Formed in early 2019 by Auckland based musicians Larsen Taylor, Navakatoa Tekela-Pule and David Feauai-Afaese, Noa Records is a waka, a vessel to travel the sonic oceans of the South Pacific. It’s an imaginary history of Māori and Pacific Island alternative music. It’s a story for future generations to listen to. As the Auckland label’s website states, it’s an “emerging collective voice expressed as a record label, media archive and creative whānau”. That is, a family.

Based upon Pasifika and Māori kaupapa [principles for action], Noa aims to retell the history of New Zealand music: “Where this label was born from,” Taylor explains, “is this yearning to look back on the last century at all this music that I almost wish had existed, all this stuff we missed out on from our Māori and Pasifika musical ancestors.

“A big part of the ethos of the label is about remaining open,” he continues. “That’s a form of manaakitanga: you share your mana with other people, whether you’re teaching them or encouraging them.” That openness and manaakitanga is reflected in the multicultural, multi-musical tracks presented here.

Schofield Strangelove
“Like The Usual”
From 1800EACHWAY (2019)

One of the standout artists on Noa, Schofield Strangelove (recently just Strangelove – otherwise co-label runner Navakatoa Tekela-Pule) combines Pasifika with low-fi post-punk, creating “romantically informed emotional spaces of longing”. Think poppy early Sun Araw but from the other side of the Pacific.

Riki Gooch & Alistair Fraser
“Tutaki”
From Rangatira (2020)

Very few albums can claim to be advancing a truly new music, but that’s exactly what Rangatira is doing. A lockdown album between two old friends, I was lucky enough to catch them for their first live gig this October. Gooch’s finely nuanced percussion and kit drive Fraser’s tāonga pūoro – traditional Māori instruments – into fascinating new territories for free music, exploring areas seldom touched upon since Richard Nunns’ work with the likes of Evan Parker and Marilyn Crispell.

Leao
“Siva Masina”
From Ghost Roads (2019)

Co-label runner David Feauai-Afaese’s project shares in the same DNA as Tekela-Pule’s Strangelove, but sets itself apart by drawing deeply on fa’asamoa, Samoan music and language to compose unusually gorgeous hauntological pop tunes.

WhyFi featuring JY Lee
“Can I Help U?”
From Trash 2: The Official Movie Soundtrack (2020)

WhyFi has been a very active member of the Auckland experimental beats/hiphop scene, here presenting a dirty, crunchy album of fast-produced weirdo tunes highlighting some of the more interesting local departures from experimental hiphop production, with beats and lyrics crossing into realms of funk, punk and noise.

Dargaville Futurist Club
“Space Between”
From Live At The Ancestors Club (2020)

More imaginaries from Noa – this time an imaginary improv group performing in an imagined space, creating a strange “psychedelic wairua (spirit) music” from the unlikely rural north of Aotearoa.

Virtual Shadow Ensemble featuring Aije & Janina Nana Yaa
“Truth Is In The Shadow Of A Doubt”
From Keep Your Distance! (2020)

A hybrid album in more ways than one, featuring musicians from all over the spectrum musically and geographically, Virtual Shadow Ensemble also combine multiple generations of performers for a good view of what’s currently happening in the scene as far as inspiration and mentorship and reflecting on collective/personal experience during this year’s global pandemic. The result is a feel good exploration of Aotearoan grooves.

Read Noel Meek's full Unlimited Editions article in The Wire 441. Subscribers can also read the feature online.