Pitchfork

After Panda Bear's list-topping Person Pitch, Brian Wilson-minded psychedelic auteurs should know there are beaches beyond California. Afropop polyrhythms and Polynesian-tinged exotica have been showing up again in rock, pop, and dance music more and more the past couple of years, but it's doubtful many artists have gone as far in search of the music's origins as the Ruby Suns' Ryan McPhun. Originally from Ventura, Calif., McPhun traveled through Africa and Southeast Asia before winding up in Auckland, New Zealand, where he played with bands like "Hairagami" fans the Brunettes and eventually formed his current three-piece. On "Tane Mahuta", from forthcoming sophomore album Sea Lion, the Ruby Suns sing exclusively in the language of New Zealand's indigenous Maori people.

So, tourist goes native, then. The result is a short but complex psych-pop track in keeping with the music of Panda Bear, Spain's El Guincho, or Jason Holstrom's The Thieves of Kailua project. Reverb washes over everything, most of all the Ruby Suns' sunny, Ewok-party vocals, while the densely layered instrumentation includes ukulele, horns, all manner of pots and pans, some fuzzed-out distortion, and anything else that sounds fit for an island reverie. (No "Kokomo".)

MP3:> The Ruby Suns: "Tane Mahuta"
[from Sea Lion; out the week of 3/3/08 on Memphis Industries and Sub Pop]