Te Vaka: Olatia (Warm Earth/Ode)

 |   |  <1 min read

Te Vaka: Olatia (Warm Earth/Ode)

This formerly Auckland-based and socially-conscious group have now relocated to Australia, but Te Vaka rarely played in New Zealand anyway. Theirs was always a bigger calling and they spend much time at world music festivals or in the Pacific where their emotional heart remains.

Singer-songwriter Opetaia Foa'i has a real gift in bringing together traditional songs and contemporary pop styles (the man writes what should be hit after hit, but radio doesn't play them) and while there is considerable Pacific warmth in the music there is also a sadness is many songs for what is being lost in this region.

He writes mainly in the language of Tokelau, where his father is from, and sometimes in Tuvaluan and Samoan, and his subjects are about environmental issues such as global warming, or the the need to take care of culture in the face of political and social pressures.

On this, their fifth album, Te Vaka confirm they are the most important voice out of the broader Pacific region and that multi-instrumentalist Foa'i remains a potent songwriting force.

I don't much like the spoken bit by the child in Ki Te Fakaolatia/To The Rescue, but that seems a minor complaint in the face of this typically excellent album.

 

Te Vaka won best group and best album for Olatia at the 2008 Pacific Music Awards held in Auckland. 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Various: Next Brel (Barclay)

Various: Next Brel (Barclay)

The music and lyrics of Jacques Brel (1929-78) have seduced dozens of musicians down the decades, notably Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield . . . Actually just about... > Read more

Boom Pam, Boom Pam (Flavour)

Boom Pam, Boom Pam (Flavour)

I don't imagine Boom Pam have a lot of competition in their chosen genre. This four-piece from Tel Aviv -- two guitars, drums and tuba, and 70s moustaches -- have really cornered the Israeli... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE BLUES HAD A BRITISH BABY (2021) And they called it . . . rock'n'roll, psychedelic rock and hard rock?

THE BLUES HAD A BRITISH BABY (2021) And they called it . . . rock'n'roll, psychedelic rock and hard rock?

The history of the blues has been written, rewritten, revised, over-written and turned into academic treatises and a subject for analysis. But it remains something which can get lost in the... > Read more

Tom Verlaine: Souvenir from a Dream (1978)

Tom Verlaine: Souvenir from a Dream (1978)

After the exceptional Television fell apart in '78 following their classic debut Marquee Moon and the lesser Adventure, guitarist/singer and writer Tom Verlaine dropped from sight for a year.... > Read more