Deep Forest: Pacifique

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * )

Many years ago I inherited a six-record set put out by Reader's Digest in the early 60s. It was called South Sea Island Magic and contained chintzy orchestral and steel guitar versions of songs associated with the Pacific, such as Bali Ha'i and Hawaiian Wedding Song.

Naturally it's very corny, but it at least has the virtue of honest intention. It was cocktail music for stay-at-home Americans who wanted a little evocative Pacific music and false memory to accompany their highballs. I like it very much.

On the other hand Deep Forest, the two French producers who appropriate sounds from indigenous cultures, are people I don't like very much at all.

They strike me as totally disingenuous, and Pacifique — especially to those of us who actually live in the Pacific region — comes across as an exploitative, opportunistic grab at aspects of the music (mostly of Tahiti) which are then placed between synth-scapes of no particular origin at all.

No surprises then to learn this is a soundtrack, so expect the pictures to carry the emotional weight.

The fact that Pacifique follows their previous "borrowings" from the Solomon Islands, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean for a series of albums makes you even more suspicious of their intentions.

This isn't about representing the Pacific in any honest way, it's about keeping a career going by what we used to call cultural imperialism. And it isn't even that interesting or evocative.

But that Reader's Digest stuff, now that's the go.

(Sony)