ear for using the traditional within a contemporary context. This album might lack the...
> music/1496/best-of-elsewhere-2008-moana-and-the-tribe-wha-black-pearl-ode/

Despite being one of the founding fathers of New Zealand electronica -- in the ambitious multi-media outfit Pitch Black with Mike Hodgson -- Paddy Free is perhaps largely unknown to a new generation of musicians.I believe he makes much of his living off-shore these days and has always struck me as preferring to be out of the spotlight if he...
> music/1750/paddy-free-karekare-te-reo-o-te-whenua-dub-conspiracy/

I had thought the excellent Tangata label was defunct, but this beautifully packaged album suggests otherwise -- and the soulful reggae-flavoured music by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hareruia "Ruia" Abraham should ensure the label prospers on the back of this warm and engaging collection. Ruia (who has previously...
> music/1584/ruia-1224-tekau-ma-rua-rua-tekau-ma-wha-tangata/

About six years ago I first encountered Hamilton reggae band Katchafire playing in a pretty ropey provincial bar. I'd met them backstage beforehand -- actually in a room full of beer barrels -- and I knew within minutes these guys could be huge. They were genuinely nice people and had a repertoire of almost 200 songs -- mostly covers, and...
> reggae/1303/katchafire-say-what-youre-thinking-emi/

It's a fair if not entirely original observation that the late Dalvanius Prime made an immediate impression. I'll never forget the day we shook hands in Patea. The big man was, typically, wearing his body-hugging pink tracksuit. Back at his modest, almost alarmingly small home he showed me his memorabilia and treasures, and was...
> absoluteelsewhere/3362/dalvanius-prime-remembered-2002-from-little-things-big-things-grow/

In time to come the late Hirini Melbourne, who died in 2003, will get national recognition for what he did in reviving and revitalising interest in traditional Maori instruments, and -- with Richard Nunns -- making them come alive again in contemporary recordings. In one way this album -- remixes of the Melbourne/Nunns '93 album Te Ku Te Whe...
> world-music/917/various-te-whaiao-te-ku-te-whe-remixed-rattle/