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Album Details

• Artist: Kiwi
• Album: On The Move
• Label: Independent Release
• Year of Release: 2013
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-01-25

The simplest answer for the question, “what type of music does Kiwi play?” would be reggae. That’s really only so accurate, though. Sure, reggae is probably the most prevalent influence, but some songs don’t even have much reggae in them. The group says they play roots music, and that’s more accurate, in part because it encompasses reggae and other styles, but it’s not all encompassing in terms of the content of this album either. For instance, there is a lot of jazz in the mix, too. At least one song seems to combine something like new age music with an almost progressive rock vibe. It’s really quite a diverse set that’s always entertaining. You can’t even label it as one thing or another in terms of lyrics because some of the lyrics are in English and others are in Portuguese.

Just taking a few songs from the set really goes a lot of way towards showcasing and defining that diversity. “Pema” has a lot of the jazz sound complete with horn section. Indeed, it could really be considered jazz music, with some hints of reggae. The opening of “Piramu” uses that horn section to produce a real soul sound, but they drop it down to a jazz ballad-styled arrangement. There’s really not much reggae in the mix on that tune, at all. Yet “Sun Never Set” is clearly reggae, but with a jazzy horn arrangement added to it. “Aprendiz” has a real dreamy quality to the introduction, before turning to more traditional reggae. “Dead Man” has a bit of a down home blues element, but there’s a lot more there, too. “Expanse” is an instrumental, and the one that feels like some kind of new age meets progressive rock piece. There’s really an electronic space vibe to it.

The thing is, this group manages to weave all those varying sounds into something that’s cohesive. It never feels strained, or as if something doesn’t fit. It just feels like one complete album, representing many sides of this diverse musical endeavor. This is entertaining from start to finish and a very strong set.

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