LISTEN NOW

“Reconnect” is off Maisey Rika’s self-titled debut EP, now available on  iTunes.  She has since followed up with the gorgeous Tohu.

So our trip into the moana nui continues… We’re currently digging the track “Hiro’a” off Ma’ohi rock band Manahune’s fifth studio album Tapu. The guitar riffs and the battle cry chorus are especially tight. Unfortunately, the album is not out on iTunes yet. We’re crossing our fingers for a quick release so we can avoid international shipping.

Time to start practicing your tāmurē, ladies. And gentlemen, better learn how to impress your girlfriends with fine, thigh-firming paʻoti before a tāne with smoother moves beats you to it. Why, you may ask?

Because the biggest Tahitian party to rock the Hawaiian archipelago in 2010 is about to go down Saturday, March 27, 2010. Nella Media Group (the folks behind Go Airlines’s eco-chic in-air magazine Innov8) and Maʻohi Nui, purveyor of the finest Tahitian dance moves, have come together to rock Aloha Tower with earth-shaking ʻōteʻa and local grooves for Spring Broke III. And what better excuse is there party when it all benefits a local charity? Party down guilt-free to the sounds of Miko Sweet, Beach 5 and OOKLAH THE MOC and check out the latest fashions from Hinano. So even if you can’t make it for Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu-Papeʻete flight for spring break, you can still experience the full māʻohi flavor right here at home.

Interested?

Check out ticket details in the Kaila Hawaiʻi ʻAlemanaka (Calendar). And if you’re not convinced yet, check out some these clips of Maʻohi Nui at last year’s Spring Broke.

“Kareho Koe”, the new clip from Tikahiri’s new album Merahi Kerekere, is finally up on YouTube in high resolution. Its dark, gothic atmosphere and slick production make it one of the more original clips out of Tahiti and French Polynesia to date.

Like Tikahiri’s video debut “Tapea te paari”, the band maintains its special brand of smoldering and brooding. But on this occasion, a female element appears as a mysterious woman who seems to lure one of the men into her grasp during the darkness of the night. Unfortunately, you need to speak pa’umotu (the language of the Tuamotu Archipelgo) to get the complete meaning of the song, and, alas, no translations have appeared yet. Somehow, I think you can get the song’s jist just by watching.

More Tikahiri on Kaila Hawai’i:

• Polynesian Gothic: Tikahiri’s back with new album & clip
• Tātau and leather – “Tapea te paari”, Tikahiri’s debut clip
• Polyneisan Paradoxes: Tikahiri

LISTEN TO TIKAHIRI’S MERAHI KEREKERE

Today’s Hawaiian word of the day is kai a Pele, or tsunami or tidal wave.

The inspiration for today’s choice was obviously the events of this past February 27, 2010, following the oceanic surge sent throughout the Pacific Ocean by the Chilean quake. On a side note, I must say that some celebratory champagne from the night before had led me to think of something more sinister concocted by Kim Jong Il when I was awakened far too early by the sirens’ metallic screech at 5:50 in the morning. Hence, I was “relieved” to learn that the crisis at hand was actually natural.

Before I get complaints from the scientifically-inclined, I’d like to underline the difference between tsunami and a tidal wave. While tsunamis are generated by geological disturbances, the key word in the layman’s term is tidal, referring, of course, to the tides. Since tsunamis are not caused by the tides, tidal wave is discouraged as term to describe the phenomena. (At the same, tsunami literally means “harbor wave” in Japanese, so here’s to the scientific community’s selective recognition of etymology.)

Now that the digression is over, back to the ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i. Though the Hawaiian word for wave is nalu, the Hawaiian terms referring to tsunami or tidal waves found in Pukui and Elbert’s Hawaiian Dictionary use instead the word kai, or sea.

Besides kai a Pele (literally “sea of Pele”), other terms are kai e‘e (mounting sea) and the variant kai ho‘ē‘e. As a verb, ho‘ē‘e can be to rise or swell. I do recall hearing some Ni‘ihau speakers dropping the word kai and using either e‘e or ho‘ē‘e on its own to refer to the destructive wave. Interestingly enough, the Hawaiian term is closer to the actual nature of the tsunami, a swelling of the sea that surges ashore as opposed to one crashing wave. The receding of the ocean that precedes the tsunami is called kai mimiki.

