Search - Various Artists :: Explorer: Tahiti - Gauguin Years - Songs

One of the best Explorer discs I own

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 09/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc was a very welcome addition to my collection. In terms of the liner-notes it is one of the least informative Explorer Series discs that I own. No play-by-play on each track, and just a general overview that lasts a couple pages so you don't get as much information on the culture as usual. I guess that's okay though, as it's always all about the music anyway, not what someone says about the music.



Also no date of recording either, but these were usually released shortly after being recorded and since it was originally released in 1968 I'll guess the recordings are from '64 through '67.



As for the music itself, it's a mix of the old and the newer. The majority of the tunes are traditional... drumming, small-group vocals, and some larger community singing. This stuff is great and really transports you back in time to their untouched culture, and is in all likelihood extinct now (I am guessing). There is something about "tribal, community singing" that is just magical. It conveys a sense of interconnectedness that you just don't get very often in the modern world. Although even pre-"discovery", the liner-notes make it sound like Tahiti has a violent past within itself, so I don't think it was all a day at the beach.



The women steal the show here.



The newer tunes are guitar & vocals or ukelele & vocals tunes that I really love also. Whereas the old traditional tracks have that raw, real and true earth music sensibility that I love, the more modern tracks are like tropical old-timey music. An island lilt with a touch of sadness.



Now I want to read into Tahitian culture. I know next to nothing about that area, aside from Cook and the Endeavor and the calculated rape of an entire region.





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