Review by Graham Reid

C.Clay on 06.03.2012

Te Vaka have refined and defined a particular kind of pan-Pacific pop with its roots in tradition but driven by ringing folk-rock guitars as much as percussion, and on this melody-stacked album writer-singer Opetaia Foa'i and band seem to have hit a new peak. It is almost as if their relocation from New Zealand to Australia has pulled them back to what they did best, but also that they have been reinvigorated by their new environment (which accounts for the didgeridoo on Luga ma lalo). With log drums alongside a standard drum kit, electric guitars beside acoustic, and children's voices as well as hefty male chanting, these 13 tracks -- recorded in just three weeks in Australia and Auckland -- have a vibrancy and freshness which leaps off the disc. Logo te pate has urgency and a terrific chorus, Moemiti delivers with a slightly off-beat funk edge, the scene setting instrumental Tuamalo sounds like it was recorded right on a Pacific beach before the rains came