Oceania: Oceania II

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * )

Featuring the sometimes sublime vocals of Hinewehi Mohi, the first Oceania album captured considerable attention - although to these ears it seemed a superficial amalgam of te reo, dance beats and inoffensive ambience to create unaffecting new age/world music of the kind used in late-80s airline commercials.

With Jaz Coleman twiddling the knobs it sounded as calculated as it was canny, and was better received overseas by listeners who found it more exotic than those of us who live in a more authentic Maori milieu. "Think Ngati Enya or Deep Kauri Forest," said one writer in this paper not entirely cynically.

This follow-up suffers much the same problems: teflon tunes, washes of electronica behind Mohi's (still sublime) vocals, the occasional punctuations of traditional instruments (some played by the late Hirini Melbourne), and a haka interpolated. But it doesn't add up to much.

If the intention is to create something for the world stage - or at least new age bookshops - then doubtless that has been achieved. Kurupana is a very lovely tune over a bed of U2-lite guitars and tickling synths, and in a more caring world Niniwa would probably be a hit.

However, placed alongside Ngahiwi Apanui's recent E Tau Nei, for example, this sounds deliberately pallid, undemanding and featureless. If you enjoyed the first one, and many did, then here's more of the same. But less so.

Label: Oceania