Che-Fu: Hi-Score: The Best of Che-Fu

Herald rating: * * * * *

Like many older, whiter, far less funkier guys before him, Che Fu has petrified. In a good way.

He's gone from being part of the woodwork of New Zealand music to a foundation stone.

He's now been around for a pop generation or two, first as the voice of Supergroove, then as the force behind three solo albums which from the outset - his classic debut 1998's 2B S.Pacific - marked him as anything but just another guy with a great voice.

Yes, he could sing, he could rap. But always the big difference with Che was that he could write - thoughtful lyrics matched with indelible melodies.

Che's music, like himself, a Rastafarian-raised Niuean-Maori who started out in a teen band of Ponsonby-Grey Lynn schoolmates playing the blues, was a hybrid with deep roots.

He adopted a hip-hop stance from debut hit Chains onwards and his second and third albums The Navigator and Beneath the Radar were big on gruff voice and rough beats.

But there was more to him.

And that's the beauty of this compilation Hi-Score.

Yes, it's there to wrap up Che's gentler, groovier chart-friendly side and would seem a predictable move after the indifference that seemed to greet last year's Beneath The Radar.

But listening to the collection which leans slightly towards S.Pacific in its 18-track selection, it's hard not to feel this album marks something more than a simple repackaging exercise.

No, "the best of Che-Fu" means a very good album indeed.

Especially as it states again and again its case about what soul-powered pop music could or maybe should sound like in this part of the world.

Often that has suggested a South Pacific Stevie Wonder by way of Bob Marley - Che's enrol-to-vote ad cover of Bob's Get Up Stand Up is included here after a run of Wonder-ous tracks like Without A Doubt.

The other four new songs don't ruin the effect, either.

That includes his Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell-style duet with Aaradhna on Spin, which, like his earlier Misty Frequencies is a love letter to music itself.

Or the P-Money-produced Savage-guest starring remix Chains Reloaded which bookends the album with the original track.

Among the new version's spiky sci-fi synths, Che-Fu opines "whatever happened to the conscious MC?"

Well, this one helped this part of the world's past decade sound heaps better than it would have otherwise.

And if you missed it first time, here's living proof.

Verdict: Recounting the glorious musical beginnings of a pioneering Pasifikan soul man

Label: SonyBMG