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12
Tracks
Track listings for Ki mua:
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1/ Ki mua |
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7/ Vaka atua |
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2/ Lua afe |
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8/ Tagaloa |
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3/ Ke ke kitea |
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9/ Kaleve |
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4/ Pate pate |
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10/ Sagalogalo ake |
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5/ Hea la koe iei |
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11/ Aue kapaku |
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6/ Pate mo tou agaga
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12/ Kau tufunga fai
vaka |
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The
album comes with a 12 page booket containing
words and
descriptions for each track.
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READ
WHAT THE CRITICS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT 'KI MUA'
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'Ki mua' Review by
Ian Anderson, Folk RootsJan/Feb 2000
.......Well, a few years of hitting the
international touring boards (Womad festivals a
speciality) have more than done the trick.
They've tightened up enormously, gained
considerable power and energy, and everything is
so much more focussed.
They still have some of that international rock
sound, but the Polynesian character really shines
through on this one. They've hit the right
balance, I think, between radio friendly songs
like Ke Ke Kitea and real take-no-prisoners
belters like Lua Afe, Pate Mo Tou Agaga, Kaleve
or Pate Pate - a kind of Pacific Pata Pata -
where the percussive drive of their logdrums
gives a quite different, unique flavour compared
to the ubiquitous djembe which seems to have
become the banging thing of choice for half the
planet these days.
Vocal harmonies are really strong, rooted and
excellent, and quite a few tracks (Ki Mua, Pate
Pate again, the closing belter Kau Tufuga
FaiVaka) have a great, almost folk/rock-like
guitar jangle about them.
Variety too: you just think you've got 'em nailed
when along comes the very spooky VakaAtua (all
about the curse of the missionaries) and the huge
lope of Tagaloa. Well, you probably figured out
by now that I like this one as much as I was
underwhelmed by their first.... - Ian
Anderson
FROOTS MAGAZINE UK www.frootsmag.com
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KIMUA - Album review by Nick
Bollinger, The Listener,
N. Z. June
1999
Ever since Quincy Jones prophesied that the next
great musical movement would come from the South
Pacific, there has been the expectation that a
Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel would arrive, be
seduced by the rhythm, and take Polynesia to the
world on a platinum CD.
Opetaia Foa'i is one Pacific musician who isn't
sitting around waiting. Since he formed his 10
piece band Te Vaka five years ago, he has been
taking trips to Europe and the United States to
peddle his own brand of Polynesian pop. "Ki
mua" builds on the strengths of Te Vaka's
self-titled 1996 debut.
 There's
more integration between the traditional elements
- the chanting, the log drums - and the driving,
funk-styled rhythm section. At times it's almost
"Log drum Disco Party". But central to
the sound is always the folksy chiming of Foa'i's
acoustic guitar.
Foa'i is one of New Zealand's finest songwriters.
His sentiments are universal and his subjects
deeply personal. An upbeat celebration such as
"Hea la koe iei" might move you to your
feet, and "Ke ke kitea", a tour of
Islands doomed by global warming, can move you to
tears.
The fact that Foa'i writes almost exclusively in
Tokelauan needn't be a barrier. He chooses his
native tongue because the poetry sounds better
that way. The rhythms and resonance of the words,
the way they grace the beats and melodies, the
warm intimate timbre of Foa'i's voice, say more
than enough. The informative sleeve notes (by
Foa'i's wife Julie) set the scene for each song
and the beautiful music does the rest.
THE NEW ZEALAND LISTENER
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New Zealand Musician
Magazine
Vol. 8,
No 3 June/July 1999
Te Vaka: Ki mua by David Gideon
Cover stars of Feb/March's NZM, Te Vaka have
compiled a faultless selection of tracks with an
obvious focus on Pacific culture and character.
'Ki mua' is what I would term (dare I say it)
'Pacific Rock'. It has a very professional sound,
is well produced by Malcolm Smith and Opetaia
Foa'i with cool and easy grooves, with chants
that have a real, authentic sense of culture and
Polynesian style.
There's no English here, the songs penned by
frontman Opetaia Foa'i are all sung in Tokelauan
which benefits the overall sound of the album.
Title track Ki mua starts off nice and easy,
drawing the cultural sounds of the Pacific up
from the depths of Tradition and into the realms
of it's future. A song foundation of male
harmonies layer well with an equally strong mix
of angelic tones from vocalist Sulata Foa'i. The
combination of vocals is best displayed on the
harmony drenched Pate Pate while Lua Afe should
be heard in dance clubs throughout the nation, if
not the world.
It makes way more sense to me to dance to these
songs than to all of the boom box techno junk
food busting our eardrums today. There's nothing
I can fault about the musicianship on this album,
nor the song construction or production. Even the
addition of children's voices on Ke Ke Kitea
brings out a serene vibrance of culture and art
inspired mainly and uniquely by the past and
present lives of a people led by an adventurous
and free spirit. - David Gideon
THE NEW ZEALAND MUSICIAN MAGAZINE
www.nzmusician.co.nz
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