Personally, I prefer kai a Pele because it refers to the wahine kapu (sacred woman) of Kīlauea herself, Pele, and her awesome powers. Not only the creator of new land, Pele also makes the earth tremble in ōla‘i, or earthquakes—the generator of the tsunami.  In the lower case, pele refers to lava and eruption. And if my understanding of Hawaiian grammar is right, the possessive a suggests that the destructive sea does not just belong to Pele but is created or generated by the goddess herself. Though the hula kahiko “Aia la ‘o Pele” refers to eruptions, I think it’s meditative inquiry “I hea kāua e la‘i ai, ‘ea?” (Where can we find peace?) is equally appropriate for kai a Pele.

Fortunately enough, the Pacific was spared from the kai a Pele this past weekend. Since I was already awake Saturday and suffering from my own ōla‘i (of notably French origin) between my temples, I jumped online to see what was occurring in French Polynesia because of the region’s closer proximity to Chile. The Gambier Islands only recorded 26 cm. The harbor in Pape‘ete, Tahiti only noted marginal rises. The minimal waves Because of their topography, the Marquesas, or Te Fenua Enata, recorded the strongest waves, measuring up to four meters at Ua Pou. On Radio Polynésie, a local resident reported seeing tourbillons, or whirlpools, form in the water. A day later, La Dépêche de Tahiti published the following photos—not exactly kai a Pele but curious enough.

Sources:

• Flickr – Clearly Ambiguous – Under Creative Commons License
• La Dépêche de Tahiti
• Pukui and Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary

Tikahiri, my favorite Pa’umotu goth band – and perhaps the only Pa’umoth goth band that ever will exist – is about to release their second studio album dubbed Merahi Kerekere. According to the band’s Facebook page, the discs are sous douane, which I’m liberally interpreting as “stuck in customs”. Luckily, three tracks are already up for listening on Reverb Nation. Two  of the  tracks (“A Tauahi Mai” and “Kareho Koe”) are in Pa’umotu, the language of the Tuamotu archipelago where lead members Aroma and Mano Salmon grew up. The other  (“Falling in Love”) is in English. (Note: no tracks in French, so Tikahiri’s right on par with indie bands in France métropolitaine.)

I must say that Tikahiri in English feels different than Tikahiri in a Polynesian language. The latter feels breezy and fresh, even in its darker moments, sounding as if it is out of 21st century Tahiti where the band lives and records. Tikahiri in English, on the other hand, tends to transport me to L.A. somewhere in the 80s – a curious, though not unpleasant, experience, to say the least.

Linguistic matters aside, Tikahiri seems to be following in the tracks of their debut Tamaki Hope’a, as they remain faithful to their acoustic aesthetic all the while developing it further. As if taken out of some modernist composition, the cellos riffs that open “Falling in Love”, for instance, add a sense of urgency unheard on their debut.

Until Merahi Kerekere is finally released and, hopefully, on iTunes for easy download, I suggest checking out the clip of the making of “Kareho Koe” up on the Facebook page as well. You get to follow band, crew, and, of course, attractive young female model up to the mountains outside of Pape’ete for a late night shoot. I must say that it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a Polynesian man rock a goth look with black lipstick and vintage military jackets, all the while retaining the testosterone factor. (Of course, many of us have seen a few with significantly brighter shades of lipstick, but that’s a different experience altogether that one should be in the mood for.)

Tikahiri is…

• Aroma Salmon – Vocals, Guitar
• Simon Pillard – Cello
• Stephane Rossoni – Drums
• Mano Salmon – Vocals, Bass

New songs on Merahi Kerekere

If I’m guess right from my Hawaiian and basic Tahitian, tupapaku is pa’umotu for “corpse”. So going off the track names,  you have a gothic medley of love, life, and death… and whatever track nine is about.

