Various: Tangiwai Volume One

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * )

Moana having moved on from haka-based dance — a musically profitable but still untapped area — the cap has been loosened for other, younger Maori musicians to let that genie out of the bottle.

This collection of te reo melded with dance and a Euro-lounge feel points in a promising direction. With dancefloor beats and swish, sophisticated ambience (trickling jazz keyboards, washes of vocals), the Latin clubland bounce of Marangi and late 70s techno-disco on E Rere, this sound is aimed at an international audience as much as the hometown.

A bit programmed in places, but a step forward in international Maori music which only wants for a clubbing audience bouncing off walls to vindicate it.