It’s hard to believe that Tahuna Breaks is celebrating 10 years making music together, although they do seem to have always been around, and I guess if anyone’s going to be keeping a record of how long they’ve been making their brand of funkified reggae, it’d be them.
To celebrate the occasion they’ve release Tahuna Breaks Live 10 – 10 tracks spanning their career, recorded live last year at a one-off concert to celebrate the milestone (so I guess the album should actually be called 10 + 6 months). And it’s a doozy of a live album too.
It opens with a bang, or at least the brassy brashness of Casually Acquainted, before moving to the more traditionally reggae sounding I’m Not Worthy, and onwards through the best of their back catalogue in a well recorded album, that actually sounds exactly like a Tahuna Breaks gig should do.
There’s a good diversity amongst the tracks, moving through big dancey disco numbers (Moves, Reflections), to slower pseudo-ballads (the almost Phil Collins-esque Stars and bass heavy Fearless), which just shows how far their influences have spanned, and their sound developed over the past decade.
Having seen them live a couple of times I think the album does a great job of capturing their on stage energy and vitality, without compromising on quality. It's a great live release, and a fine way to celebrate a decades music – the band should be proud of what they’ve achieved.
Tahuna Breaks have always encompassed a rich diversity of musical genres and styles. With seven members, the group has an appetite for continuously pushing boundaries in their live performance bringing a stage act that is energetic, tight and passionate to the audience.
Combining aspects of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Tahuna Breaks are influenced by artists as varied as James Brown to Daft Punk. Being unafraid to mix genres they have honed their live sound to encompass funk, disco, soul and roots focusing on addictive rhythms that get audiences moving.
The band has performed at The Big Day Out, Homegrown, Highlife NYE and many other major festivals in New Zealand and Australia, along with countless sell out national tours and one off performances.