1. Kareho Koe
2. Falling in Love
3. A Tauahi Mai
4. Beautiful Lady
5. Merahi Kerekere
6. Tupapaku
7. In Love
8. You Make My Life
9. Penetration
10. Take Me Away
11. Beyond Reach

More of Tikahiri on Kaila Hawaiʻi

• Tātau and leather – “Tapea te paari”, Tikahiri’s debut clip
• Polyneisan Paradoxes: Tikahiri

Sources

• Tikahiri’s Facebook page

UPDATE

Merahi Kerekere is now available in the United States for digital download via iTunes and Amazon.

I’ve been hooked to Māori spin doctor Tiki Taane since I first caught a glimpse of his mindblowing video clip “Tangaroa”, off his debut album album Past, Present, Future. For those unfamiliar with Polynesian mythology, Tangaroa is the Māori god of the sea, corresponding to the Hawaiian akua Kanaloa. The track is a shock to the system, combing traditional Māori chant with a raging dancehall-style beat.

Tiki composed “Tangaroa” in response to the 2004 tsunami and humanity’s lack respect for Tangaroa and his ocean realm. In their first collaboration as father son, Uekaha Taane Tinorau, Tiki’s father, composed the following haka, or chant, for Tangaroa, channeling the spirit of Tangaroa as a force for change. (You can read Tiki and Uekaha’s full commentary on “Tangaroa” here on the Tikidub Productions website.)

Ko Papatuanuku me Ranginui nga matua o te ao
I puta mai nga tamariki nga Atua o te ao
He Atua o te moana
Ko Tangaroa he Atua o te moana
Tu mai te ihi
Tu mai te wehiwehi
Tu mai te wanawana e
Hi ha aue

From the divine heartbeat of Mother Earth and the ever-elusive constant of Sky Father
all descend and all ascend the natural world
The timeless current of tranquil stillness
the harmonic music of ones infinite ocean
Resilient are the vital influences of the universe
Stand liberated by the inner radiance
Be still be silent and all shall be revealed

Na Uekaha nga kupu Maori, na Tamiaho te whakapakehatia

Te Moananui aa Kiwa (The Great Ocean of Kiwa), Kanaloa Series by Māori artist Rua Pick

As someone who’s felt a close kinship to the moana, or the ocean, and to Kanaloa, I felt something deep and familiar when I saw “Tangaroa” for the first time. When it seemed so few remembered to honor our god of the sea, here was an homage to the God of the Sea appropriate for our time but based on the past, modern yet grounded in antiquity. In the video, Tiki looks out in the ocean only to see an ancestor appear to him on the shore. How times have I sat facing the sea or going into waves and felt something great, vast, and powerful, beyond the limits of my rational, Western education, knowing that generations past were with me in the waters.

I know that Kanaloa, our manifestation of the ocean deity in Hawai‘i, is alive. I’m always reminded of him when I see the expanse of blue ocean, hear the roar of the surf, or see his kinolau, or body form, such as the mai‘a (banana), the he‘e (squid or octopus), the koholā (whale) and other forms of ocean life.

FOR MORE INORMATION ON KANALOA/TANGAROA

Learn more about Kanaloa/Tangaroa on Blue Coast’s Kanaloa page or in Martha Beckwiths’s Hawaiian Mythology. For more on Tangaroa, Te Ara Encylopedia of New Zealand has developed a beautiful web page, Tangaroa – The Sea.

FOR MORE ON TIKI TAANE

“Tangaroa” was the first single off of Tiki’s debut Past, Present, Future, which you can purchase at the Tikidub shop as a digital download or CD, shipped directly from Aotearoa/New Zealand to you.

This fantastic TV spot (shot by director Kevin Denholm via Exposure Films) has made its way from Aotearoa/New Zealand to all over the world. In an era where flying has become more of a chore than pleasure, Air New Zealand wanted to show they have nothing to hide. So they turned to their employees, including CEO Rob Fyfe, to “show” what they mean. (See the clip after the jump.)

Now for the clip…

And don’t miss the “making of”…