MY MAORILAND

Te Ao Hou, June 1967, Page 63

MY MAORILAND Viking VP204 12in 33 ⅓ LP Viking, who believe in getting plenty of mileage out of groups which record for them, have brought out yet another collection of tracks from Maori groups who have featured on full-length recordings issued earlier by the company. It is a pleasant and varied selection except for an item which purports to be a Maori chant. Entitled Ba Nana it is sung by Isabel and Virginia Whatarau. It is a tasteless offering. The items range from action song to haka, traditional chant, poi, stick game and love song. A medley type disc such as this is always good value for the casual buyer of Maori material since it gives a selection of different groups and thus differing styles of performance, and of course varying types of item. However, such buyers usually want to know a little bit more about the origin, meaning and significance of the time than just a bald ‘haka’, ‘chant’ and the like. Viking have missed the bus in this respect because most tourists in particular have a healthy curiosity about the indigenous people and music of countries they visit. This record could thus have been so much more by adding so little. A few cover notes would have made all the difference.