Amataga

It's heartening that this multi-ethnic Polynesian fusion family band, headed by Opetaia Foa’i is, on this evidence, still going strong after making their debut album in 1997. They’re still mixing ballads and festive percussive workouts with chunky log drums that contrast with the thump of skin drums, while youthful siblings whoop, shriek and shout over them. There are also still atmospheric field recordings of ambient island noise, conveying a strongly Pacific sense of place, despite the group's current location in Sydney, Australia.

‘Papua i Sisifo’, a rousing song of solidarity with the people of West Papua, isn’t the only track that grabs the listener by the ears (or rather hips); there's also the fiery grooves of ‘Uso’. But it's perhaps their spirit of political engagement that has kept them entertaining enthusiastic audiences all the way around the world's largest ocean for so long. This vaka (canoe) must have a good few nautical miles of proud paddling left in it.