Yesterday we learned about “Kaneka,” a New Caledonian music that mixes traditional Kanak folk music with global pop. Edou, “Millio” Edou, a member of the Drueulu Tribe which is based in the Lifou (Loyalty Islands), rose to New Caledonian popularity in the mid-80s and went on to tour the Pacific Islands and beyond with his inventive form of kaneka-reggae. When the reviewer who wrote National Geographic World Music’s profile of Edou saw Edou perform at the South Pacific music festival, the artist’s “first rate” band included New Caledonia’s minister of culture. Fortunately, “The minister can really jam.” Watch from on-stage as Edou and his first rate band perform live.
Tag Archives | Kaneka
Gurejele’s Kaneka
The traditional/folk music of New Caledonia features vocal chants and instruments like log drums. Modern musicians from New Caledonia have adopted guitars and keyboards and have embraced global genres like rock and reggae. Still, when they go back to their roots, they find those roots in the percussion and chants of their Melanesian forefathers. As the New Caledonian independence movement rose in the mid 1980s, so rose a genre known as “kaneka,” which fuses the traditional music of the indigenous New Caledonian people with global world pop. Let’s enjoy some Kaneka — “Waipeipeigu” by Gurejele.
