MOUNTAIN APPLE COMPANY O-Shen's (at left) song "Siasi," from his "Rascalin Paradise" album makes it onto the "South Pacific Islands" album.

Locals take
on the world

Two local musicians represent
in the world music realm

For the first time, a couple of local artists have made it into this popular world music series -- one an ex-pat from Papua New Guinea in a collection of contemporary music from the South Pacific, and the other an established singer doing a Maori song as part of a compilation -- of "Music from the Chocolate Lands."

"Music from the Chocolate Lands" and "South Pacific Islands" Various artists (Putumayo World Music)

While the growing of cacao is only a small industry in Hawaii, it was apparently enough to include Teresa Bright's "Tihore Mai Te Rangi" in this pleasant collection that includes music emanating from the crop-growing tropics and African nations, to European regions where the sweet treat is made. (Maybe the label is making amends for not including Hawaiian music on its previous two "Music from the Coffee Lands" CDs.)

With the translated title of "Clear Up Sky," Bright's selection (originally from her "A Gallery" album on Pumehana Records) is a charming piece featuring her multitracked vocals and percussion. While the collection as a whole isn't one of the more consistently strong Putumayo has released, there are still a couple of highlights, which includes Bright.

The variety of notables include the trad-sounding Mexican "Aqui No Ser‡" from East Los Angeles' Ozomatli crew; the fine and previously unreleased "Baba," from Adrian Martinez and Andy Palacio (from the Central American country of Belize); a beguiling combination of Swiss and West African music from the band Taffetas called "Yay Balma"; and a very cool number, "Valentin," from the excellent Afro-Peruvian singer Susana Baca.

TROPICAL MUSIC Teresa Bright's "Tihore Mai Te Rangi" and "Clear Up Sky" make it on to Putumayo's "Music From the Chocolate Lands" album.

O-SHEN has made his name doing island music in more of a hip-hop and reggae vein, but he's represented on "South Pacific Islands" with the uncommon, if heartily sung, "Siasi," taken from his "Rascal in Paradise" album.

It's a minor offering in a compilation dominated by four selections from Te Vaka, the pan-Pacific fusion pop band based out of New Zealand. Group founder Opetaia Foa'i was born in Western Samoa, with his parents originally from Tokelau and Tuvalu. Of the band's songs, my favorite is "Haloa Olohega," the subject of which has a bit of interesting and little-known history behind it. According to the liner notes, the island of Olohega (also known as Swain's Island) in Tokelau was claimed in 1856 by an American named Eli Hutchinson Jennings, whose own descendants got the island annexed by the United States, and who still control it to this very day.

The subject of colonialism, and all the wrongs it entails for the native people, is addressed pretty much throughout "South Pacific Islands," although "Mana Ma'ohi" by the Rapa Nui band Matato'a addresses the well-known spiritual power of mana.

New Caledonia's Kaneka movement, which blends the traditional vocal and rhythmic styles of the local Kanak culture with contemporary pop and world beat influences, is represented by the bands OK! Ryos (check out in particular the ebullient "Nengone Nodegu") and Gurejele, whose album-closing "Watolea" has got to be one of the jauntiest anti-colonial protest songs around.